From Fargo, ND., at the Scheels Arena, DiBella Entertainment in association with Square Ring Promotions and Showtime presented “ShoBox” The Next Generation. In the 10-round super middleweight main event 25-year-old Worcester, Mass., native by way of the Dominican Republic, Edwin “La Bomba” Rodriguez (17-0, 13KOs) defeated Vero Beach, Florida’s James McGirt Jr. 
(22-3-1, 11KOs), in a contest that ended in abuse.
It was a night of world class offspring as three children of former fistic greats took to the ring on Showtime. There was a lot of talent in the house as former American gold medalist Howard Davis Jr., and former world champions Aaron Pryor and James “Buddy” McGirt were there to cheer on the son’s that were following in the footsteps of their famous father’s.
An experienced 27-year-old southpaw, McGirt Jr. was coming off three straight victories, two by knockout, and had a vendetta in this fight due to the fact that he was formerly promoted by his foe’s boss Lou DiBella. DiBella let go off McGirt Jr., and this was James’ opportunity to show him that he made a mistake, by defeating DiBella’s new prized pupil and getting reprisal. Meanwhile the highly touted prospect with a good amateur background, knockout artist Edwin Rodriguez, was coming off of four straight stoppages and looking to make his challenger with good boxing DNA his fifth kayo victim in a row.
The stronger more powerful Rodriguez came out aggressive letting his right-hand fly while going to the body of McGirt Jr. with lefts and rights. James had his guard up and was taking a methodical approach to the first period while studying his promising opponent. McGirt Jr.’s 1st-round attack consisted of jabs, straight lefts and hooks using both hands while Rodriguez served up lots of left and right crosses with uppercuts on the side. Edwin was tenderizing James’ mid-section early and landed a couple hard left-hooks to McGirt’s jaw, to flesh out a good opening three minutes for himself in which he was very busy.
The slick boxing McGirt landed a straight left to began the 2nd and Rodriguez responded by backing James to the ropes and cracking him with a swift thudding left-hook to the whiskers that got McGirt’s attention as his right arm got caught up in the ropes when he tried to counter. With McGirt’s back to the ropes the combatants got into a good exchange but Rodriguez kept coming forward bullying McGirt around the ring from rope to rope. McGirt was having some success countering with combination’s aimed at the head but the punches were having little effect on Rodriguez who was landing at a higher rate with harder blows.
The same script continued in the 3rd as Edwin kept forcing McGirt to the ropes while mixing it up from head to body well. McGirt’s defense was okay as he bid his time looking for an opening that he found midway through round-three when he connected with his best punches so far, a flurry of hard rights and lefts to the head and body of Rodriguez pushing the stronger fighter into the ropes. Rodriguez was throwing himself off balance from the force of his punches, getting a little wild and McGirt Jr. took advantage as he had a good second half of round-three.
The 4th stanza had a good ebb and flow as both men were landing while taking turns coming forward. McGirt was focusing up top as Edwin continued to soften James’ body in a competitive round that saw a very good back and forth exchange in the final seconds of a round Rodriguez probably won.
Rodriguez and McGirt exchanged heavy artillery in the 5th, both landing big blows and James connected with his best shot thus far, a hard left that snapped back Edwin’s head. McGirt followed 
that up with an even better one-two combination making Rodriguez’ dome whip back again as his defense took a break. Rodriguez fired back some thudding left-hooks to the ribs and powerful right-hands to the face of McGirt who’s defense was also faltering. Rodriguez was throwing wide punches and looking a little sloppy going into the 6th-round of a close dual.
All night Rodriguez was switching to an unorthodox stance for short periods of time but was not effective switch-hitting, though he did have a good 6th-round controlling the action while advancing forward and landing some nice right-hands and left-hooks from his natural right-handed stance. The pace slowed considerably in the 6th, and in the 7th-round McGirt clammed up and went defensive allowing Edwin to take over as he opened up landing hard punches that seemed to hurt McGirt who covered up even more against the ropes. Rodriguez connected with a few right-hand uppercuts as James was in full retreat not able to separate himself from the ropes, and took a pounding in round-seven because of it.
Between the 7th and 8th-round McGirt’s father and trainer “Buddy” McGirt, told his son that he wasn’t going to sit there and let him take shots, implying the fight could be stopped. The theme continued in the 8th as the third man in the ring Mark Nelson was eying the action very close with a stoppage on his mind while he viewed McGirt receive punishment. Before the 9th-round McGirt senior told his son he was going to stop the fight but agreed to one more round when Jr. told him not to end it.
Nothing changed in round-nine as the one-sided beat-down continued until referee Mark Nelson could watch no more waving off the fight and saving McGirt Jr. from anymore abuse. The official time of the stoppage was 1:57 of round-nine as Edwin “La Bomba” Rodriguez was awarded a 9th-round TKO victory taking the budding scrapper’s perfect record to 17-0, with 13 knockouts as he climbs the ladder of the super middleweight division.
James McGirt Jr. was gallant in defeat but failed to get redemption on his former boss. James stated before the fight that it would be his last in the division as he will be returning to the light heavyweight class.
The 8-round super middleweight co-main event saw another son of a former world champion looking to settle a score for his father, as Aaron Pryor Jr. (15-2, 11KOs) whose dad, legendary Aaron Pryor senior, lost to his opponent Dyah “Ali” Davis’ father Howard Davis Jr. at the 1976 Olympic trials. Pryor Jr. reached his goal winning a convincing unanimous decision over Dyah Davis (18-2, 9KOs).
Both fighters took up boxing late as 29-year-old Davis had no amateur career while 32-year-old Pryor Jr. only accumulated forty amateur scraps. Davis started his career at light heavyweight and both fighters are tall for super middleweight with Davis at 6″1′ and Pryor Jr., a former college basketball player standing 6″ 4 1/2′ inches.
To start things off, it didn’t look as if Pryor Jr., from Cincinnati, Ohio., was going to get payback for his family as he was caught with a lead-right to the jaw by Davis in the first episode that buckled him and had him on his bicycle.
In the early goings Pryor Jr. was using his height and reach, keeping distance between him and his foe while snapping off jabs. Davis, who also employed his jab, came forward trying to get inside and beyond Aaron’s reach as he was the smaller guy. Aaron has a long lanky body very similar to Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns, and was using it to his advantage as Davis was having a hard time getting close.
Pryor Jr. returned the favor in the 2nd when he rocked Davis with :40 seconds to go with an overhand-right behind the jab that caught Davis on the side of the jaw hurting him and causing him to clinch. Pryor was throwing a good one-two and double jab as he kept catching Davis with his right-hand behind the jab while also firing off good combination’s.
Dyah Davis’s attack consisted of a heavy dose of lunging left-hooks and right-hands as he tried to close the distance. Dyah found some success in the 3rd as his right-hand started finding Aaron’s face but Aaron quickly ended Davis’s achievements by taking control of the fight with his much longer reach, winning rounds two, three and four with crisp combination’s and hard right-hands up top while light on his feet and in a rhythm.
There was some clinching going on due to Davis’ lunging in but not too much as Pryor Jr. was using his lateral movement well and staying elusive through the mid rounds. In the 5th Pryor Jr. was trying to keep distance throwing lots of jabs as Davis found some fortune connecting on a few power shots to the head of Aaron.
Pryor Jr. then started coming forward, following Davis around but that didn’t work either as Dyah continued to land blows. By the end of the 5th-round Pryor made the needed adjustments turning the tables again as he was tiring Davis in the clinch with his bigger body.
Ten seconds into round-six Pryor landed a downward right-hand square on Davis’ face that hurt the Boca Raton brawler as he retreated to the ropes. Aaron thumped him with some more big shots up top and Dyah was seriously hurt as he tried to survive while Pryor Jr. went in for the kill with lefts, rights and uppercuts. Davis showed mettle surviving the round while Pryor Jr. displayed he’s not quite the finisher his father was, but not many are. A cut was opened up over Davis’s left eye in the round from a Pryor right-hand.
Both pugilist were tired and breathing heavy in the 7th as they had lost some steam on their punches. Aaron didn’t work the body much and probably could have gotten Davis out of there had he done so, but dominated nonetheless winning the 7th and 8th while landing some hard shots in the final round that hurt Davis again and had him retreating and clinching desperately trying to make it to the final bell, which he did.
Pryor Jr. outclassed Dyah Davis en route to an eight-round unanimous decision with the scores reading 79-73 twice and 78-74 on the judges scorecards, improving Pryor Jr.’s record to 15-2, 11 knockouts, while attaining revenge for Pops.
Being 32-years-old who knows what the future holds for Aaron Pryor Jr. but he is a young 32 and displayed that he is not only a good baller, he can also scrap
To flesh out the card, 24-year-old Houston, TX., product Marcus “Too Much” Johnson (20-0, 15KOs) stopped St. Louis, Missouri’s 30-year-old Kevin “The Hitman” Engle (18-4-1, 15KOs), in an 
8-round super middleweight bout.
Johnson came out quick landing power punches and was very accurate as he worked Engle’s body with left-hooks. Marcus Johnson had Engle retreating in the 1st but Kevin began the 2nd-round coming forward throwing right’s and left’s to the head with a some success. It didn’t take long for Johnson to adjust though and reverse Engle’s direction as he was blasting Kevin with stout overhand-right’s and left-hooks to the jawline.
Johnson was boxing with his mouth open which is a bad habit he’s displayed in the past but on this night it didn’t cost him. At 2:22 of the 3rd-round Johnson went around Engle’s guard and cracked him on the jaw with a right-cross that sent Engle falling back stiff-legged as he crashed into the ropes and canvas like a tree. Engle immediately rose taking the eight-count and when the fighting resumed Engle took some heavy left and right-hooks to the face. Johnson followed that up with a couple hard overhand-right’s that stopped Engle in his tracks and left him open like a sitting duck for some more power shots upstairs prompting referee Mark Nelson to halt the action to give Engle a standing eight-count. After Engle said he wanted to continue he got clipped with three lead right’s and a left-hook to the mouth. Kevin fought back valiantly on weary legs but was being used for a punching bag as Johnson couldn’t miss, tagging Engle with shot after shot up top. Engle survived the round though as Johnson had his mouth wide open from punching himself out trying to finish the St. Louis native.
After the 3rd-round Engle walked back to his corner on wobbly legs as third man in the ring Mark Nelson followed him to his corner and told him and his handlers, to the dismay of Engle, that the fight was over, giving Marcus “Too Much” Johnson a 3rd-round TKO victory improving his undefeated resume to 20-0, with 15 knockouts.
The way the stoppage was handled was questionable as referee Mark Nelson should have stopped it earlier, then he let Engle return to his corner at the conclusion of three for his minute’s rest but did not allow him to rest at all, he just called the fight. If Nelson was going to allow the fight to continue during the round then he should have given Engle the allotted minute to recover and come back out for the 4th-round. I agree that the fight should have been stopped during the 3rd but Mark Nelson ended the one-sided beat down in strange fashion.
Marcus Johnson said he wanted to finish Kevin Engle faster than the nights main attraction Edwin Rodriguez did, who in the past knocked out Engle in six rounds, and Johnson attained that goal finishing their common opponent in three rounds.
Johnson’s a top prospect but stamina could be a hinderence in the future, and something he may want to remedy.