McCarter displays little rust after two-year layoff

It took seven years for Layla McCarter and Melissa Hernandez to settle their differences in the ring.

The two former world champions had split their first two meetings, which came within a two-month span in 2007. They met again Friday at The Orleans, and as was the case in their first fight, McCarter left a winner with an eight-round unanimous decision in their women’s super lightweight bout.

Judges Dick Houck and Ricardo Ocasio had McCarter ahead 80-72, and Patricia Morse-Jarman scored it 79-73.

“I felt good,” said McCarter, who improved to 36-13-5. “I probably wasn’t as sharp as I should have been, but I’m dedicated to being my best, and I thought it showed in the ring.”

It was the 35-year-old McCarter’s first fight since Sept. 30, 2012, when she stopped Noni Tenge in the eighth round to win the World Boxing Association female light middleweight title. McCarter has had a hard time getting a promoter to pay her what she believes is fair value for her talent.

She came out fast, trying to show there was no ring rust from two years of inactivity, going right after Hernandez. She used her jab effectively and kept Hernandez just enough off-balance so she couldn’t counterpunch and tag McCarter effectively.

McCarter had a welt under her left eye in the third round, but she continued to press the advantage, going after Hernandez, who, to her credit, did not back away and traded with McCarter until the bell rang.

Hernandez started to find her range in the middle of the fight, landing punches as McCarter was more stationary than she should have been. Her husband and trainer, Luis Tapia, told McCarter to move more, and she listened, getting in some good combinations and backing up Hernandez on the ropes in the fifth round.

Hernandez (19-6-3) kept fighting. She landed a solid left hook to the side of McCarter’s head in the seventh round and kept attacking.

But McCarter had enough to carry herself to victory.

“I know what Melissa is going to do, and she got me with a couple of head-butts, which I shouldn’t have let her do,” McCarter said. “But I wanted to win this fight bad, and I’m not done. I hope to be back in the ring in January, February at the latest.”

In the co-feature, middleweight Eric Johnson dominated Kenton Sippo-Cook over six rounds and won a unanimous decision to remain undefeated.

Johnson (9-0) effectively worked the body, then landed some big shots to Sippo-Cook’s head. In the fourth round, Johnson hit Sippo-Cook (6-1) so hard that his mouthpiece went flying out of the ring, landing in the second row.

All three judges had Johnson winning 60-54.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.