Light-weight prospect Abdullah Mason faces Manuel Jaimes subsequent month on Valentine’s Day, February 14th, at The Theater at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York.
Chin Examine
This can be a step again for the 20-year-old Mason (16-0, 14 KOs), who struggled in his final battle in opposition to Yohan Vasquez, getting dropped twice by him within the first spherical on November eighth in Norfolk, Virginia.
Mason vs. Jaimes might be preventing on the undercard of the Denys Berinchyk vs. Keyshawn Davis card. They’ll be preventing on the ESPN+ streamed preliminary card moderately than the ESPN fundamental card. The co-feature battle on the cardboard is unbeaten junior middleweight Xander Zayas (20-0, 12 KOs) preventing Slawa Spomer (20-0, 11 KOs) in a 10-round battle.
Prime Rank isn’t taking any possibilities with Mason, so that they picked a gentle puncher in Jaimes (16-2-1, 11 KOs), who’s coming off a large ten-round unanimous determination loss to former WBA mild welterweight champion on September 14th final yr.
It was a busy yr for the 5’9″ southpaw Mason in 2024, preventing 4 occasions and knocking everybody out. Earlier than his final battle in opposition to the 30-year-old Dominican Republic native Vasquez (26-6, 21 KOs), Mason had talked of preventing for a world title in 2025.
Nonetheless, after getting clipped repeatedly by Vasquez’s left hooks of their battle final November, Mason has stopped speaking about preventing for a world title. He is aware of now that he wants extra time earlier than he’ll be prepared, and he could not ever get there if his chin continues to betray him. Floyd Schofield Sr. revealed that his son had harm Mason in sparring.
Mason must be much less aggressive and choose his spots when he opens up together with his offense. He doesn’t possess the chin to battle the best way he does, going all out for knockouts.
Manuel Jaimes Problem
Jaimes, 24, regarded gradual and weak in his loss to Rolly Romero, so he’s not a menace to Mason. So long as Abdullah doesn’t go away himself open by throwing repeated uppercuts, he ought to be capable of defeat Jaimes with none issues. It’ll be attention-grabbing to see if he can knock him out as a result of he confirmed a very good chin in his battle in opposition to Rolly.
If Mason outgrows the light-weight division, he’s going to have a whole lot of issues preventing at 140 or 147 if his punch resistance doesn’t enhance.
