Huck beats Arslan in unpopular decision

09/15/201611/03/2012 ESB

Huck beats Arslan in unpopular decision By Kevin Chittenden: Making his 10th defense of his World Boxing Organization cruiserweight title champion Marco Huck (35-2-1, 25 KO’s) took a real beating from challenger Firat Arslan (32-6-2, 21 KO’s) in successfully defending his belt by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight at the at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. The judges scored it 115-113, 115-113, 117-111(!).

However, the decision was met with boos from the large crowd, many of which thought that the 42-year-old Arslan had done more than enough to deserve the decision. It’s hard to argue with that because Arslan landed the cleaner punches in virtually every round of the fight. He was snapping Huck’s head with uppercuts and had his nose swollen up and looking broken. Huck’s face was red from the many shots he absorbed in the fight.

Huck did throw a lot more punches but many of them were picked off on the gloves of Arslan, and the ones that did land had no affect on him. Arslan was never hurt and wasn’t slowed down in the least by Huck’s constant shots.

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Gavin decisions Witter in boring fight

11/02/201211/01/2012 ESB

By Michael Collins: 38-year-old Junior Witter (41-6-2, 22 KO’s) really showed his age tonight in losing his British welterweight title to the younger 26-year-old Frankie Gavin (14-0, 10 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom. The judges scored it 117-112, 119-109 and 117-110. For all practical purposes, Witter stopped punching from the 4th and did next to nothing for the last eight rounds of the fight other than flicking jabs and annoyingly changing stances from orthodox to southpaw seemingly nonstop.

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Rocky Juarez KOs Antonio Escalante in the 8th

09/15/201610/28/2012 ESB

By Joseph Herron – On Saturday night at the historic Joe & Harry Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas, fight veteran Rocky Juarez (29-10-1, 21 KOs) exorcised the boxing demons and proved that he could still compete at the world class level. After losing his last six fights, the eleven year fight veteran dazzled the crowd in attendance by closing the show in style with an eighth round KO against a very strong and hungry Antonio Escalante (27-5, 19 KOs).

Going into the fight, both fighters appeared to be traveling in different directions professionally. While Juarez hadn’t gained a victory since 2008, the fast rising Escalante had knocked out his last four opponents.

The opening round was a surprise to most at ringside, which saw the fearless Rocky Juarez uncharacteristically use lateral movement to set traps for the younger and stronger Escalante.

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Abregu destroys Dulorme; Mayfield and Vazquez also win

09/15/201610/28/2012 ESB

October 27, 2012 – Gary Shaw Productions in association with Greg Cohen Promotions, DiBella Entertainment, Thompson Boxing Promotions, Universal Promotions, Prize Fight, Joe Deguardia’s Star Boxing, and Zanfer Promotions presented an amazing night of boxing at the Turning Stone Casino.

In the 10-round main-event, Argentine slugger, Luis Carlos Abregu (34-1, 28 KOs) defeated former undefeated Puerto Rican contender, Thomas Dulorme (16-1, 12 KOs) by way of seventh round TKO to capture the WBC International welterweight title.

Dulorme set the pace early as he boxed and used his jab to keep Abregu at bay. But in the third round, Abregu landed a powerful right hand and dropped the undefeated contender Dulrome. Thomas took the full 8-count and regained his composure for the time being. In the very next round, Dulorme started to use lateral movement and it gave Abregu problems. Just as it seemed Dulorme was starting to find a rhythm, Abregue landed a left hook and sent Thomas to the canvas once again. Abregu’s right hands had found a home and Dulorme was still on wobbly legs and his corner stopped the fight.

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Quillin W PTS 12 N’Dam: ‘Kid Chocolate’ scores six knockdowns in close fight

10/25/201210/21/2012 ESB

By Peter Wells: If you didn’t watch last night’s fight between Peter Quillin and Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam, then you must be wondering how a fighter can score six knockdowns and still be in a close fight. Well the scorecards say it all, 115-107 across the board for Quillin, in a fight that had three 10-7 rounds in favour of the Cuban-American. Had it not been for those knockdowns then the fight would have been scored 115-113 to Quillin, or the fight could have easily been a draw, as in the 12th round he was in control before suffering the two knockdowns that ultimately ended any slim chance of an amazing comeback.

The fight was fought at a brisk pace, as both boxers took it in turns to take the front foot. Both looked better when they fought on the front foot, but it was Quillin who made the biggest impact with his powerful left hook.

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Garcia wallops Morales; Magic Man Squeeks By; Chocolate Boy can’t keep N’Dam Down; Devon deals with boring Bailey

09/14/201610/21/2012 ESB

(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) Showtime’s debut of the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, N.Y. was a big hit. Fans were so hyped they even gave Mike Tyson a standing ovation. That came about during the fight between Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin 28-0 (KO 21) and Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam 27-1 (KO 17). Thankfully fans had been pulled out of their stupor induced by the Devon Alexander vs Randall Bailey fight. The biggest excitement in that fight came when Referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. took a penalty point from each man for excessive holding. It was definitely a yawner. If you ever hear Bailey say he’s committed to starting earlier and doing more, don’t believe him. Even Alexander the Great, holder of the IBF welterweight title and winner of the fight by UD, apologized for it.

Quillin and N’Dam changed all of that. N’Dam came back more times than a boomerang. He was down twice each in the fourth, sixth and twelfth rounds. His resiliency was unbelievable. Not only did he survive each knockdown, he got up and back into the fight, throwing good, hard combinations that had Peter experiencing a little instability of his own. But, Kid Chocolate proved his previous twenty kayos were no fluke. He ripped off his own impressive combinations with power in both hands. His primary weapon against N’Dam was the left hook. He landed it both as a defensive counter punch and as an offensive weapon. As a counter, he would time it perfectly, sneaking it in between N’Dam’s left and right. The opening would be there because N’Dam would start to “cock” the right, which meant it dropped low or was pulled back enough to expose his chin. As an offensive weapon, Quillin would set it up with a lead right, which would fall short, enticing N’Dam to once again “cock” his right to counter. Kid Chocolate would beat him to the punch and wham the left hook would slam in again. Five times that happened, with the sixth knockdown coming as the result of a right hand for good measure. The fight was so competitive that even with four knockdowns going into the twelfth round, there was still the possibility N’Dam might win. It took two more knockdowns to remove all doubt as to who won the fight. In other words, N’Dam fought so well, Quillin needed three 10-7 rounds to convince everyone that he was the better man. With his big win, Quillin captures the WBO middleweight title.

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Kell Brook Dazzles!

10/21/201210/21/2012 ESB

By John Wight – Sheffield’s Kell Brook returned to action on Saturday with a devastating performance against Argentina’s Hector Saldivia, which ended in a third round stoppage to earn the fighter known as ‘The Special One’ a crack at the IBF world title against the newly installed incumbent Devon Alexander, who defeated Randall Bailey on the same night in New York.

In front of a full house at Sheffield’s Motorpoint Arena, Brook was under added pressure to put in a convincing performance after his previous run out against Carson Jones back in July, which ended in a hard fought and unconvincing decision on points. Brook had boxed well against his American opponent for the first half of the fight, but Jones kept coming and forced Brook to dig deep as he began to run out of gas in the second half of the fight

In the aftermath, criticisms of Brook’s preparations and attitude were voiced by his promoter Eddie Hearn, and there was even talk of replacing Brendan Ingle and his son Dominic as Brook’s trainers with Rob McCracken.

However, after this latest performance, these rumours will have been dispelled, as the Kell Brook who stormed to victory with a display of power punching that will have the Alexander camp concerned was a revelation.

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Devon Alexander wins IBF Welterweight title in 12 round UD

09/14/201610/21/2012 ESB

By Joseph Herron – In one of the most disappointing title changing efforts of recent memory, Devon Alexander (24-1, 13 KOs) lifted the IBF Welterweight strap from 38 year old Randall Bailey (43-8, 37 KOs) of Miami, Florida, to open Showtime’s quadruple header on Saturday night at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The former Junior Welterweight title holder easily controlled the action with lateral movement and a quick irregular jab. In what seemed like a fight with more clinches than punches thrown, both men threw and connected at an abysmal rate.

Alexander landed only 120 of 534 total punches thrown, and Bailey set a Compu-Box record for an all time low 45 of 198 total punches thrown.

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Paulie Malignaggi wins split decision over Pablo Cesar Cano

09/14/201610/21/2012 ESB

By Joseph Herron – In what was supposed to be his first title defense at the newly erected Barclays Center in front of his hometown fans of Brooklyn, New York, current WBA Welterweight Champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KOs) was forced to settle for a twelve round grudge match due to his opponent’s failure to meet the 147 pound weight requirement.

Former Lightweight pugilist Pablo Cesar Cano (25-2-1, 19 KOs) of Mexico weighed in at 147.75 at the official weigh in on Friday afternoon and lost his opportunity to challenge for the WBA title.

Despite missing out on the chance to become a Welterweight champion, the young 23 year old fighter made a very solid showing for himself against the much more experienced two division world champion.

Although Cano eventually lost a uniquely scored split decision to the Brooklyn born fighter, the tough Mexican body puncher gave Paulie everything he could handle, flooring the WBA Champ with a sharp right hand in the eleventh round of action.

But to begin the contest, the fight was all Malignaggi.

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Peter Quillin wins WBO Middleweight title in front of hometown faithful

09/14/201610/21/2012 ESB

By Joseph Herron – Undefeated Middleweight Peter Quillin (28-0, 20 KOs) captured a piece of the 160 pound puzzle by besting the previously unbeaten incumbent WBO title holder, Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (27-1, 17 KOs), to earn a unanimous twelve round decision, flooring the defending champ six times in the process.

To begin the most action filled bout of the highly publicized Golden Boy quadruple header, the French based fighter used shifting lateral movement to keep the title challenger off balance and seemed to frustrate Quillin with quick shots from the outside.

N’Dam ostensibly won two of the first three rounds of action based on ring generalship and clean, effective punching from mid to long range. Despite having difficulty cutting off the ring effectively, “Kid Chocolate” showed his poise and maturity by shifting gears to plan B and forcing the reigning champ to assume a more aggressive role.

Rather than fighting N’Dam’s fight, the 29 year old Brooklynite baited the fleet footed visiting fighter into letting his hands go while moving in and countered Hassan with a picture perfect left hook that floored the WBO title holder for the first time in his professional career within the first minute of round number four.

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