Cousins Mansour and Ballo Remain Undefeated in Detroit Homecoming

Photo by Jonathan Francis

Cousins Jonny "Magic" Mansour and Julius "JuJu" Ballo each kept their undefeated records intact Saturday night at Detroit's Fox Theatre, headlining a card built to connect their San Diego Chaldean community with Detroit's, the largest Chaldean population in the country. Mansour, 26, stopped Ernest Bustos via second-round TKO in front of more than 3,200 fans, dropping him three times — a clean left hook to close the first round, then a body-shot combination that ended the fight at 1:47 of round two — to improve to 8-0 with three knockouts. Ballo, 23, won a clean unanimous decision over Julian Gomez-Clemons, with all three judges scoring the six-round bout 60-54. Both fighters are sons of Chaldean immigrants; the night carried personal weight for each of them. "My goal is to fight in front of my people," Mansour said before the bout. "I want to put on a great show and represent." After his win, he added a promise to the crowd: "I might have to move to Detroit. I will be back."