In first fight with Main Events, 20-1 Carlos Jackson stopped by 10-8-1 opponent

This was supposed to be the start of a road forward for Carlos Jackson.

The junior featherweight had signed with Main Events in August and landed a spot on the undercard of his promotional stablemate, Bakhram Murtazaliev, who was taking on Tim Tszyu in the headline bout.

Jackson, at 35 years old, came in with a record of 20-1 (13 KOs). Main Events was optimistic. Jackson’s team felt that the move down from 126 pounds, where his lone loss occurred, would benefit him.

But then he stepped in with a late replacement opponent, Ryan Lee Allen, who came in with a record of 10-8-1 (5 KOs). On paper, this seemed like a Jackson victory. Allen didn’t get that memo, though.

“Carlos got lit the fuck up,” Joe Rotonda, director of operations for Main Events, said in an interview with BoxingScene.com. “That kid [Allen] took the fight on like two weeks’ notice. He was just a great opponent. He was 10-8. He had never been stopped. The kid was ready. He’s been in the gym. He got there fight week and, just talking to him, the guy was there to fight rather than just get paid. He jumped on [Jackson] and poured it on him from the start. Carlos couldn’t recover.”

Indeed, Allen hadn’t won a fight since 2019. He’d lost five in a row. He’d had multiple periods of extended inactivity. And only two of Allen’s 10 previous victories had come against opponents with more wins than losses.

But as Rotonda said, Allen had never been stopped. He’d gone the distance against some decent fighters.

Jackson was stopped in the fourth round.

“You’re constantly rolling the dice on guys. Especially when you first sign a guy,” Rotonda said. “First time working for him. Unfortunately, he did show up and missed weight. That was a huge red flag. He was underprepared, I think.”

Jackson turned pro in 2015 at the relatively late age of 26. He won his first 16 bouts before dropping a unanimous decision to Enrique Vivas (18-1 at the time) in July 2020. Jackson notched three more wins, then stepped away from the ring from September 2022 until this April, returning with a fifth-round TKO of Alexis Bastar (then 18-2-1).

This is clearly not the outcome that Main Events had in mind with its latest signee.

“I got to talk to his manager,” Rotonda said. “The kid’s 35. That was his second fight in two years. You got to see where his head’s at. I don’t know. We’ll see.”

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.