Trainer Stephen Edwards believes lightweight prospect Abdullah Mason should be fine moving forward after he was dropped twice by journeyman Yohan Vasquez in the first round of their November 8 fight at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia is.
Edwards wants to see how Mason, 20, looks in his next fight to determine if the two knockdowns will make him gunshy. Some fighters become afraid after being hurt, and this fear stays with them because they lose confidence 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, threw a big left uppercut and got caught by Vasquez’s money shot, the left hook, and fell in round one.
Mason got up and dropped Vasquez (26-6, 21 KOs) moments later with a left. Vasquez injured his leg in the fall, but surprisingly was able to come back and stomp Abdullah a second time shortly before the end of the round.
“He went for the knockout a little early before the guy softened up, and he ran into some big shots and he got dropped,” Stephen Edwards said. MillCity Boxingtalking about Abdullah Mason being dropped twice by big puncher Yohas Vasquez in round one.
“He had the right temperament after being dropped. He walked right back at the guy, and in the middle of the guy knocking him down twice, he hurt the guy and got him out of it,” Edwards said of Mason dropping Vasquez in round one between the two times he was knocked down. in that round and then finished him in the second.
Mason looked like he was going for a lightning fast first round knockout right off the bat, and that’s where he ran into trouble. Vasquez was too powerful of a fighter to be reckoned with. His power is better than the main man, Keyshawn Davis.
“One thing I look at when a fighter gets knocked down is if he gets gunshy,” Stephen said. “Abdullah Mason, I still think he’s good. We just have to see if it’s something that keeps happening over and over or if it was just that day where he was a little impatient and he ran into a few shots.”
We will soon see how Mason bounces back from this fight as Top Rank will likely continue to match him against better and better opposition as he looks to fight for a world title in 2025. It would be nice to see Mason with Keyshawn or Raymond Muratalla fights. so that one of those fighters could be eliminated.
“There is no need for an alarm. He didn’t turn around and turn into a kur (Shakur Stevenson?). Do you know what I mean? He walked straight back to the guy and took him out. There are some guys who get beat up, and they start acting funny. They start running and hold for the rest of the fight,” Edwards said.
Mason came right back after being dropped by Vasquez in the first round, knocking him down moments later with a left hook to the head. Seconds earlier, Vasquez floored Mason with a checking left hook, but that didn’t hold him back. Mason went after him and dropped him with the left.
Where Mason made a mistake going for the kill, and he was caught with another short left hook that dropped him for a second. It was the same situation we saw with William Zepeda getting knocked down by a left hand he didn’t see coming by Tevin Farmer last Saturday night.
He was overpowered and captured. But then he stood 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 receive as much criticism due to his youth and the fact that he was able to score a knockout in the second.
“You can only say that they don’t have the ability to take punishment, and they don’t have the heart to take punishment because they fight in survival mode. Mason didn’t. I think he’s okay. Let’s see how things move forward,” Edwards said of Abdullah and how he bounces back in his next fight.
Mason continued to fight back after initially being dropped by Vasquez in round one, and he dropped him quickly. That was when Mason went for the finish; he dropped a second time moments before the end of the round. However, Mason came back to drop Vasquez in round two with a left to the body to get the knockout.
While Edwards doesn’t name any specific fighters who go into survival mode, it’s likely that the one guy he’s thinking of is Devin Haney, who held on non-stop after being hurt by Ryan Garcia last April. It was hard to see Haney holding on non-stop after being clipped by Ryan in the seventh round.
