[BigBoyBrackey]

Jack Sharkey (9) KO9 George Cook (57): In their single real-life meeting, Sharkey got the benefit of a hometown decision in a 10-round decision at Boston’s Mechanics Building, a fight which even the Boston Globe reported that the interloper deserved to win.

There was no such controversy this time. Sharkey shook off a pair of fouls by Cook in the first half of the first round, then dominated most of what action there was in a rather ugly fight. The shorter Cook tried to force his way inside, with Sharkey alternating between left jabs and a varied body attack – when the two were not intertwined in a clinch, that is.

After Sharkey controlled the first five rounds, Cook started to land more effectively in the sixth and seventh, winning one of the rounds on two cards and both on the third. After a seemingly even eighth, Sharkey stunned Cook with a left hook early in the ninth, following up with a pair of hard jabs leading to a clean right cross.

Just past the midway point, Sharkey sized up his smaller foe, the tournament's lowest remaining seed, with another jab to set up a devastating right hand. Exhausted, Cook stumbled to his right, but was unable to keep his feet, or come close to rising before referee Gary Rosato’s count reached 10.

Jack Johnson (19) KO2 Fred Fulton (30): The 40-something former champion stunningly refuted any thought that he had survived this far into the tournament on guile and instinct alone, demolishing the bigger and theoretically stronger Fulton in little more than a round.

After making Fulton miss with a right hand to the head early in the second, Johnson deftly shifted his feet and unloaded a right uppercut that rendered the Rochester Plasterer unconscious before he hit the floor, rendering moot the ensuing 10-count issued by referee Jay Nady. The time of the knockout, Johnson’s second in three tournament victories, was 1:17 of the second.

Fulton opened strong, scoring with a jarring one-two moments after the opening bell. He shook Johnson again with a left hook to the body, but The Galveston Giant used a series of short, straight right hands to the head and jabs to the face and belly to gain control. Near the end of the round, Johnson delivered a hook to the beltline that caused Fulton’s knees to buckle and brought the sell-out crowd to its feet.