RESULTS – Dirrell vs. DeGale

 

DeGale The New IBF Super Middleweight Champ

[Boston, Massachusetts – Ringside by Pattee Mak – May 22, 2015]

Today Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions hosted live boxing at the Boston University’s Agganis Arena and shown live on NBC.   The main event, Andre Dirrell of Flint, Michigan vs. James “Chunky” DeGale of Hammersmith, England. The 12 round bout went the distance as earlier predicted with DeGale coming out on top. Some would argue that Dirrell won but the judges scored the bout 114-112; 117-109 and 114-112 all in favor of DeGale by U.D.   Compubox final punchstats have Dirrell throwing 488 punches and DeGale 400. Dirrell 111 total punches connected and DeGale 115 punches connected. DeGale out-landed Dirrell in the final 2 rounds.   At some points during the bout there was some trash talking going back and forth. The majority of the bout was DeGale, with better head movement, slipping punches, circling around a more flat footed Dirrell who kept himself in the center of the ring looking to back up DeGale against the rope the majority of time. Dirrell using the jab. In round 2 DeGale lands a left on Dirrell and drops him to the canvas and DeGale then proceeds onward and the ref again gives Dirrell the count. It was great back an forth action but in the end DeGale is the champ. USA was shouted a few times from the audience to encourage Dirrell.

DeGale increases to 21-1 and Dirrell decreases to 24-2.

Light Heavyweights 10 Rounds – Local favorite Edwin Rodriguez from Worcester, Massachusetts [Who I just saw appearing in a short clip in the upcoming movie “Bleed for This] vs. Craig Baker of Houston, Texas. Round 1 Rodriguez is looking sharp in the ring. Continuing on combinations. Round 2 Toe to toe action. Edwin continuing to go to the body and head but at points, Rodriguez’s hands are down low. Baker complaining of a low blow. Round 3 Baker and Rodriguez both come out strong. Rodriguez backs up Baker against the ropes and unloads explosive strikes to the head. Referee stops the fight at 2 minutes and 22 seconds into round 3. Baker is confused as to what just happened. The look on Baker’s face was priceless. There were multiple rights to the head followed by a few lefts. Baker kept his guard up but didn’t move nor thrown any punches. Rodriguez increases to 27-1 and Baker decreases to 16-1.

Junior Featherweights – 8 Rounds – Undefeated knockout artist Jonathan Guzman vs. Christian Esquivel. Round 3 Guzman let go on his punches and exploded on Esquivel but didn’t get the knockout. As Guzman continued backing up Esquivel. Round 5 the ringside physician is called in due to a deep cut about the left eye of Esquivel. They are allowed to continue the bout. By the end of round 5 before round 6, the bout was stopped due to the Esquivel’s cut. Guzman increases his PERFECT record to 19-0-0, winner by TKO.

Welterweights – 8 Rounds – Danny O’Connor, a local favorite from Framingham, Massachusetts vs. Chris Gilbert of neighboring Windsor, Vermont. [Gilbert just fought last week against Raphael Valenzuela and won with a 1^st round knockout]. Round 2 O’Connor dropped Gilbert with a left to the body that brought Gilbert down to one knee. Round 3 Gilbert gets the count. It didn’t look to me to be anything but a push. Gilbert’s right eye is a bloody mess. Round 4 O’Connor lands an explosive body punch on Gilbert and ref calls a halt to the bout.   Winner O’Connor by TKO in round 5 at1 minute 4 seconds. O’Connor increases to 26-2 and Gilbert decreases to 11-1.   [Originally O’Connor was scheduled to face Paulie Malignaggi on May 29, 2015 but due to a cut above Malignaggi’s eye, this bout between them both was cancelled and O’Connor was moved to this card.]

Heavyweights – 6 Rounds – Danny Kelly vs. Curtis Lee Tate. Kelly Dropped Tate 3x in round 1 (Stay down, just stay down), Kelly wins by TKO at 1 minute, 5 seconds into the round.

Middleweights – 10 rounds Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan vs. Melvin Betancourt. During round 2 Betancourt is throwing a ton of punches and is being extremely busy in ring. Unfortunately O’Sullivan lands and drops Betancourt to the canvas. Betancourt gets up from the count   O’Sullivan continues the pace with a left hook on Betancourt and drops Betancourt to the canvas, Betancourt doesn’t answer the count at 2 minutes, 46 seconds. By the end of the bout, O’Sullivan’s forehead is extremely red like a fire truck. O’Sullivan increases his record to 21-1-0 and Betancourt decreases to 29-2.

Middleweights – 6 Rounds – Immanuel Aleem of East Meadow, New York vs. David Toribio of Santiago, Dominican Republic. This was short lived, 39 seconds into round 1 Aleem wins by KO.

Light Heavyweights – 4 Rounds – Edwin Espinal of Providence, R.I.vs. Alvaro Enriquez of Mexico City, Mexico. Espinal controlled the entire bout. During round 4 Enriquez is down for the count, the bout continues and Espinal tries to finish Enriquez by giving explosiveness in everything he has looking for the knockout but is unsuccessful.   Espinal gets the win by UD and increases to 6-0 and Enriquez decreases to 5-14-2.   Judges scored the bout 40-35, 40-35 and 40-35.

Featherweights – 6 Rounds – Local favorite Ryan “The Polish Prince” Kielczweski from Quincy Massachusetts [Kielczweski is coming off a recent split decision loss against Danny Aquino] vs Anthony Napunyi of Nairobi. Round 1 Kielczweski landed a left to the body and continued apply pressure on Napunyi as he was going down to the canvas. Referee jumped in and gave the count to Napunyi. Napunyi didn’t answer the call. The bout was stopped at 2 minutes, 54 seconds into round 1. Kielczweski victorious by KO and increases his record to 23-1, 7 Ko’s and Napunyi goes to 11-12, 6 Ko’s.

 Junior lightweights – 6 Rounds – Logan McGuinness vs. Gerardo Cuevas. Round 1 McGuinness lands a jab to the face, drops Cuevas to the canvas. The rest of the rounds McGuinness kept backing up Cuevas while using his jab. McGuinness outworked Cuevas. Round 6 Cuevas was a bit busier. All 3 judges scored the bout 57-56 all in favor of McGuinness.

Bantamweights – 4 Rounds – Antonio Russell of Washington, DCvs. Brandon Garvin of Philadelphia, Penn. Round 1 didn’t last long, 1 minute, 3 seconds Russell landed a right hook on Garvin. Referee stopped the bout. If you blinked you missed the fight.

 

Photo by Suzanne Teresa/Premier Boxing Champions.

 



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