Vito Mielnicki Jr. TKO2 Noah Kidd ... Fighting in Newark, New Jersey native Vito Mielnicki Jr. (9-1, 6 KOs) knocked out Noah Kidd (6-4-2, 5 KOs) in the second round of their welterweight contest. Mielnicki scored a knockdown in the opening frame, causing the crowd at Prudential Center to erupt with cheers for the hometown favorite. Mielnicki continued to batter Kidd in the second round, forcing Kidd to take a knee. Referee Eric Dali had seen enough at that point and stopped the action at 2:32 of the second round. "Kidd was fading fast,” said Mielnicki. “That’s why I started to pick up the pressure. He was starting to wilt. I learned in my past performance that when you have someone hurt you have to finish the job.” Mielnicki was supposed to compete in a rematch against James Martin, but Martin missed weight. Kidd was originally scheduled to fight on the non-televised portion of the undercard, but filled in as Martin’s replacement against Mielnicki. "There were no issues with the change of opponent,” added Mielnicki. “I trained for a more technical fighter. Kidd was more awkward than Martin. We got the job done in front of my hometown fans, so I’m happy." Having noticed the tremendous amount of support at Prudential Center, Mielnicki concluded, “This is my home and these are my people. Whenever we fight in Jersey this is where we’re doing it. I’m looking forward to many more fights here.”

 

Joey Spencer W8 James Martin... In the opening bout on Fox, juior middleweight Joey Spencer (13-0, 9 KOs) secured a unanimous decision victory over James Martin (7-3, 0 KOs). Official scores were 79-73 (twice) and 80-72. "There were one or two rounds where he was throwing and he had a lot of activity, but I was blocking,” said Spencer. “I only took one or two shots, and to be honest I would have thought it would be a shutout." After missing weight for his scheduled welterweight scrap against Mielnicki, Martin became a late replacement to face Spencer one weight class higher. When asked if the late replacement had an impact on his performance, Spencer said, "No, it just showed me I’m right where God wants me to be. Once I got the change, it was a big fight, a big step-up against somebody coming off a big win. I needed these rounds. I feel like if I had fought Karpency it would have been the same. I needed this experience. I needed these eight rounds and I needed to set the pace because he was not going to go down.” Spencer concluded, “I have a lot of names that I’m thinking about for 2022. I'd like another step-up fight to end this year, but I don’t have anyone specific in mind. But those names in 2022 will set me up for a title shot."