NEW YORK, (July 29, 2012) In front of a packed house on Saturday night at The Paramount in Huntington, New York, hometown favorite Chris Algieri improved to 15-0-0 (7KO’s), with an excellent performance against tough Texas fighter Raul Tovar in the eight round junior welterweight headliner at “ROCKIN FIGHTS 4”.
Five other bouts were featured at “ROCKIN FIGHTS 4”, all of which had the huge crowd on their feet throughout.
Said Star Boxing’s Joe DeGuardia, “It was a terrific evening for fight fans in the New York City area. Chris Algieri continues to improve, Cletus Seldin continues to blaze his trail of sensational knockouts and the undercard provided excellent boxing and more fireworks throughout the evening.”
“It was a great way to celebrate our 20th Anniversary and I’m also very happy that fans across the globe were able to watch these fights on the Internet through the Go Fight Live website. “
Despite being tested by Tovar throughout the bout, Algieri was able to adapt to changes in tactics from the Mission, Texas native and utilize his speed and boxing skills to consistently score points throughout the bout.
Tovar came on strong late in the bout but Algieri maintained his composure and continued to control the action.
Scores at the end of the eight rounds were 78-74 and 77-75 twice. With the hard fought loss, the game Tovar moves to 10-6-1 (4KO’s).
In the co-main event, welterweight slugger Cletus ‘The Hebrew Hammer” Seldin dropped a massive right hand on Jonathan Garcia of San Juan, Puerto Rico, drilling him to the canvas in the first round causing a halt to the bout at the 2:18 mark of the stanza.
With the win, Seldin improved to 8-0-0 with the six stoppages while Garcia fell to 3-3-1 (1KO).
In an eight round New York State Junior Lightweight Title bout, Manny Gonzalez from the Bronx stayed unbeaten with a hard fought performance over Yonkers’ Chazz McDowell. Scores at the end of the bout were 78-71 twice and 77-72 for Gonzalez who improved to 11-0-0 (7KO’s), while McDowell moved to 6-2-0 (1KO).
In a brutal four round slugfest, newcomers Raul Nuncio of Glen Cove, New York and the Bronx’s Enver Halili went to war from the opening bell with a “bombs away” attitude throughout their junior middleweight bout.
At the end of the battle Halili was awarded a majority decision upping his record to 2-0-0 (1KO), while Nuncio moved to 2-1-1 (1KO).
Huntington native Alan Gotay made a splash in his pro debut with a first round knockout of Brooklyn’s Ian James, 2-4-0 (1KO) in a scheduled four round junior welterweight bout.
Popular Hicksville, New York native Anthony Karperis dropped Travis McElhaney of Grand Rapids, Michigan with a massive right hand, earning a first round stoppage in their junior welterweight tilt. Karperis improved to 2-0-0 (1KO) while McElhaney fell to 0-2-0.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
