A dominant night for the USA Knockouts in Miami has set them up in good position to make the playoffs. The USA got knockouts from lightweight Carlos Balderas over Rabii Hamza in the second round, light heavyweight Jonathan Esquivel over Hassan Saada in the third round, and super heavyweight Marlo Moore over Ahmed Bourous in the first round. Antonio Vargas swept every round from Achraf Kharroubi in the flyweight division. The most surprising result of the night was Paul Kroll defeating defending welterweight champion Mohammed Rabii 48-46 on all three scorecards.

Because the USA swept the night they went back ahead of the Mexico Guerreros with ten points to Mexico’s nine and most importantly with 16 bouts won in the pool they will have the tiebreaker over Mexico if the Guerreros were to get a single point from a 3-2 loss at the British Lionhearts on Saturday. That means the only way Mexico can take the last playoff spot from Group B is by becoming the first team to defeat the Lionhearts this year.

If the Knockouts do make the playoffs they would take on the Cuba Domadores in a tantalizing ten-bout quarterfinal matchup in Cuba on April 22nd and 23rd.