Jimmy Lange Wins Comeback Victory Impressively over Grover Wiley at Patriot Center ; “Tattoo” Tom Mitchell Loses Bout, But Earns Respect in Fight for Cancer; Promotion to Donate $6,000 to Growing Hope Organization
FAIRFAX, VA (November 2, 2008) - In the fight of the night, popular Virginia middleweight contender Jimmy Lange (29-3-2, 20 KOs) scored an impressive, unanimous victory over Grover Wiley (30-12-1, 14 KOs) at the Patriot Center Saturday night in his first action since May 2007. A confident Lange displayed a strong jab and landed effective body shots throughout the ten-round battle, including a fourth-round knock down, to defeat the Midwest veteran who displayed toughness and a no-quit attitude.
Looking fully-recovered from a rotator cuff injury suffered during the first round of his WBC Continental America’s championship title bout held 17 months ago, Lange showed little ring ‘rust’ and provided his loyal and spirited hometown fans their money’s worth with the strong performance.
Even though he was penalized two points for holding, George Rivera (9-3, 3 KOs) avenged an earlier loss to the previously undefeated Jessie Nicklow (19-1-1, 7 KOs ) by scoring a unanimous decision in the event’s co-feature. Rivera deftly boxed throughout the eight-round contest, avoiding the constantly-charging Nicklow and landing the more effective jabs.
Despite losing his professional debut to Yieta Johnson (1-2, 1 KO) via second-round TKO, “Tattoo” Tom Mitchell (0-1) earned the respect and admiration of the crowd for his gutsy performance and heartwarming story of fighting to raise awareness of childhood cancer. Mitchell entered the ring led by his 18-year old daughter, Shayla, who was diagnosed with cancer last summer, to thunderous applause. Later she joined her Dad and promoter Jackie Kallen in announcing that $6,000 was raised from the evening which would be donated to Growing Hope, a local non-profit organization that provides outreach and family support programs for children battling cancer. Mitchell donated his purse, while the promotion agreed to donate one-third all of the revenue generated from Mitchell’s personal ticket sales to the cause.
In the evening’s other bouts, Jimmy LeBlanc (12-15-4, 3 KOs) KO’d Luther Smith (22-8-2, 12 KOs) in the first round, Tracy Brewer (3-0, 1 KOs) defeated Calvin Aughty (0-3) in a competitive, four-round slugfest, and Curtis Smith (9-4, 4 KOs) outpointed Carlos Cisneros (9-16-1, 6 KOs ) for a win.
Official Results
Lange UD Wiley (100-89, 99-90, 98-91) – 10 Rounds, Jr. Middleweight
Rivera UD Nicklow (76-74, 77-72, 77-73) – 8 Rounds, Jr. Middleweight
C. Smith UD Cisneros (59-55, 59-55, 58-56) * 8 Rounds, Jr. Welterweight
Johnson TKO2 Mitchell (1:46), 4-RD Featherweight
LeBlanc KO1 L. Smith (1:46), 6 Rounds, Middleweight
Brewers UD Aughtry (40-35, 40-35, 40-35), Super Middleweight
* Bout stopped in six-round (went to scorecards) as a result of an accidental head-butt causing a cut on Cisneros
Attendance: 5,817
Familiar Faces in the Crowd:
Notable boxers attending the event included current and former world champions as well as top Beltway area prospects: Paul “The Punisher” Williams, Eric “Mighty Mouse” Aiken, Demarcus “Chop Chop” Corley (Johnson’s trainer), Thomas Snow, Bayan “The Mongolian Mongoose” Jargal, Fontaine Cabell (working with Lange), Perry Ballard, Juan Carlos Robles, Andrew “Doo Man” Farmer, Kay Koroma and Tony Jeter. Also seen were former Redskins linebacker Ken Harvey, Redskins broadcaster Larry Michael and JP Flaim of WJFK’s “The Junkies.”
