The formula has been a pretty familiar one for Nicky Tejada.
Stir up excitement around the local boxing scene, sell a stack of tickets, electrify a packed house at some quaint, local venue, stack another win.
Friday night was different, though. Tejada, the Haverhill 24-year-old pro, followed a radically different script at Memorial Hall in Melrose, rolling over Tyngsborough’s Nate Balakin in a sizzling third-round technical knockout to claim the USA New England Welterweight Championship.
“The first two rounds rounds went as bad as you could think,” explained Tejada. “The second round was a 10-8 round for him. He beat the (expletive) out of me. I didn’t go down, but it was very close, and the ref was looking to stop the fight, telling me I needed to fight back.
“I had everyone having a heart attack in there. In my head, I was like this is it. My head was there, but my legs were not. I got hit in the back of the head three times, and it really messed me up.”
In the most trouble of his professional career, Tejada looked to his trainer, Ray Hebert, and then realized that things just couldn’t get any worse.
“I was essentially down three rounds going into the third. Ray told me to step over right and throw the right hook, I went right and I hurt him really bad with it,” said Tejada. “He couldn’t stop me in the second. Going into the third, I felt possessed.”
Putting Balakin away with a fierce flurry midway through the round, Tejada understood how big the moment was.
“I’ve never hopped on the ropes after a win, I did this time. All the support from my fans, I couldn’t wait to bring that belt back to Haverhill,” said the 9-0-1 Tejada, who avenged the long blip on his ring resume, a six-round draw to the 6-4-1 Balakin back in November of 2023.
“Obviously, I got the win, but I can’t ever be satisfied. I just can’t have a fight where the first two rounds are just horrid.”
Lesson learned, and now it’s on to another local main event, coming up on Thanksgiving Eve at the Doubletree in Andover. Tejada, who fights under the Boston Pro Boxing Promotions banner, has torn through the region’s competition and now awaits an opponent for that one.