DiBella May Well Have Come Up With Another Hidden Gem

NEW YORK – Lou DiBella credits his recent run of good fortune in no small part to Sampson Lewkowicz, who convinced him that a thirtysomething Argentine-born middleweight living in Spain named Sergio Martinez might have a useful career ahead of him yet.

So when Lewkowicz touted DiBella on Javier Fortuna, describing the young junior welterweight as “the best prospect to come out of the Dominican Republic, the promoter might have thought he was full of beans, but he was still obligated to listen seriously, which is pretty much how Fortuna wound up, sight unseen, in the co-featured bout on Wednesday night’s Broadway Boxing card at B.B. King’s.

“Sampson said we could match him tough, so we did, said DiBella, who threw Fortuna in against fellow unbeaten Victor Valenzuela for his American boxing debut.

Brooklyn junior welter Gabriel (Tito) Bracero might have had the crowd and the nominal headline role, but Fortuna utterly stole the show right out from under him with a spectacular first-round knockout that left press row buzzing.

Fortuna and Valenzeula came out with both guns blazing, throwing bombs at one another from the opening bell, but a minute into the fight Fortuna caught his foe with a savage left, and Valenzuela was out before he even hit the floor. Referee Arthur Mercante immediately waved off the count, but suffice it to say Valenzuela’s unconsciousness lasted longer than had the fight itself.

“The kid is a beast, marveled DiBella after watching Fortuna improve to 13-0 with the KO. Valenzuela is 8-1-1.

The Fortuna win also capped a pretty good 11-day stretch for Spanish trainer Gabriel Sarmiento, whose work in the Dominican’s corner was even briefer than the two rounds Martinez took to dispatch Paul Williams on Nov. 20.

Bracero is also undefeated, and was once again attended by a happily vociferous contingent of Brooklyn fans for his main event against Californian Hector Allatore. Bracero isn’t a knockout puncher (one kayo in 13 fights), and Allatore isn’t a guy who gets knocked out, so the result – an eight-round decision in which Bracero won every round on every card – was somewhat predictable, as Larry Hazzard Jr., Ron McNair, and Kevin Morgan all returned 80-72 verdicts. There were no knckdowns.

Tito advanced his record to 13-0 with the win, while the game but overmatched Allatore is now 16-13.

New York heavyweight (and former Penn State footballer) Tor Hamer is reportedly on Evander Holyfield’s short list of prospective opponent following a one-sided but uninspiring win over Michigan journeyman Demetrice King in their featured undercard bout. Hamer (now 13-1) didn’t lose a round, but neither could he budge an opponent who plainly wouldn’t have minded an early trip home. King, 15-19, has been known to be a spoiler, but not on this night. Luis Rivera, McNair, and Hazzard, Jr. all scored it another shutout at 80-72. It was pretty hard to argue with that score.

The evening’s other heavyweight bout saw Sonya Lamonakis, a/k/a the Big Fat Greek Heavyweight, outlast North Carolinian Tiffany Woodward to win a close but unanimous decision in an entertaining six-round slugfest that seems likely to produce a rematch – particularly if DiBella makes good on his threat to make the BFGH his first female signing. Rivera and Morgan both favored Lamonakis, 58-56, while McNair had it slightly closer at 58-57. Lamonakis, a New York public schoolteacher in her day job, is now 3-0, Woodward 3-4.

Another undercard bout was meant to showcase DiBella’s latest signee, unbeaten New Jersey welterweight Alex Perez, but somebody forgot to tell Doel Carrasquillo. Carrasquillo, a gnomish Puerto Rican welter now domiciled in Pennsylvania, is one of those guys it’s extremely difficult to look good against – particularly when he makes a face and squeals “Wooo! whenever you do hit him. In addition to is disdainful reponse to Perez’ southpaw onslaught, Carrasquillo added insult to injury in the fifth round when he caught Perez with his hands down and dropped the embarrassed favorite with a solid left-right combination. Rivera and McNair both scored the bout 78-72 for Perez, now 13-0, while Hazzard had it 78-73 — as did The Sweet Science. Carrasquillo’s career mark is now 14-17-1.

Durable Idaho middleweight David Lopez (3-3-3) became the first opponent to go the distance with Steven Martinez, but dropped a unanimous decision to the 20 year-old Bronx fighter, now 7-0. Martinez battered Lopez with a ferocious body attack over the first five rounds, but the final stanza saw Lopez mount a furious rally that saw him win the round on the cards of all three judges. Rivera, Hazzard, and Morgan all scored it 59-55, as did TSS.

Ecuadorian junior middle Eberto (Tito) Medina seemed to spend as much time spitting out his mouthpiece as throwing punches, and lost a unanimous decision to unbeaten Brooklynite Delen Parsley (4-0). Hazzard, McNair, and Morgan all scored it 39-37 as Medina fell to 5-5-1.

In an opening bout that could have been a tough-man contest for the 43 seconds it lasted, Yonkers light-heavy Carlito Gonzalez leveled his record at 2-2 when Mercante rescued his Astoria opppnent Borngod Washington. Borngod remains winless at 0-7.

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BROADWAY BOXING
BB KING’S BLUES CLUB
NEW YORK, N.Y.
December 1, 2010

JUNIOR WELTERWEIGHTSS: Gabriel Bracero, 141, Brooklyn, NY dec. Hector Alatome, 140, Tulare, Calif. (8)

JUNIOR LIGHTWEIGHTS: Javier Fortuna, 128, La Romana, Dominican Rep. xxx Victor Valenzuela, 123 ½, Passaic, N.J. ()

HEAVYWEIGHTS: Tor Hamer, 221. New York, N.Y. dec. Demetrice King, 277, Jackson, Mich. (8)

Sonya Lamonakis, 221, New York, N.Y. dec. Tiffany Woodard 198, Wilson, N.C. (6)

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS: Carlito Gonzalez, 175, Yonkers, N.Y. TKO’d Borngod Washington, 174, Queens, N.Y. (1)

MIDDLEWEIGHTS: Steven Martinez, 154 1/2, Bronx, N.Y. dec. David Lopez, 158, Parma, Idaho (6)

JUNIOR MIDDLES: Delen Parsley, 153, Brooklyn, N.Y. dec. Eberto Medina, 154 ½, Cinchipe, Ecuador (4)

WELTERWEIGHTS: Alex Perez, 147, Newark, N.J. dec. Doel Carrasquillo,146 1/, Yabucca, Puerto Rico (8)