Fighting in Photos: Hackett stops Vines

LAS VEGAS – There was a lot of pressure on Jalil Hackett going into his fight against Elijah Vines, as he had suffered his first pro loss to Jose Roman in Puerto Rico last year and was unable to have the rematch in March due to injury. Hackett used that as motivation for this bout and scored two knockdowns en route to a third round TKO victory to get back in the win column.

“I want to thank my team,” Hackett said after the fight. “It’s been a lot…people talked bad about me. They wrote me off, they thought Vines was going to beat me. I just didn’t give up on myself.”

Vines wanted to send a message early in the fight throwing hooks while Hackett threw the jab and landed body shots. The first round had good activity from both fighters as they answered each offensive statement with power punches. Hackett added the uppercut while going to the body midway through the round, as Vines attempted to counter with right hooks. Vines landed an uppercut within a minute left in the round, and both fighters did work on the inside before the bell ending the round.

The second round was where Hackett took over with his speed and activity. Double hooks to the head and body from Hackett scored well, as he continued to chase Vines around the ring to wear him down. After a minute in the round while Vines was on the ropes Hackett landed a left hook that stunned Vines and a combination put Vines on the canvas. Vines did get up but it gave Hackett the momentum to blitz Vines. In the last minute of the round both fighters landed big shots.

When the next round started, referee Thomas Taylor checked on Vines as the ringside doctor was in the corner talking with him. The fight continued, but not for long as Hackett landed multiple counters including a combination that put Vines down within 20 seconds of the round. Despite Vines getting up from that, Taylor felt that Vines took too much punishment and ended the fight.

While there was a lot of pressure on Jalil Hackett from critics, he also placed some on himself to have a great performance.

“If I didn’t dominate him or stop him, I wasn’t going to be fighting no more,” he said. “I told myself to not worry about Elijah’s record because he is not better than me. I just had to come in here and show that, and that’s what I did tonight.”

With the win Hackett goes to 10-1 with 8 KOs, and Vines falls to 8-1.