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No Longer Blue, But Philly Club Show Scene Still Rocks

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The venerable Blue Horizon is still shuttered and apparently is destined to stay that way, but audiences for the club-show fight scene in Philadelphia clearly have found other places to sate their obsession.

One night after a sellout crowd of around 1,100 filled the room used for boxing events at the Sugar House Casino, Hard Hitting Promotions staged an eight-fight card at the 2300 Arena in South Philly that was headlined by Derrick Webster’s eighth-round stoppage of Les Sherrington for something called the NBA (that’s National Boxing Association) Intercontinental super middleweight championship, sending a full house of 1,100 or so similarly satisfied fight fans home happy.

If there is a difference between the two venues, it’s that the Sugar House, whose Friday card was staged by Marshall Kauffman’s Kings Promotions, has a fair number of luxurious touches and is located on the Delaware River waterfront, where all manner of nightclubs and other nocturnal lures are available on- and off-site to patrons after the final punch is thrown. The 2300 Arena, which has undergone several name changes, is in a grittier part of town and has more of a Blue Horizon feel, the strategically placed huge-screen TVs and nifty runway entrance from the dressing rooms to the ring notwithstanding. For fans weaned on the Blue, trips to the 2300 Arena probably feel like going home. HHP CEO Manny Rivera worked the room like a politician, thanking everyone for coming and vowing more good times to be had for those who choose to return.

Despite some early glitches – a fight which was to involve longtime local attraction Eric Hunter was canceled and the opening bout delayed more than an hour because the ambulance required to be on hand was reportedly “stuck in traffic,” causing one ringside wag to comment that it must have been coming in from West Virginia — those who stayed for the entirety of the nearly four-hour card didn’t seem to mind. The four Hard Hitting Promotions house fighters, all won inside the distance and to the lusty cheers of their cliques of supporters, with lightweight Jeremy Cuevas’ sixth-round TKO of a determined Deo Kizito, in a scheduled six-rounder, emerging as the action fight of the night.

Philly guy Cuevas (10-0, 8 KOs) seemed destined to have an easy night of it when he wobbled Kizito (3-4, 2 KOs), of Washington, D.C., in the first round. He was on the verge of closing the deal in the fourth round when he drove a retreating Kizito across the ring with a volley of punches, with referee Steve Smoger poised to wave things off if another big shot landed. But Kizito, his back to the ropes, launched an improbable counter-attack to buy himself some more time to turn the tide.

Things got a bit crazier in the fifth, when Kizito went down and Cuevas, thinking the fight was over and he had won by a knockout, mounted the ropes in a neutral corner and raised his arms in exultation. But Smoger ruled that Kizito’s flooring was the result of a slip, and he signaled the fighters back together.

Although Cuevas was far enough ahead in the final round to win on points, he took umbrage to a pair of discomforting low blows that caused Smoger to give him a few seconds of recovery time. Cuevas then went after Kizito with furious purpose and when the D.C. fighter was legitimately floored, Smoger ended matters after an elapsed time of 2 minutes and 2 seconds.

“I felt he disrespected me,” Cuevas said of Kizito’s two possibly intentional shots to his private parts. “Two in a row? That’s disrespectful. But I got to say, the guy was tough, a lot tougher than I thought. He took some hard shots.”

The pace was more leisurely in the scheduled 10-round main event, which pitted 36-year-old southpaw Webster (27-1, 14 KOs), from Glassboro, N.J., against Les Sherrington (37-11, 21 KOs). Despite Webster’s impressive-looking record, it was largely compiled against non-descript opposition, a category into which Sherrington – a native of Queensland, Australia, who also is 36 and would have gotten the door prize for having come the longest way to be on hand, had such a thing existed – probably falls. Through seven rounds, Webster employed a stick-and-move strategy that was mostly move and not much stick. But in round eight Webster, who bears a facial resemblance to IBF welterweight champ Errol Spence Jr., unleashed his inner Spence and battered Sherrington the canvas, obliging referee Gary Rosato to wave things off at the 1:32 mark.

“I knew I was pitching a shutout, but my right shoulder started hurting so I figured, why not get him out there?” reasoned Webster, who said he has become accustomed to hearing he looks like Spence, also a southpaw and widely regarded as one of the top four or five pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

“A lot of people tell me that,” he said of his resemblance to Spence. “My body work needs to be better to get as good as his, though.”

The delayed opening bout might have marked the final ring appearance of Camden, N.J., veteran Prince Badi Ajamu (29-5-1, 15 KOs), who dropped a four-round unanimous decision to Puerto Rico’s Kenny Cruz (2-2-1, 2 KOs). Ajamu is 46, at 197 pounds a fleshy cruiserweight well above his optimal fighting weight of 175, and he is now 2-2 on a comeback launched in 2017 after having been inactive for eight years.

“I’m going back down to light heavy,” Ajamu, who once fought Roy Jones Jr., said of his immediate plans. “I need to keep fighting, stay consistent and be honest with myself. If I can’t be competitive and get in good condition, it might be time to do something else.”

In addition to Cuevas, Hard Hitting Promotions showcased Branden Pizarro, Samuel Teah and Gadwin Rosa also took their bouts out of the hands of the judges. Pizarro (11-1, 5 KOs), a lightweight, registered two knockdowns in stopping Hector Marengo (7-13-4, 4 KOs) in two rounds; lightweight Samuel Teah (14-2-1, 7 KOs) got Zack Ramsey (8-4, 4 KOs) out of there in one, and super featherweight Gadwin Rosa (7-0, 6 KOs) had to wait until the fifth round before stopping Angel Albelo (4-10-3, 1 KO) in a scheduled six-rounder.

Photo credit: Darryl Cobb

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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Ca.-A cool autumn night saw welterweights and minimumweights share main events for a MarvNation fight card on Saturday.

Ukraine’s Eduard Skavynskyi (15-0, 7 KOs) experienced a tangled mess against the awkward Alejandro Frias (14-10-2) but won by decision after eight rounds in a welterweight contest at the indoor furnace called the Thunder Studios.

It was hot in there for the more than 600 people inside.

Skavynskyi probably never fought someone like Mexico’s Frias whose style was the opposite of the Ukrainian’s fundamentally sound one-two style. But round after round the rough edges became more familiar.

Neither fighter was ever damaged but all three judges saw Skavynskyi the winner by unanimous decision 79-73 on all three cards. The Ukrainian fighter trains in Ventura.

Bustillo Wins Rematch

Applerose2

In the female main event Las Vegas’ Yadira Bustillos (8-1) stepped into a rematch with Karen Lindenmuth (5-2) and immediately proved the lessons learned from their first encounter.

Bustillos connected solidly with an overhand right and staggered Lindenmuth but never came close to putting the pressure fighter down. Still, Bustillos kept turning the hard rushing Lindenmuth and snapping her head with overhand rights and check left hooks.

Lindenmuth usually overwhelms most opponents with a smothering attack that causes panic. But not against Bustillos who seemed quite comfortable all eight rounds in slipping blows and countering back.

After eight rounds all three judges scored the contest for Bustillos 78-74 and 80-72 twice. Body shots were especially effective for the Las Vegas fighter in the fifth round. Bustillos competes in the same division as IBF/WBO title-holder Yokasta Valle.

Other Bouts

In a middleweight clash, undefeated Victorville’s Andrew Buchanan (3-0-1) used effective combination punching to defeat Mexico’s Fredy Vargas (2-1-1) after six rounds. Two judges scored it 59-55 and a third 60-54 for Buchanan. No knockdowns were scored.

A super lightweight match saw Sergio Aldana win his pro debut by decision after four rounds versus Gerardo Fuentes (2-9-1).

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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Tedious Fights and a Controversial Draw Smudge the Matchroom Boxing Card in Orlando

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Matchroom Boxing was at the sprawling Royale Caribe Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida tonight with a card that aired on DAZN. The main event was a ho-hum affair between super lightweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepeda.

SoCal’s Zepeda has been in some wars in the past, notably his savage tussle with Ivan Baranchyk, but tonight he brought little to the table and was outclassed by the lanky Hitchins who won all 12 rounds on two of the cards and 11 rounds on the other.  There were no knockdowns, but Zepeda suffered a cut on his forehead in round seven that was deemed to be the product of an accidental head butt and another clash in round ten forced a respite in the action although Hitchins suffered no apparent damage.

It was the sort of fight where each round was pretty much a carbon of the round preceding it. Brooklyn’s Hitchins, who improved to 17-0 (7), was content to pepper Zepeda with his jab, and the 34-year-old SoCal southpaw, who brought a 37-3 record, was never able to penetrate his defense and land anything meaningful.

Hitchins signed with Floyd Mayweather Jr’s promotional outfit coming out of the amateur ranks and his style is reminiscent in ways of his former mentor. Like Mayweather, he loses very few rounds. In his precious engagement, he pitched a shutout over previously undefeated John Bauza.

Co-Feature

In the co-feature, Conor Benn returned to the ring after an absence of 17 months and won a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Rodolfo Orozco. It wasn’t a bad showing by Benn who showed decent boxing skills, but more was expected of him after his name had been bandied about so often in the media. Two of the judges had it 99-91 and the other 96-94.

Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) was a late addition to the card although one suspects that promoter Eddie Hearn purposely kept him under wraps until the week of the fight so as not to deflect the spotlight from the other matches on his show. Benn lost a lucrative date with Chris Eubank Jr when he was suspended by the BBBofC when evidence of a banned substance was found in his system and it’s understood that Hearn has designs on re-igniting the match-up with an eye on a date in December. For tonight’s fight, Benn carried a career-high 153 ½ pounds. Mexico’s Orozco, who was making his first appearance in a U.S. ring, declined to 32-4-3.

Other Bouts of Note

The welterweight title fight between WBA/WBC title-holder Jessica McCaskill (15-3-1) and WBO title-holder Sandy Ryan (6-1-1) ended in a draw and the ladies’ retain their respective titles. Ryan worked the body effectively and the general feeling was that she got a raw deal, a sentiment shared by the crowd which booed the decision. There was a switch of favorites in the betting with the late money seemingly all on the Englishwoman who at age 30 was the younger boxer by nine years.

The judges had it 96-94 Ryan, 96-95, and a vilified 97-93 for Chicago’s McCaskill.

In the opener of the main DAZN stream, Houston middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams, 27, improved to 15-0 (10) with a 10-round unanimous decision over 39-year-old Toronto veteran Steve Rolls (22-3). All three judges had it 97-93. Rolls has been stopped only once, that by Gennady Golovkin.

Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing

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Zhilei Zhang KOs Joe Joyce; Calls Out Tyson Fury

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Joe Joyce activated his rematch clause after being stopped in the sixth frame by Zhilei Zhang in their first meeting. In hindsight, he may wish that he hadn’t. Tonight at London’s Wembley Stadium, Zhang stopped him again and far more conclusively than in their first encounter.

In the first meeting, Zhang, a southpaw, found a steady home for his stiff left jab. Targeting Joyce’s right eye, he eventually damaged the optic to where the ring doctor wouldn’t let Joyce continue. At the end, the fight was close on the cards and Joyce was confident that he would have pulled away if not for the issue with his eye.

In the rematch tonight, Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs) closed the curtain with his right hand. A thunderous right hook on the heels of a straight left pitched Joyce to the canvas where he landed face first. He appeared to beat the count by a whisker, but was seriously dazed and referee Steve Gray properly waived it off. The official time was 3:07 of round three.

Zhang, who lived up to his nickname, “Big Bang,” was credited with landing 29 power punches compared with only six for Joyce (15-2) who came in 25 pounds heavier than in their first meeting while still looking properly conditioned. One would be inclined to say that age finally caught with the “Juggernaut” who turned 38 since their last encounter, but Zhang, 40, is actually the older man. In his post-fight interview in the ring, the New Jersey resident, a two-time Olympian for China, when asked who he wanted to fight next, turned to the audience and said, “Do you want to see me shut Tyson Fury up?”

He meant it as a rhetorical question.

Semi-Windup

Light heavyweight Anthony Yarde was matched soft against late sub Jorge Silva, a 40-year-old Portuguese journeyman, and barely broke a sweat while scoring a second-round stoppage. Yarde backed Silva against a corner post and put him on the deck with a short right hand. Silva’s body language indicated that he had no interest in continuing and the referee accommodated him. The official time was 2:07 of round two.

A 30-year-old Londoner, Yarde (24-3, 23 KOs) was making his first start since being stopped in eight rounds by Artur Beterbiev in a bout that Yarde was winning on two of the scorecards. Silva, a late replacement for 19-3-1 Ricky Summers, falls to 22-9.

Also

Former leading super middleweight contender Zach Parker (23-1, 17 KOs) returned to the ring in a “shake-off-the-rust” fight against 40-year-old Frenchman Khalid Graidia and performed as expected. Graidia’s corner pulled him out after seven one-sided rounds.

In his previous fight, Parker was matched against John Ryder who he was favored to beat. The carrot for the winner was a lucrative date with Canelo Alvarez. Unfortunately for Parker, he suffered a broken hand and was unable to continue after four frames. Tonight, he carried 174 pounds, a hint that he plans to compete as a light heavyweight going forward. Indeed, he has expressed an interest in fighting Anthony Yarde. Graidia declined to 10-13-4.

The Zhang-Joyce and Yarde-Silva fights were live-streamed in the U.S. on ESPN+.

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