Marlon Harrington has made short work of the majority of his opponents, and he kept things brief again Thursday with a dramatic one-punch knockout of Bryan Polaco at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
As the clappers sounded at the end of Round 1 in their scheduled eight-round junior middleweight bout, Polaco, a southpaw, missed on a 1-2 combination and lingered too long in the pocket, setting up Harrington to unload a short right hook square on his opponent’s chin. Polaco was dropped flat on his back, arms splayed, prompting the referee to immediately wave off the fight at 2 minutes and 53 seconds of the round.
Harrington started the fight as if he had been shot out of a cannon, but Polaco responded with a couple of short right hands to fight his way out of a corner. A cut over Harrington’s left eye (perhaps from a clash of heads) began to leak blood.
Polaco followed with several crisp right hooks and appeared to be controlling the action before Harrington detonated the finisher just before the bell. It was Harrington’s eighth first-round stoppage in just 14 fights.
Harrington, a 33-year-old from Detroit, advanced to 13-2 (11 KOs), while Polaco, 27, a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, now living in Las Vegas, fell to 7-1 (5 KOs) in his first career defeat.
In the opener of the ProBox TV broadcast, 21-year-old Kenyan Valle took apart Taran Ward inside one round to notch his first career stoppage.
Valle, 2-0 (1 KO), the youngest of the three fighting Valle brothers from Lutz, Florida, landed a right hand midway through the first round that sent Ward’s mouthpiece flying and his knee to the canvas for a knockdown.
Locking into range and switching fluidly from orthodox to southpaw, Valle quickly had St. Louis’ Ward reeling. Another big right hand bounced Ward backwards against the ropes, and after five unanswered punches from Valle, the referee intervened to cut short the fight at 2 minutes and 58 seconds of Round 1.
Ward fell to 5-15 (3 KOs).
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
