Bell on the attack on Mark Barnaldez. Photo by Mikey Williams/ Top Rank
Undefeated junior lightweight Albert Bell continues to rack up wins.
Bell defeated Nicolas Polanco by a 10-round unanimous decision last Saturday night at the Huntington Center in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio. The official scores were 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91 for Bell, who improves to 22-0 (6 knockouts).
Polanco, who resides in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, falls to 20-3-1 (11 KOs).
Polanco’s win marked Bell’s third fight of the year. In February, he scored a first-round knockout of Daulis Prescott before outpointing Martin Diaz (UD 10) two months later.
Shortly thereafter, Bell traveled to Melbourne, Australia to spar for then-in-ring lightweight champion George Kambosos, who was preparing to face Devin Haney.
Promoter Vick Green is pleased with Bell’s progress and hopes to be able to fight one more time before the end of 2022. But according to Team Bell, this could be more difficult than it seems. Green claims there were preliminary talks to face then-undefeated Chris Colbert earlier this year, but those talks quickly fizzled out.
Bell, who fought under the Top Rank banner before a friendly split last year, has stated that he is more than ready to take on the best at 130 pounds.
That remains the challenge for Green, who will be looking to keep Bell busy if he can’t match him against top junior lightweights.
“Albert looked extremely sharp (Saturday night),” Green told The Ring. “Her jab from him and left hook from him landed at will. Polanco was no walk in the park. [he’s] extremely hard
“Albert showed why he is the 130-pound guy that no one wants to face. I hope that Albert will fight again this year. That is our goal.”
Francisco A. Salazar can be contacted by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @FSalazarBoxing
