TYRONE HARRIS TKO8 MARVIN QUINTERO

Tyrone Harris, after falling short in several crossroads-type fights, finally got it right with an exciting and impressive eighth-round win over Mexico’s Marvin Quintero in their main event on Friday’s ShoBox card.

This was the best I have ever seen Harris fight. He was sharp, steady and also very strong at 132 1/4 pounds, which was over the contracted weight for the junior lightweight bout. Quintero, who weighed 131 pounds, was outgunned from the start and showed great heart to make it a competitive, close fight before getting hammered and stopped in the eighth.

Showtime’s Steve Farhood told viewers that Harris had “struggled big time” with his weight reduction, and almost to the end of the commentary there was speculation that the fighter from Lansing, MI, might run out of gas in the later rounds.

I wasn’t seeing it that way. To me, Harris looked much the bigger, more powerful fighter and from the start seemed likely to stop the less-seasoned Quintero.

Farhood said that Harris had put on 11 pounds after the weigh-in: The difference in the fighters' punching power so apparent that I thought I was watching a junior welterweight against a junior lightweight. Quintero had his successes with hustling attacks but Harris was doing the damage in this all-southpaw fight — even Harris’s jabs were rocking the 22-year-old from Tijuana.

This was world-class fighting and boxing from Harris, and I agreed with commentator Nick Charles that he deserves full credit for the upset victory even though Quintero apparently suffered an injury to his right hand. This was Harris’s night, and no mistake.

Analyst Antonio Tarver, making his ShoBox commentary debut, was quick to notice that Quintero was not reacting well to Harris’s punches. It was commendable of Quintero to make a gritty fight-back in the sixth and seventh rounds, but he was getting hit by too many hard, clean blows and he finally “went” in the eighth. Harris landed big left hands from his southpaw stance — including a head-jerking uppercut — and referee Raul Caiz Jr. made a perfectly timed intervention after 65 seconds of the round.

It was a gamble for Harris, a lightweight, to take a fight in which he would be required to weigh his lightest in two years, but the day-before weigh-in gives a fighter time to rehydrate and recover from the weight-making ordeal. Harris was, I thought, clearly the better fighter — but being the bigger fighter didn’t hurt.