Highlights
–The shorter Phil Lo Greco dominated a give-and-take second round, his left hook rocking Joseph Elegele into and nearly through the ropes. From there, Lo Greco unleased a barrage of unanswered lefts, rights and uppercuts, but Elegele survived the assault and even stunned and hurt his opponent in the final seconds.
–When not pinned, hammered or otherwise smothered against the ropes, Elegele’s jab alternately established range and closed distance through the middle rounds, when he blasted away with combinations and sledgehammer lefts to the head and body.
–Elegele controlled the tempo throughout the final three rounds, mostly keeping the action near the center of the ring and effectively executing from distance down the stretch. He nearly dropped Lo Greco in the final seconds of a hard-fought unanimous decision.
Joseph Elegele entered his clash with Phil Lo Greco possessing a decided power advantage, and promised to show as much when the two men got in the ring.
Joseph Elegele (left) and Phil Lo Greco engage in some toe-to-toe action during their fight in Lakeland, Florida. Elegele prevailed by unanimous decision. (Dave Nadkarni/Premier Boxing Champions)
That he did.
Lo Greco got a face full of his opponent’s two-fisted power for much of the fight, and even though the steel-chinned Canadian gave nearly as much as he took, it was Elegele who did the more telling damage to edge his way to a 10-round unanimous decision.
The judges scored the action-packed bout 97-93 and 96-94 twice.
A 5-foot-8 boxer-puncher, Lo Greco (27-3, 15 KOs) actually looked like the more powerful fighter early on, rocking the 6-foot Elegele (16-2, 11 KOs) with a big left hook in Round 2. The punch sent Elegele into and nearly through the ropes, and from there Lo Greco unleashed a barrage of unanswered lefts, rights and uppercuts.
But he was unable to land the decisive blow, and after weathering the storm, Elegele actually fired back with a big punch late in the round that wobbled Lo Greco.
A 31-year-old southpaw from Melbourne, Florida, Elegele came out strong in Round 3 and began using his jab to alternately gain range and close distance, which helped set up his sledgehammer lefts to the head and body. Elegele controlled the bout in the middle rounds, doing his most damage in the sixth round when he twice hurt Lo Greco, first with a combination and later with another big left hand.
Unlike when he faced 147-pound contender Errol Spence Jr.—another southpaw with a vicious left hand who knocked him out in the third round last year—Lo Greco managed to remain on his feet the entire way against hammer-fisted Elegele.
In the end, though, the result was the same, as Lo Greco—who won his first 25 professional fights—fell for the third time in his last five contests. Meanwhile, Elegele picked up his third consecutive victory in what was the longest outing of his career.
