It is apparent that former Unified Super-Welterweight Titlist 🇩🇴Jeison “Banana” Rosario (20-3-1, 14KO) has a glaring weakness, and skilled Title hopeful 🇺🇸Erickson “The Hammer” Lubin (24-1-0, 17KO) hammered Rosario to the body to knock him out in the sixth round of their co-headliner Pay-Per-View event at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. With this big win under his belt, Lubin is at the front of the line now to get a shot for perhaps the Undisputed Super-Welterweight Championship…whether it come in the form of a hopeful re-match…or with a brand new match-up altogether.

The slick southpaw Lubin is an expert at planting his lead foot, and presenting himself as a mirage, and sliding out of the way when you decide to commit your punch, thinking you’re set to take advantage of him…and in the first round, Rosario’s punching speed was made to look slow while Lubin continued to make him miss. Lubin constantly stuck the stiff right jab out there, both upstairs, and downstairs, to keep Rosario honest in his pursuit.

Rosario is a good, quality determined fighter, but it is abundantly clear that he only has one gear in the manner in which he fights, and Lubin was looking to take advantage of it all night long, with constant feints, and shifts in foot movement to take advantage of Rosario’s too wide – always wound up to wield the power, stance. Rosario made a more concerted effort to target the body in efforts to slow down the fleet-footed Lubin, to keep him within range.

It was notable early that whenever Lubin would fire the power jab to the pit of the stomach, that you could see the shake throughout Rosario’s body, which raised an eyebrow – a theme for later. During that, his KO loss to 🇺🇸Jermell Charlo crossed our mind as that was happening. For all the power that Rosario is noted of yielding, it was very apparent that Lubin was the harder puncher of the two, accurately reflecting his nickname. He wobbled Rosario backwards with a strong straight left hand in the third round that further secured Lubin’s hold of control over the fight.

Sensing the vulnerability, and the puzzle of what was in front of him, Lubin began to stand his ground in mid distance, and continued going to work, realizing that nothing that Rosario possessed could bother, or deter him from doing everything that he wanted to do. For the remainder of the round, Lubin was one level short of masterful, as he did a beautiful job…whenever Rosario would alter his defense or change positions, Lubin adapted to every single different look, made him pay for it, and dominated forthright in each of those sequences.

At the end of the round, Rosario was hit with a huge haymaker right hand when Lubin briefly went orthodox, belting him high on the forehead, and Rosario looked out on his feet, as he wobbled horribly back to his corner.  Immediately when round 4 started, you could see that Rosario was heavily lead-footed, indicating that he still wasn’t all the way back, even after the one minute corner intermission, and he was a sitting duck, standing in front of Lubin, whose confidence was sky high.

Lubin’s rate of activity increased due to the circumstances happening in real time.  Being that Rosario is not a good counterpuncher, Lubin didn’t have any return fire to worry about, and he knew that Rosario completely shells up on defense when you open up, as opposed to using the catch-and-shoot technique.  Rosario did have a nice moment, moving Lubin back to the ropes, and letting go a 4 punch combination that was effective, drawing an audible response from the crowd.  It didn’t do the damage it needed to do to snatch momentum back in his favor though.

One of his arcing jabs in the 4th frame did however stagger Lubin, and he was in a bit of peril there, but not in a whole heap of trouble as Erickson still walked towards him up to the bell to end the round, but was wobbly himself walking back to his stool.  The magnifying glass was out to see how Erickson would handle the adversity, given the scope of the past.

His Head-Trainer Kevin Cunningham did a good job reminding him of what got him the lead in the first place, and rerouting his focus on what he was supposed to do, and like any good Trainer, he knew what buttons to push in order to get his fighter to buy in, listen, and to adapt what it was that got him in trouble, to regroup and get back to work.

Round 5 in the first few seconds, Rosario was trying to bully, push back, and mentally affect the previously hurt Lubin, but Erickson immediately got his respect back landing a strong right hook. He also walked into a lead uppercut from Erickson a minute after in the round, but Rosario’s determination was beginning to show, as he was trying to press forward at all costs to land the power.

In the 6th stanza, Rosario did his best to cut the ring off and turn the temperature up on Lubin, but he remained calm while utilizing the ring. Mid way through the round, Lubin landed a strong 1-2 combination to Rosario’s torso that once again looked to effect the Dominican fighter, and then he followed with a jab upstairs, right hook, left cross to the mid section one more time that sent him crashing down to his knees in pain. Lubin managed to fit another jab in there as he was on his way down. Once again, Rosario’s questionable body resistance was on full display in this instant.

Jeison got up at the count of 8, but he was veeery wobbly on his support sticks when he stood all the way up. Acclaimed acting Referee Jerry Cantu gave him the cognition test, and cleared him to continue. Rosario was so hurt, that Lubin’s pressure coming forward, even with Rosario blocking a left hand upstairs, he decided to drop down to a knee for another 8-count, but as he did so before knee touched the canvas, Lubin landed a wallop of a shovel right hook to the spleen area, and Jeison Rosario screamed in pain, rocking his head back. While on his knees, he listened to Jerry count him out at 10, as he was too injured in the moment to stand up. Erickson Lubin effectively dropped the Hammer here…and picked up the most significant win of the young 25 year old’s career.

As for Rosario…if something occurs once, it could be happenstance, or bad luck…but if it’s exhibited once again, especially in back-to-back outings…then it becomes a hook, or a narrative to your story. His “hole card” was peeped, and he doesn’t take punishment well to the body at all. He takes head shots well, but to speculate whether it’s something amiss in training, or whether he just can’t take it down there, would be just that – speculation…but it is something that all opponents will target now going forward in his career.

Lubin now by proxy, waits in the wings, as his potential 2nd shot at a world title will also be his first official attempt at a “true” World Championship, as it is now possible that he can get his dreamt about re-match for possible redemption against definitive Super-Welterweight Champion of the World 🇺🇸Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo. Now given a scenario where Charlo would lose his undisputed match with skilled WBO beltholder 🇦🇷Brian Carlos Castaño, that would certainly be a workable fight to make as well, against a highly acclaimed Argentinian opponent by real boxing insiders.

Either way, whenever Lubin gets his shot, all 5 belts will be unified together, so Lubin just put himself in a grand position to possibly accelerate, and jump his way all the way to the front of the line if he were to win that. Well done by the Florida hopeful, who wants to continue the story.