Bob Velin, USA TODAY Sports
The opponents of the five former U.S. Olympians who made their professional debuts Friday night at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, Calif., had one thing in common — they all hailed from Palookaville, that fictional place where easy mark fighters known as tomato cans reside.
With the five — Rau’Shee Warren, Dominic Breazeale, Marcus Browne, Errol Spence Jr., and Terrell Gausha — making their debuts on Showtime, there was no way anybody resembling a good fighter was going to be facing the Olympic stars and, as expected, all five of the London Olympians cruised to their first official victory of their professional career.
Bantamweight Warren was first up, and the three-time Olympian, who came away with zero medals for his efforts, scored a unanimous decision against Luis Rivera (1-3). Warren, from Cincinnati, went down in the fourth round, but replays showed it was from swinging and missing against Rivera. He was never hit.
Gary Russell Jr. Image courtesy of halestormsports.com
The second bout featured heavyweight Breazeale, the former quarterback at Northern Colorado. The 6-7 Breazeale, who lost in the first round at the Olympics, KO’d heavily overmatched Curtis Tate (4-4) at 1:06 of the first round. Breazeale connected on nine of 21 punches in hsi short effort, while Tate landed just three punches during the fight.
Browne, who said he was fighting for his hometown of Staten Island, N.Y., which was hit hard by superstorm Sandy last week, handled 33-year-old Codale Ford with a third-round TKO victory, out-landing him 20-0 in the second round. A left to the body and a powerful right to the head finished Ford (2-1).
Spence had perhaps the toughest opponent of the night in 19-year-old Jonathan Garcia, who gave the Dallas native a fight for a round or two.
But Spence dropped Garcia at 2:41 of the third round and it was over. the junior middleweight outlanded Garcia 117-30, but was extremely efficient, landing 66% of his power shots (98 of 149).
The last of the five Olympians, middleweight Gausha, dominated his opponent, Dustin Caplinger (2-4). Like his former teammates, Gausha went to the body early and often, and he finished off Caplinger at 1:55 of round three.
In the main event of the night, 2008 Olympian Gary Russell Jr. dropped Roberto Castaneda with a vicious right hook to the head at 1:25 of the third round. Russell, 24, remained undefeated at 21-0 (13 KOs), and Castaneda fell to 20-3.
