[January 30, 2015 – Ringside by Pattee Mak/Mashantucket, Ct]
And the WBC Continental Americas Lightweight Champ is Tony “The Lightning” Luis out of Ontario, Canada. Luis won by a Unanimous Decision against Karl “Dynamite” Dargan. Judges scored the bout 97-92; 99-90 and 97-92. By way of the judges score card you can tell Luis was in control the majority of the bout.
Luis started out by jabbing his way through round 1 and during the majority of the fight Luis was backing up Dargan. Dargan was taking a lot of punishment and landing the better of the punches. During round 6 Dargan was taking a lot of punishment to the face with short jabs. At times Luis was holding onto the ropes and the ref was noticing. During the end rounds Dargan was not giving up even with knockdown during round 10.
Luis increased his record to 18-2-0 and Dargan decreased his record to 17-1-0.
2nd TV taping: 8 Rounds – Light Heavyweights – Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy of Tampa, Florida vs. Sullivan Barrera of Miami, Florida. During round 1, Lacy is taking a lot of punishment. Barrera lands a right hand and Lacy gets the count. Round 2. It appears a welt under the left eye of Barrera. Before the beginning of round 3 the Doctor was carefully looking over Lacy. During the round, Barrera who is a heavy hitter was controlling the fight and kept backing up Lacy. Lacy isn’t doing much. Round 4. The ringside physician is talking with Barrera again before the start of the round. The fight continues. Barrera gets 1 point against him for a low blow. During Barrera didn’t hold back, continued applying pressure and referee Michael Ortega stopped the bout at 2 minutes and 5 seconds and wins by TKO. Barrera increases to 15-0-0 and Lacy decreases to 27-6-0.
1st TV taping: New England based fans were excited to hear about Thomas “Souljah” Falowo from Pawtucket, Rhode Island was facing Russell “The Haitian Sensation” Lamour from Portland, Maine. There was buzz around this fight from the beginning. Who is the better fighter? The scheduled 8 round bout went the distance and was a different fight to judge sitting where I was sitting. Falowo continuously cut the ring off well, applying pressure and kept coming forward and backing up Lamour against the ropes. I can see Falowo improved and was working on his angles prior to the fight. Lamour slipping punches well. This was an all-out war with the Souljah ready for it. During round 7 Lamour continuously dug into Falowo’s body and won’t let up. There were no knockdowns during the fight. Judges scored the bout 78-74; 77-75 and 77-75 all in favor by UD for Falowo and the title of New England Middleweight Camp. Falowo increased to 13-3, 8 Kos and Lamour decreased to 11-1-0, 5 Kos.
Swing Bout – 4 rounds – Middleweights – David Wilson of New Haven, Connecticut vs. Mike Rodriguez of Springfield, Massachusetts. During round 4, Wilson knocked out Rodriguez right at 2 minutes and 21 seconds of the round. Wilson winner by KO.
6 Rounds – Light heavyweights Larry Pryor of Washington, DC vs. Charles Foster of New Haven, Connecticut. Foster dominated the entire fight. No knockdowns. Judges scored the bout 60-54; 59-55 and 60-54 all in favor of Foster. Foster increased his record to 7-0.
4 Rounds – Middleweights Shane Mosley, Jr. [son of “Sugar” Shane Mosley] of Pomona, California vs. Rafael “The Penguin” Machado of Philadelphia, PA. During round Mosley landed a left hook and dropped Machado. In between rounds referee Johnny Callas asked Machado if he wanted to continue and he inclined. During round 2 Mosley landed a beautiful right hook to the body leaving the stoppage at 2 minutes and 40 seconds into round 2 with a TKO victory. Mosely increases to 3-1-0.
8 Rounds – Heavyweights – Keith “Machine Gun” Tapia of Santurce, Puerto Rico vs. Jesse Oltmanns of Bartonsville, Pennsylvania. Round 1 Tapia backed up Oltmanns into the blue corner and held him there while going for the head. Referee Michael Ortega calls a halt to round 1 at 2:09. Winner Tapia by TKO. Tapia increased his record to 13-0.
4 Rounds – Cruiserweights – Khalib “Big Foot” Whitmore of Philadelphia, PA vs. Carlos “Brown” Reyes of Kuarny, Arizona. Round 1 Big Foot was controlling the round. Round 2 Brown takes the Big Foot down with a left hook. After Brown unleashes a multitude of punches on Big Foot referee Johnny Callas stops the bout at 2:04 of Round 2. Winner by TKO Brown. Brown increases to 7-5-1.
Heavyweight – Cassius Chaney of New London, Connecticut was scheduled to make his pro debut but unfortunately he’ll have to wait till next event due to his scheduled opponent failing a medical exam and a replacement could not be found.
Promoter: Main Events
Venue: Foxwoods, Mashantucket, Connecticut
TV: ESPN2 – Friday Night Fights
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.
