Erickson Lubin ends war of words by stopping Ardreal Holmes Jnr

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The nastiness and rancor between Erickson Lubin and Ardreal Holmes Jnr that had been so apparent in the lead-up to their headliner at the Silver Spurs Arena took a while to percolate Saturday. But once it heated sufficiently, it boiled over – though it burned only one fighter.

Lubin measured, nudged, pushed, then eventually shoved Holmes where he wanted him to go in their scheduled 12-round junior middleweight bout, ending things early with an 11th-round stoppage to the delight of his hometown Kissimmee crowd.

The war of words between Lubin and Holmes ended in a fairly one-sided battle in the ring, as Lubin improved to 27-2 (19 KOs) and Holmes, of Flint, Michigan, took his first professional defeat to fall to 17-1 (6 KOs).

It took some time to get there, though. 

Holmes used his length and left-handed jab to spear at Lubin and control distance in the early going. Lubin, also a southpaw, caught Holmes with a right hook before the bell that likely wasn’t enough to steal the round – but had to enter into Holmes’ calculations.

Neither fighter seemed ready to risk much, both tentatively probing and pitter-pattering around the ring – until Lubin started walking Holmes down and letting his hands go a bit. A lead right hook and uppercut here, a pumping jab and a powerful straight left there. Holmes wasn’t offering much in return aside from a jab and an occasional thrown shoulder.

At the end of the fifth, Lubin was now fully closing the distance gap but, with his guard held high, left himself open to a body attack that Holmes gladly obliged. Lubin fought back, but it was Holmes’ best sequence to that point and the first inkling that Lubin wasn’t ready to run away with the fight.

A jab-straight left combination from Lubin opened up Holmes in the eighth, and Lubin kept the heat on by smothering Holmes’ length and clobbering him with jabs and overhand lefts from short range. It didn’t help Holmes’ cause that, when he was given the benefit of some distance, he held his right hand ridiculously low and used it too rarely.

Every step seemed to be a backwards one for Holmes by the 11th. 

Lubin had learned that maintaining pressure would force Holmes’ back to the ropes every time, giving Lubin a chance to muffle his jab while getting off his own offense from an advantageous distance. Now swarming, Lubin was firing indiscriminately and without concern for anything coming back. Holmes was ducking and weaving, but Lubin was no longer giving him anywhere to go – nor any kind of an angle to hit back.

In something between a five- and 50-punch combination, Lubin finally broke through, sending Holmes to the canvas halfway through the round. Holmes rose to his feet, and though he seemed clear-headed, he was, without a doubt, exhausted. 

When the action resumed and Lubin came after him again, Holmes had nothing left to fight back with. After a few more spins around the ring and a series of splashy Lubin combinations, referee Chris Young sprung forward to give Holmes the relief he had sought for most of the fight.