[October 4, 2014 – Mashantucket, Connecticut – Ringside by Pattee Mak]
Venue: Foxwoods Resort and Casino.
Undefeated Rances “Kid Blast” Barthelemy of Las Vegas, by way of Cuba kept his perfect record and advanced to 21-0-0, 12 KOs, while he defended his IBF junior lightweight title against the former world title challenger and IBF No. 3-ranked challenger Fernando David “El Vasco” Saucedo of Florencio Varela, Argentina and was victories by Unanimous Decision. All 3 judges scored the bout in favor for Barthelemy 120-108.
This fight wasn’t as exciting as the co-main event. Both fighters pretty much had the same style of fighting. Barthelemy controlling the fight from start to finish and throwing 819 punches to Saucedo’s 382. Saucedo decreases in his record to 53-6-2, 8 Kos’.
In the co-main event (which I believe should have been the main event) the fight went the distance for 10 rounds between a known fighter at Foxwoods, Willie “The Great” Nelson of Cleveland, Ohio, vs. Vanes “The Nightmare” Martirosyan of Glendale, Calif., by way of Armenia.
Nelson started off very aggressive in the opening round. By round 4 Martirosyan started backing up Nelson and had great hand speed. Nelson had cut under his left eye. Martirosyan cut under his right eye. Fantastic fight. Judges scored the bout 97-93; 97-93 and 96-94 for Martiorsyan winner by UD.
Martirosyan increases to 35-1-1, 21 Kos and “The Great” Nelson decreases to 32-4-, 18 Kos.
Light Heavyweights – “Bad” Chad Dawson of Las Vegas, Nevada a well know fighter in this neck of the woods vs. Tommy Karpency who took the fight on short notice of Adah, Pennsylvania. Karpency continuously working the jab and controlled the pace of the fight. Outworked “Bad” Dawson but either fighters could take each other down. Judges scored the bout 96-94 for Dawson. 96-94 for Karpency and 96-94 for Karpency. Winner by split decision Karpency. Apparently Dawson hurt his left shoulder in the 3rd round.
Featherweights – “Salomon King” Jonathan Guzman vs. Ernesto Guerrero. After a short 2 rounds of 8 Guzman dropped him twice in the 2nd round. The referee Mercante counted to 10 and Guerrero didn’t answer it. Guzman winner by KO.
Junior Middleweights – Joseph Elegele vs. Jonathan Garcia. 6 rounds. Judges scored the fight 58-55 Elegele; 57-56 Garcia and 57-56 Elegele. Winner by split decision Elegele. I spoke with Garcia’s trainer, Will Ruiz, he thought Garcia got robbed and should have won the bout.
Lightweights – Milton “El Santo” Santiago vs. Arturo “Sonic” Santiago. El Santo out boxed Sonic. Judges scored the bout all the same 40-35. Round 1 Sonic had the count.
Middleweights–Kyrone “Shut It Down” Davis vs. Rick Morias. Round 1 of 4 Davis landed body/head combinations. Ref Steve Smoger called a halt to the fight at 1 minute, 36 seconds to Shut it Downnnnnn!!!!. Winner by TKO Davis.
Junior Featherweights – Pro Debut Stephen Fulton vs. Issac Badger. Both fighters in the opening round came out looking for the knock out. Badger already has a cut on right side underneath his eye. Looks like there could be bad blood between both of these fighters. Fulton kept going for the low blows. After 2 rounds Fulton couldn’t take any more punishment. Ref stopped the bout at the end of round 2. Winner Fulton by TKO.
Cruiserweights – Earl Newman vs. Quitell Thompson. After 2 rounds Thompson had enough. Ref Steve Smoger stopped the fight at 1 minute, 56 seconds.
Heavyweights – Paul “The Machine” Koon vs. Hector Hyde. Koon landed a right uppercut drove him to the canvas. Ref Mercante stopped the bout at 1:56 into round 1 of 4. Koon won by TKO.
Also on hand was no other than Micky Ward (38-13, 27 KOs) who celebrated his 49th birthday. This event was hosted by DiBella Entertainment, Warriors Boxing and Foxwoods Resort Casino. During the live tv taping, three individuals were picked to sit with Ward during the show to take pictures, obtain autographs and watch the boxing match.
The Event was promoted by DiBella Entertainment and Warriors Boxing, Main event promoted in association with Sampson Boxing. Co-Main Event in association with Rumble Time Promotions and Goossen Tutor Promotions.
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.
