While it is not unusual to see a Boxing card occur on the weekend of the July 4th holiday here in the United States, it is a bit unusual to see a card staged on the holiday itself, even when it falls on a Saturday. This, however, was exactly what occurred during the 2026 4th of July holiday as two undefeated world champions, each a rising star in the sport, defended their crowns for the first time at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland,OH.
First up to defend his title was WBC World Featherweight champion Bruce Carrington as he faced North American Boxing Federation (NABF) Featherweight champion Rene Palacios. From the opening bell, Carrington’s ability to use angles, be disciplined defensively, and just displaying a higher skillset than his opponent was the story of the contest that tended to follow a pattern. Palacios came forward trying to push the champion back, but either missing punches and/or being countered by Carrington. While there was a difference in both hand speed and reaction time between the two fighters that also favored the champion, to his credit, Palacios never stopped trying to find a way to turn things around and did have some periodic success as the fight progressed in landing his left hand.
It would be one such left hand that produced a slight controversy in round seven when one landed on the back of Carrington’s head and sent him down to the canvas briefly. Although some felt this should have been ruled a knockdown in the challenger’s favor, it was an illegal blow that, while unintentional, was correctly ruled an illegal punch by Referee Harvey Dock. Though Palacios was able to land a few more solid right hands over the second half of the scheduled twelve round world championship bout, he was unable to form a consistent attack that would have likely resulted in him winning a few rounds as Carrington cruised to a wide and otherwise uneventful twelve round unanimous decision to retain his portion of the World Featherweight championship. More thoughts on Carrington’s future will follow at the conclusion of this column.
This brings us to the second half of this doubleheader as undefeated WBO World Lightweight champion Abdullah Mason defended his crown for the first time in front of his hometown crowd. Originally, Mason was to defend the title against former IBF Jr. Lightweight world champion Joe Cordina, who was the WBO number one Lightweight contender, however, this was changed on a little more than fourteen days notice when Cordina, who hails from Cadiff, Wales in the United Kingdom, was denied entry into the United States for the bout. In stepped undefeated WBO number six rated contender Albert Bell, who under circumstances that were not ideal, was getting his first opportunity at a world championship.
Some might argue the change in opponent from a stylistic standpoint made this a more interesting fight on paper than had Mason been able to fulfill his mandatory defense obligation in facing Cordina. This was due to both Mason and Bell being boxer/punchers, but it was Mason, who had scored knockouts in seventeen of his twenty career wins in comparison to Bell’s nine knockouts in twenty-eight previous professional fights prior to this encounter. Although the edge in terms of punching power tipped towards the champion statistically, this observer thought we were likely to see a tactical chess match between the two fighters early on. Both fighters knew what the other could do and when you get a scenario like that as the two fighters were sparring partners for each other in training previously in their careers, it can make for a bit of hesitation in terms of which fighter will make the first move as well as who can establish a tempo. Bell began this fight by landing a short counter right hand to the jaw of Mason. It became clear fairly early that my instinct in thinking this would evolve into a tactical battle once the two fighters were inside the ring was spot on. It would be the right hand of Bell that would prove to be a focal point in the early rounds as it was the primary weapon for him both as a tool to counter the champion as well as one to catch the champion as he was trying to apply pressure and come forward. A right hand from the challenger opened a cut over Mason’s left eye in the second round.
What stood out here was not simply that Bell was having success in landing his right hand, it was that he was accurate in doing so and showed great discipline in simply waiting for his openings and taking advantage of them when they presented themselves. Through the first three rounds, I felt Bell won all three based on these attributes.
Bell’s patience and ability to subtly pot shot the champion continued to carry itself through the first half of the fight. It would be in round seven, however, where the champion Mason started to break through as he landed a few solid left hands that got Bell’s attention and appeared to wake up the crowd in attendance that Bell had succeeded in taking out of the fight with his approach and being able to limit Mason’s offensive output. It was that left hand in the seventh that started a gradual building of momentum for Mason as he continued to press forward, but when he landed it was with hard solid punches.
The pressure, gradual success with body shots, and landing the harder punches continued to carry the momentum in the champion’s favor as Mason continued to make up ground on the scorecards. Gradually, the pressure and heavier blows of Mason began to slow Bell down and break through what had been his stellar defense during the first half of the twelve round world championship bout.
Although Mason had clearly turned the ebb and flow in his favor after eleven rounds, yours truly felt it was a close fight and, despite Mason being in his hometown, I questioned just how many rounds early was Albert Bell able to win that may have been able to hold off a clear rally by the champion. It would be in the twelfth and final round, however, that any and all questions regarding the scoring of the fight would turn out to be moot. Mason lunged forward at the beginning of round twelve and dropped Bell with a solid left hook to the jaw that sent the challenger down on his knees.
Bell was able to beat the count, but the champion sensing his opponent was in trouble went in for the finish.A left hand to the temple would drop Bell for a second time. Unlike the first knockdown, Bell was not given the benefit of a count and the bout was stopped. Quite frankly, I felt at the time of the stoppage that Bell was fatigued and was in trouble. Having said that,veteran referee Mark Nelson, inexplicably did not count Bell following the second knockdown and did not look at Bell’s eyes.
It seemed like he simply stopped the fight as Bell was once again on his knees. If one were honest, two knockdowns within the first forty seconds of a round would appear to be an indication that the fighter that was knocked to the canvas was in trouble and on the verge of being stopped. Given that Bell had put forth a solid performance throughout the contest, however, he at minimum deserved a second count and a chance to show he could continue to try and finish the fight.
While I personally have my doubts as to whether Bell would have made it to the final bell, he was not dropped hard and seemed in possession of all of his faculties at the time when the fight was stopped. For a referee in Nelson, who has officiated over nearly 1200 professional bouts in his thirty-four year career dating back to 1992, and is regarded as one of the best in the sport. In this instance, I feel he jumped the gun, but the probability that the fight may have been stopped if it had continued I feel was significantly high given that Bell was fatigued and Mason was perched to try and finish things if it were allowed to go on.
Abdullah Mason was tested for the first time in his career in this title defense. While some feel the stoppage was controversial, a word too closely associated with combat sports, as a fighter and a world champion, Mason did what he had to do, which is all one can really ask of a fighter. Albert Bell was able to give the champion a scare and though not the ideal set up if you are a promoter or matchmaker looking for a showcase performance for a young world champion in their hometown, this fight and the way it was fought will have more benefit for Mason in the long-term than a quick knockout over an overmatched opponent would have.
For Bruce Carrington, he also did what he needed to do to retain his world title. It may not have been the most entertaining contest depending on one's perspective, but a fighter and more specifically, a champion's objective is to win. Even if achieving victory means that one is not appreciated fully for their skillset.
As for what is next for both champions, it will be interesting to see if Joe Cordina will maintain his number one ranking in the WBO's Lightweight ratings, despite being denied entry into the United States. Perhaps the focus will shift towards making the original encounter that was to take place on this card with Mason at a different location outside of the United States, with the United Kingdom likely viewed as a viable option.
In regard to the Featherweight division perhaps a fighter like the unbeaten Omar Trinidad, who is currently rated number three in the WBC Featherweight ratings could be next for Bruce Carrington. A more likely choice at least in the immediate future might be current WBC number one Featherweight contender Cristobal Lorente, who like Trinidad is unbeaten, but will almost certainly be ruled as the mandatory challenger by the WBC per his number one ranking.
With both Mason and Carrington being promoted by Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum's Top Rank Inc. It will also be interesting to see if the plan from a promotional standpoint is to stage another card or two with them as co-headliners, particularly due to their recent alignment with digital subscription sports streaming network DAZN that likes to showcase multiple stars on their cards when possible. In this case, you have two young world champions that are just starting to emerge as stars in the sport and from a network standpoint, having two fighters at similar stages in their careers fighting consistently on the same cards is an effective hook to draw in viewers as each fighter continues to progress. If it makes sense from a business perspective, this observer does not see a reason why another card like this should not be staged.
“And That's The Boxing Truth.”
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