By Pattee Mak.
On Saturday, April 9, 2011, Hard Hittin’ Promotions presented “The Willie Pep Boxing Classic,” at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut. The main event featured Heavyweights Tony “TNT” Grano (18-2-1 ) of Hebron, Connecticut against “Diamond” Dominque Alexander (20-11-1) of Topeka, Kansas in an 8 round battle in the ring.
Grano, a local fan favorite brought his supporters with him last night to watch him become victorious over Alexander. It all went down in the 6th round where Grano won by TKO.
Other bouts of the evening:
Danny Aquino (6-1-0) of Meridan, Connecticut fought against James Owens (4-3-0) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in a 6 round co-feature main event in the bantamweight division. Aquino won by TKO at 2:12 minutes in the 1st round.
Joseph “Chip” Perez (5-1-0) of East Hartford, Connecticut fought against Esteban Nichol (3-0-0) of Colorado Springs, Colorado in a 4 round fight in the lightweight division. Perez was disqualified for hitting Nichol while he was on one knee while the referee counted.
Frank Trader (8-0-0) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania fought against Tommy Atencio (4-7-0) of Denver, Colorado in a 4 round fight in the super featherweight division. Trader won by unanimous decision.
Shakha Moore (11-15-3) of Norwalk, Connecticut fought against Noel Garcia (2-9-1) of Springfield, Massachusetts in a 6 round fight in the junior welterweight division. Moore won by technical decision. The fight was stopped after four rounds due to damages resulting in accidental head butts by Moore and Garcia.
In addition, there was a 3 round exhibition wheelchair match under amateur boxing rules between Ian Cannon of Glastonbury, Connecticut. He is an 18 year old college student from Glastonbury, Connecticut who suffers from cerebral palsy. He fought against Luis Reynoso of Springfield, Massachusetts who is a former New England Golden Gloves champion. Both fighters train out of The Lions Den in Middletown, Connecticut.
Questions or comments please contact me below or on facebook @ Pattee Mak.
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.
