Reed remains unbeaten
Waldorf native aiming for title bout after latest victory
Although he fought on the undercard of super lightweight champion Terrence Crawford who prevailed in the main event, Mike “Yes Indeed” Reed remained undefeated with a unanimous decision victory over Robert “Red Hot” Frankel in a 10-round bout last Saturday evening at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Neb.
Reed (23-0 overall) has not only remained perfect in his career through this stage while fighting in the 140-pound weight class, he has won 11 fights by unanimous decision and the other 12 by knockout. His latest triumph marked the fourth time he won a unanimous decision without yielding a round to his opponent on any of the judges’ scorecards.
“Overall, I thought it was one of my most complete fights,” Reed said. “I thought I could have gone more for the body. I knew going in that Frankel was going to be a tough opponent. I heard he had plenty of endurance and was tough to knock out. He fought a commendable fight. But I was pleased with the way that I fought.”
Reed, 24, had maintained a very busy schedule through the first four years of his professional career which began with a four-round bout at Rosecroft Raceway in Prince George’s County, a venue known far more widely for unveiling talented athletes with four legs since 1949. He fought six times in 2013, six more times in 2014, five times in 2015 and four times last year.
But the Aug. 19 bout marked only Reed’s second fight of the current campaign and he is likely to have only one more bout later this fall or perhaps early winter. Reed’s three bouts in 2017 — assuming he has a third fight — will be the lowest total of his career. But that is largely by design since the duration of each bout has gradually gotten longer and the pool of competitive boxers in his weight class is getting smaller.
“I think Top Rank has something bigger planned for me for my last fight this year,” said Reed, who admitted he planned to take two weeks off from training. “They’ve done a great job scheduling fights for me. But now I think they want me to fight someone ranked. They haven’t said anything yet, but I really believe they have something big planned for me next. Maybe even a title eliminator.”
Reed, who won five of his first six fights by knockout, has won his last three bouts by unanimous decision and, according to the judges’ three scorecards for those matches, has only lost a grand sum of two rounds in those bouts. In fact, other than a Nov. 29, 2014 bout against Oscar Valenzuela, a unanimous decision in which he won only five of eight rounds on two judges cards, Reed has yet to yield more than one round to any foe.
“A lot of the credit goes to my father and my trainer [Michael “Buck” Pinson],” Reed said. “When I was scheduled for those six-round fights, he was training me for eight rounds. When I started fighting eight rounds, he was training me for 10 and now that I’m fighting nothing but 10-round fights from here on out he’s been training me for 12 rounds. My stamina and endurance is always going to be there.”
Reed had a chance to watch Crawford retain his title later on the same card and the Waldorf native gained an immediate appreciation for a fighter that is widely considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the land.
“Crawford is amazing,” Reed said. “He’s so impressive to watch the way he works an opponent. I’ve seen him fight in person a few times now and I always find something that I can learn from him.”