Trainer Stephen Edwards believes lightweight prospect Abdullah Mason should be fine moving forward after being dropped twice by heavyweight Yohan Vasquez in the first round of their fight on November 8 at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.
Edwards wants to see how Mason, 20, looks in his next fight to determine if the two bouts will make him gunshy. Some fighters become afraid after being hurt, and this fear stays with them because they lose faith in their ability to take a punch.
As Edwards points out, Mason (16-0, 14 KOs) went for the knockout too early in the fight, throwing a big left uppercut and getting caught by Vasquez’s money fist, left hook, and he quit in round one.
Mason got up and dropped Vasquez (26-6, 21 KOs) with a moment left. Vasquez injured his leg in the fall but, amazingly, was able to come back and pin Abdullah a second time just before the end of the round.
“He went for the knock-out a little bit before the guy was softened up, and he hit some big shots, and he was knocked down,” said Stephen Edwards to MillCity BoxingSpeaking of Abdullah Mason who was dropped twice by big puncher Yohas Vasquez in the first round.
“He had a temper right after being dropped. He went right back at the guy, and in the middle of the guy knocking him down twice, he hurt the guy and ended up getting him out of there,” Edwards said Mason he dropped Vasquez in the first round in between being knocked down twice. in that round and then finish in the second.
Mason looked like he was trying for a knockout in the first round, and that’s where he ran into trouble. Vasquez was too powerful a fighter to be counted out. His power is better than the main event guy, Keyshawn Davis.
“One thing I look for when a fighter is down is that he’s going to get gunshy,” Stephen said. “Abdullah Mason, I still think he’s good. We just have to see if it’s something that keeps happening more and more often or if it was just that day where he was a little impatient and he went in some shots.”
We will soon see how Mason returns from this fight because Top Rank is likely to continue with him against increasingly better opposition because he wants to fight for a world title in 2025. It would be nice to see Mason fight Keyshawn or Raymond Muratalla . so that one of those fighters could be eliminated.
“There’s no need for an alarm. He didn’t turn around and turn into a kur (Shakur Stevenson?). You know what I mean? He went right back to the guy and took him out. There’s some guys that get hit, and they start acting funny. They start running and keep it up for the rest of the fight,” said Edwards,
Mason came right back after being dropped by Vasquez in the first round and, moments later, knocked him down with a left hook to the head. Seconds earlier, Vasquez had rocked Mason with a left hook, but it didn’t stop him. Mason went after him and left him with that left.
Where Mason made a mistake going for the kill, and got caught with another short left hook that knocked him down for a second time. It was the same situation we saw with William Zepeda getting knocked down by a left hand he didn’t see coming from Tevin Farmer on Saturday night.
He had been dominated and was taken. But then he got up and beat the living daylights out of Farmer for the rest of the fight. Mason was in the exact same situation, but he didn’t take much criticism because of his youth and being able to score a knockout in the second.
“You can just tell that they don’t have the ability to take punishment, and they don’t have the heart to take punishment because they’re fighting in survival mode. Mason didn’t do that. I think he’s fine. We’ll see how things go.” , Edwards said about Abdullah and how he’s coming back in his next fight.
Mason continued to fight back after initially being dropped in the first round by Vasquez, and quickly took him down. That was when Mason went for the finish; he left a second time moments before the end of the tour. However, Mason again dropped Vasquez in the second round with a left to the body to get the knockout.
Although Edwards doesn’t mention any specific fighters going into survival mode, it’s likely that the one guy he’s thinking about is Devin Haney, who has been holding steady after being hurt by Ryan Garcia in their fight last April. It was hard to watch Haney hold on without stopping after being cut by Ryan in the seventh round.
