Lightweight prospect Abdullah Mason believes he could be in with his toughest opponent yet when he fights Manuel Jaimes in New York on Friday night.
Mason has a Valentine’s night fight at The Theater against the 16-2-1 (11 KOs) Californian, who lost a 10-rounder to Rolly Romero in his previous fight but defeated a 35-3 Jonathan Romero in the bout before that.
“I know he likes to do a little bit of everything,” said Mason, one of the sport’s leading prospects. “He tries to box a little bit. He likes to fight on the inside. If you bang with him, he’s going to bang it all the way out. But he lets his hands go. That’s one thing he does. He lets his hands go and he’s going to fight for the whole round, all eight rounds, 10 rounds. This will be, up to date, this will be my toughest competition.”
The 20-year-old Mason is 16-0 (14 KOs) and the Cleveland southpaw says he will do exactly what he needs to do to win and no more.
“I’m going to show you what I have to. I’m not going to try too hard to pull anything out that I don’t need to use,” he explained. “I’m going to keep it simple. And if the fight calls for certain things that I have to pull out and use, then I’m going to use that. But I’m just going to adjust to them and take it a little slow, break them down a little bit and hopefully do them how I’ve been doing in the ring.”
It was as the final weeks ticked by of 2024 that Mason was gazumped by heavyweight hope Moses Itauma for many of the Prospect of the Year awards. While Itauma breezed through Australian heavyweight Demsey McKean, Mason had, only a month prior, come through a thrilling two-round firefight with Yohan Vasquez.
Mason was dropped twice in round one, and floored Vasquez in the first and second before having his hand raised after 1:59 of round two.
Mason felt what he showed that night in Norfolk, Virginia, should have rubber-stamped his credentials for the award.
“Absolutely, I think I should have got it,” Mason said. “I fought five times, five knockouts, beautiful performances against every opponent, every step up of opponent. I went through some tough competition in that last one and I came out exceptionally after that. I believe I should have got it. I haven’t really watched too much of Moses, his performances, but I think I did what I had to do to get that. [But] It [the Vasquez fight] definitely lets you know that I could dig deep when I need to. I fought an opponent, he [scored] 21 knockouts out of 26 wins. So that lets you know all the power that he had and the way I got up off that and did what I had to do without any panic mode … a lot of fighters, they get on their bicycle and that’s a smart thing to do. But I felt like I was prepared for that moment and I got up.
“After the first one, I rushed it a little bit, but after that, I did exactly what I had to do to get the job done. It lets you know where that puts me as far as potential-wise. If I were to face another puncher, if I was to get caught or something, what the reaction would be like and I’ve been prepared for that moment. So we’ve been training and preparing for that moment for sure.”
Others have not been so forgiving. The boxing world is a harsh landscape for a prospect learning the ropes under the microscope and with so much scrutiny. For Mason, though, he is accepting that it is part of the territory.
“For sure. That’s boxing, though. That’s what boxing fans are. They are unforgiving and they want what they want. They want exactly how they want it. They want to see when they want to see it and that’s the individual. You got so many fans, you’re going to get those different opinions. You can’t really let that run you.”
Many in the social media age want flawless every time, but Mason has taken the Vasquez fight and pledged to heed the lessons – warnings if you will – from it.
“They want it how they want it. Your flawless isn’t their flawless, but that’s why you step in there and you listen to your corner.”
He has watched the fight back plenty of times though, partly for the entertainment value and also for the lessons to be learned.
“Oh my God. Yeah. I watched that a lot,” he said. “At first, the first few days I didn’t want to watch it, but you know, as much as I hated it, I watched it over and I assessed it, but just a small, little critique, that’s all, but it was, it was an amazing fight. I see why they call it Round of the Year.”
That was an accolade he collected in many areas of the boxing community, and he hopes this year will be equally fruitful.
“2025 might be looking a little the same, I’ll be pretty active this year. I might, I might be fighting around five times,” he said. After this one, Inshallah, I’ll be fighting again real soon. Hopefully for, like, a small title or something like that. You know, right now I’m ranked 15 in the WBC and 13 in the WBO, I believe. So we be climbing the rankings and hopefully be keeping up on the world title real soon.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
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