September 12, 2014 – Lincoln, R.I. Ringside by Pattee Mak
Joey McCreedy just came off of a big loss back in April against Sean Monaghan and tonight he faced Rich Gingras at the Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island for another loss in his career AND losing his UBF Northeast Championship title to Gingras. Gingras kept his N.E. Light Heavyweight Title.
The bout started off slow while McCreedy continuously worked on his overhand left and rights on Gingras. McCreedy tried numerous times to go for the KO but wasn’t successful and had a ton of heart but it wasn’t enough against Gingras who also kept landing right hooks of his own. At one moment in between rounds I saw Dicky Eklund shouting words to McCreedy but was then escorted away from the ropes. (Dicky was not working the corner of McCreedy.
Judges scored the fight 80-72; 79-73 and 80-72 (Ring announcer announced it as 80-76) for Gingras and winner by UD.
Gingras increased his record to 15-4-1 (9 Ko’s) and McCreedy comes up short once again and goes the over way to 15-8-2 (6 Ko’s).
Prior to the bout, I asked Dickey Eklund about his thoughts on the McCreedy fight. His comment “No Comment”. I said I’ll ask him after the fight. Micky or Dicky neither trained McCreedy for this fight.
Nick DeLomba of Providence. Rhode Island vs. Christian Steele of Atlanta, GA. In the co-main event, DeLomba gets the Unanimous Decision win over Steele after 6 rounds. All three judges scored the fight 60-54 for DeLomba by UD. An uneventful fight in my eyes. Clearly DeLomba took control of the bout while working angles. DeLomba increased his record to 6-0 and Steele goes the over way, 4-10-2.
4 Rounds Antonio “Little Rocky” Mignella vs. Alvin Varmall Jr. Varmall looking more like a pit bull and well Mignella … not. The bout was kept as short distance as possible with Varmall with backing up Mignella. During round 2 Varmall lands a perfect right on Mignella’s temple. Mignella goes down to the canvas. Mignella get up but stagers in the process. Referee Joe Lupino calls a halt to the fight at 2:42. Varmall is on my watch list.
4 Rounds Khiary Gray-Pitts vs. Sergio Cabrera. Both fighters exchanged punches. Cabrera egging on Gray-Pitts during round 3. Gray-Pitts looking for the KO but it never came. Gray-Pitts much busier, landing the cleaner shots and picked apart Cabrera. All 3 judges scored the fight 40-36 in favor of Gray-Pitts by UD. Gray-Pitts is on my watch list.
4 Rounds Scott Sullivan vs. Moises Rivera. Sullivan making his pro debut looked fabulous. During round 2 Sullivan backed up Rivera to the corner. Rivera turned around while Sullivan landed a left on Rivera. Referee Joe Lupino stopped the bout at 1:26. Winner Sullivan by TKO. Rivera’s record 0-4.
4 Rounds Zack Christy vs. Saul Almeida. This was Christy’s pro debut. Almeida with the height advantage of more than a couple of inches. Round 1 and 2 was more of a sparring match than a real fight. Round 3 Christy opened up on Almeida. Almeida is going to punch himself out. All 3 judges scored it the same 40-36 in favor of Christy. Almeida record, not a pretty one. 0-6.
4 Rounds Ray Oliveira Jr. vs. Angel Valde. Both making their pro debuts. Oliveira the son of “Sucra” Ray Oliveira didn’t wait to start his pro debut with a right cross at the start of the bell and continued with combinations on Valde. At 2:21 of round 3, while outworking Valde, referee Joe Lupino stopped the bout and Oliveira takes the win.
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.
