BY MIKE HOUSER
Appeal Sports Writer
RENO - Yerington's Jessie Brinkley has a tattoo of a scorpion on his left arm, but for the better part of 10 rounds, it was his hard right hand that was getting the attention of Sacramento's Otis "Triple OG" Griffin.
That all changed at the end of round 10, when Griffin felt the sting of Brinkley's left hook and hit with the canvas with about seven seconds left in the frame.
Although the 29-year-old Griffin would rise and come out for round 11, he lasted only 24 more seconds before a merciless assault by Brinkley- - which was capped by a right hand- - caused referee Vic Drakulich to step in and call a halt to the action.
With the win, Brinkley - before an ear-splitting capacity crowd of about 1,800 at the Grande Exposition Ballroom in the Silver Legacy Resort Casino - improved his record to 30-5 with 21 knockouts and took home the vacant WBC United States National Boxing Championship (USNBC) super middleweight belt on Friday.
"I'm so glad. I'm slowly working my way up for a world title," said the 167-pound Brinkley, who may now move into the top 12 in the rankings of the WBC. "I got tired in the middle rounds. I had to overcome that to get him, a long layoff, a bigger guy...I had to overcome all that to the get the win."
The 6-foot-1 Griffin, now 18-3-2 (7), was game throughout and tried to bully the quicker, more experienced Brinkley, who was well ahead on all three judges' scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
"He was shorter - he was hard to find," said Griffin, who came in at 166 pounds. "I couldn't throw anything to his body - he's hella short. His defense was pretty good. He's really slick."
Brinkley said he needed to change his tactics fairly late in the fight after breaking through on Griffin at the end of the second round.
"I thought I'd have him out of there in five or six rounds," said Brinkley, who told the crowd that he'd be coming back to Reno in three months. "I thought I'd knock him out. Boy, was I wrong. I underestimated the chin on him. I'd hit him in the body and he'd just smile.
"I was just going to fight him off the ropes, but my coach (Peter Manfredo Sr.) told me to stay in the middle of the ring and use my jab. I started landing better punches. Peter's been telling me to do that for two months."
In other action, Glenn "The Filipino Bomber" avenged a six-round draw with Jose Albuquerque by scoring a comprehensive - and bloody - unanimous eight-round decision.
Donaire, 109, improved to 17-3-1 (9) with the hard-fought victory, while 2000 Brazilian Olympian Albuquerque, 109, fell to 8-3-2 (2).
It was a gory affair, with both boxers smeared in Albuquerque's blood following a fourth-round headbutt. The cut, pouring from the top of Albuquerque's forehead, only increased the frenetic pace of both fighters, who went toe to toe at the end of the round.
In a shocking upset, former Oakland Raiders cornerback (2001-02) Tony Hirsch, 161, of Oakland, stopped McDermitt's Derek Hinkey. The end came at 55 seconds of the fourth round when Hirsch, now 4-1 (2), dropped the 161-pound Hinkey, 4-1 (4), for the second time with a single right hand.
In other action:
• Tyler Hinkey, 246, stopped Denver's Travis Biechler, 220, at 2:41 of the first round. Hinkey, also of McDermitt, improved to 2-0-1 (2). Biechler fell to 2-6 (2).
• Carson City's Mike Peralta scored a majority four-round decision over Oscar Marin, of Las Vegas. Peralta, 135, was the busier fighter and moved to 3-2 (1). Marin, 135, fell to 3-5 (1).
• Emily Klinefelter won her professional debut, scoring a four-round unanimous decision over scrappy Elizabeth Cervantes, of Durango, Mexico, in a bantamweight bout.
Klinefelter won 13 titles as an amateur. Cervantes slipped to 2-8 (1).
A comprehensive account of all of Friday's action will appear in Sunday's edition of the Nevada Appeal.