Can Abdullah Mason overcome Chin’s concerns against Manuel Hyams?

Lightweight Abdullah Mason will face Manuel Hyams next month on Valentine’s Day, February 14, at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Chin check

This comes from the 20-year-old Mason (16-0, 14 KOs) last fight against Yohan Vasquez, who was knocked down twice in the first round on November 8th in Norfolk, Virginia.

Mason vs. James will fight on the Dennis Berinchik vs. Keyshawn Davis undercard. They will fight on the ESPN+ streamed preliminary card instead of the ESPN main card. The co-fight on the card is undefeated junior middleweight Xander Zayas (20-0, 12 KOs) in a 10-round fight against Slava Spomer (20-0, 11 KOs).

The top tier isn’t taking any chances with Mason, so they opted for a soft punch against James (16-2-1, 11 KOs), who suffered a ten-round unanimous decision loss to the former WBA light welterweight champion in September. 14 last year.

In the year It’s been a busy year in 2024 for Mason, a 5’9″ southpaw, with four tackles and a strikeout. Before his last fight against the 30-year-old Dominican Republic native Vasquez (26-6, 21 KOs), Mason talked about a world title fight in 2025.

However, Mason stopped talking about fighting for a world title after being repeatedly clipped by Vasquez’s left hooks in their fight last November. He knew now that he needed more time before he was ready, and if his chin continued to betray him, he might not get there. Floyd Schofield Sr. revealed that he injured his son Mason in sparring.

Mason needs to be a little more aggressive and pick his spots when opening up the offense. He doesn’t hold his chin up to fight the way he did, he just goes for the knockdown.

Manuel Hyams test

The 24-year-old James looked slow and weak in his loss to Rollie Romero, so he’s not a threat to Mason. As long as Abdullah doesn’t leave himself open by throwing frequent uppercuts, he should be able to beat James with no problem. It will be interesting to see if he can knock him out as he showed a good chin in his fight against Rolly.

If Mason moves up the lightweight division, he will have a lot of trouble fighting at 140 and 147 if his punching resistance doesn’t improve.