Thanjhae Teasley overcame early adversity before scoring an eighth round stoppage of Selassie Bey on Friday night in a showdown of unbeaten welterweight prospects.
Teasley (11-0, 5 knockouts) closed the show in the final round of the Red Owl Boxing main event in Houston, Tex., pummeling the badly fading Bey before the referee halted the bout at the 1:22 mark. Bey (8-1, 8 KOs) went down midway through the round, partially due to exhaustion, and was counted out standing as his arms never left their position resting atop the ropes.
It was a coming of age fight for the 25-year-old Teasley, who found himself on the floor near the end of the second round when Bey landed a right hand as the taller Teasley threw an uppercut. Teasley recovered well, but the danger remained present as Bey was able to rock him again in the third round with a hook.
“I learned a lot. I learned how to stay disciplined. No matter how loose I get in the ring, I have to be careful. As we know, Bey is a hard puncher. No disrespect, I have felt harder punches. He just caught me with a really good shot and I lost my balance,” said Teasley of Bethlehem, Pa.
Teasley began to get the range he wanted in round four as the 5’11” welterweight began to land combinations from range, turning the power puncher and not letting him get set to land his heavier blows. The adjustment began to pay off as Bey was hurt by the nonstop punches of his opponent, forcing Bey to hold for survival.
Teasley scored his first knockdown in round six as a pair of rights put Bey onto the canvas a minute into the sixth. Bey, a Louisville, Ky. resident who had never fought past four rounds, was struggling to keep up with the pace of Teasley. Bey became a punching bag at that point, as his head was knocked back repeatedly without any answer.
Teasley put a beating on Bey in round 7 as a left hook to the body followed by a right uppercut nearly put Bey down again. Bey’s face had been bloodied and swollen by this point, to the point that many trainers would not have allowed him out of the corner for the eighth round. Faced with a beaten and battered opponent, Teasley performed his professional duties, slugging away until the fight was stopped.
With the win, Teasley scores his first stoppage in three fights, after going the distance with Xavier Madrid and Javier Mayoral in his last two bouts. Still, Teasley acknowledged that there was room for growth in future performances.
“It’s not that I was getting lazy but there were a couple times where I was getting stiff. I was too much in my head but that’s a lesson,” said Teasley, who turned pro in March of 2022 after only about 15 amateur bouts.
“There were times when I brought my hands down and I thought I was out of his reach but he had a long reach. There were times I needed to stay more disciplined. He had good body defense and I was expecting to get to the body and the liver more, I should have done a better job at setting those up. My conditioning helped me, my trainer helped me, the crowd helped me.”
In the co-main event, Ephraim Bui (10-0, 8 KOs) defeated Yusniel Abrahante (6-2, 1 KO) by a controversial, yet unanimous decision in their eight round junior bantamweight bout. All three judges scored the bout for Bui over the four-time Cuban national amateur champion by the scores of 77-74 on two cards and 79-73 on the third.
Opening up the card, Lyndon Patricio (1-0, 1 KO) finished off Corian Hawkins-Powell (0-2) in the first round of their bantamweight fight. Patricio, 20, of of Waianae, Hawaii scored two knockdowns before the fight was stopped.
Patricio is the younger brother of 2024 U.S. Olympic trials champion Shera Mae Patricio, who will make her professional debut next Saturday in Philadelphia.
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