(Rhode Island Convention Center, USA) -- Junior middleweight, Ossie Duran, gave a superb showing in Friday night's eight-round co-feature against Jonathan Reid, one of the stars on the first "Contender" reality TV series.
Duran was impressive in the final three rounds as he notched an unanimous-decision victory that upped his record to 23-5-1 (9 KOs) and put him on the brink of landing a NABF (North American Boxing Federation) title shot.
Duran, a native of Accra, Ghana who lived in England before moving to Providence last winter, has a solid resume. He's currently ranked 26th in the WBO (World Boxing Council) rankings, and in the past four years, has won the IBF Inter-Continental middleweight and Commonwealth (Great Britain) middleweight and junior middleweight championships.
Since coming to the U.S., Duran is 3-0, with the other two victories coming via six-round unanimous-decisions over Marcos Primera last May at the Convention Center and Gilberto Reyes last August at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis.
"He's a very hard worker in the gym," noted Peter Mantredo Sr., Duran's trainer.
"He's got a lot of upside and a lot of skills, and he had a tremendous training camp. He sparred with the amateur Demetrius Andrade, Chad Dawson, and Matt Godfrey. He will get in there and spar with anyone."
In his fight with Reid (34-5, 19 KOs), Duran got the fans on their feet in the sixth round by flooring Reid with a powerful right. When Reid returned to his feet, Duran did everything he could to put him away for good, but Reid refused to call it an early night.
"I hadn't seen him fight before, so in the first three or four rounds, I was just trying to see what he had," noted the soft-spoken Duran.
"By the sixth, seventh round, I could see that I could take him down, but when I tried, I could see that he was in good shape and he was a survivor."
Manfredo Sr. was happy to see his boxer come away with the victory, but wasn't thrilled with his performance. The veteran trainer wanted to see Duran knock out Reid because he believed that an impressive knockout of a standout fighter like Reid would have been a big boost for Duran and his career.
"I wasn't as satisfied with his performance," said Manfredo Sr. "I wanted him to stop this guy. He had him hurt and he should have stopped him, and if he's going to be able to get to that next level, he's going to have to pick up the pace even more.
"He did some nice things tonight, but he did what he had to do to win and he made this kid survive. To make money in this game -- good money -- you have to stop people. People want to see knockouts, and until he does that, he's not going to make the good money.
"Reid's well-known and he's got a good record. But Duran's got to get to that level where people starting knowing him. Fighting over here on CN8 (The Comcast Network) or these local shows, you're not going to be known. You want to be known nationally -- you don't just want to be known locally -- and you have to shine when you get on that national level."
