Northeast Philadelphia native, Cruiserweight Tony “Boom Boom” Ferrante 13-4 (8 KO’s)was a huge underdog when he faced undefeated cruiserweight prospect Isa Akberbayev 10- 0 (7KO’s) on Saturday January 19th inside the MECCA of boxing, Madison Square Garden. Ferrante recently moved up in weight from light heavyweight to cruiserweight after struggling to cut 38 lbs. in his last fight. Taking the Akberbayev on only 20 days’ notice, Ferrante said he and his new trainer went into combat mode. “We started training right after Christmas. I had always been keeping in shape with my strength and conditioning Coach Sean Thompson, but my boxing coach Mike Cassell had me watching tape, and together we came up with a game plan, not just to win, but to knock the big Russian fighter out.”
The game plan was simple for Ferrante and his team. Make the big man fight small, then take him deep and put him to sleep. Akberbayev was coming off 4 KO’s in a row and was very confident. Ferrante was coming off 2 very tough losses that both went 10 rounds. But Akberbayev had never gone past 6 and team Ferrante were hoping that he would fade.
Photos: Michael Bennett/SHOWTIME– WBC Interim Super Lightweight Champion Lucas Matthysse scored a one-punch knockout win over Mike Dallas, Jr., in the main event of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING from The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas last night. The knockout came via a short counter right hand at 2:26 of the opening round. Matthysse advanced his record to 33 wins, two losses with an impressive 31 knockouts. The dangerous Argentine is now looking for the biggest names in the 140-pound division.
The triple header, presented by Golden Boy Promotions, will replay Tuesday, January 29 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME EXTREME®.
In one of the evening’s co-features, Jesus Soto Karass won a majority decision over Selcuk Aydin in a 10-round super welterweight fight. Soto Karass simply outworked Aydin from the opening bell, continually pushing forward and controlling most of the rounds. The scores were 97-93 twice and 95-95. Soto Karass’ record improved to 27 wins, eight losses and three draws with 17 knockouts.
By Bill Phanco: It took WBC interim light welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) most of the 1st round to adjust to the hand speed of Mike Dallas Jr. (19-3-1, 8 KO’s) tonight but once he did, he tagged him with a monstrous overhand right late in the round that knocked Dallas Jr. clean out, sending him down face first on the canvas at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The referee immediately stopped the fight after realizing that Dallas Jr. was out cold and wasn’t moving a muscle. The official stoppage was at 2:26 of the round.
Dallas Jr. was jabbing well in the early part of the fight, and tying Matthysse up each time he could get in close to land his power punches. However, as the round wore on, Matthysse began to catch Dallas Jr. with hard left hooks to the head and big right hands. You could see with the power that Matthysse was throwing his shots that Dallas Jr. wasn’t going to last very long in this fight.
Matthysse’s power was pretty impressive in this fight because he wasn’t just punching big power with his left hand. He was also throwing with good power with his right as well, and there aren’t too many fighters at 140 that would have been able to last long tonight against him.
By Bill Phanco: Unbeaten junior middleweight Demetrius Andrade (19-0, 13 KO’s) kept his perfect record intact with a lopsided 10 round unanimous decision win over Freddy Hernandez (30-4, 20 KO’s) on Friday night at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, New York. Hernandez was down in the 6th, and hurt on number of occasions by big shots from Andrade. The judges’ scores were 100-89, 100-89 and 100-89.
It was a fine performance from Andrade, #3 IBF, #3 WBO, #8 WBC, #13 WBA,. He showed good power at times and nice hand speed. He didn’t have much to worry about in this fight because Hernandez was way out of his league and he didn’t have a lot of power.
Andrade knocked Hernandez to the canvas in the 6th round with a right hand to the head, and he also had Hernandez hurt in the 9th after nailing him with a right uppercut. Hernandez showed a good chin to make it the full 12 considering it looked like the fight was on the verge of being stopped in the 9th when Andrade was unloading on Hernandez with everything but the kitchens sink.
by Paul Strauss: Here’s a bucket of money. Now go out and hire a biological engineer and make known your wishes for the creation or design of a great boxer. If necessary, the lab rats will take a little DNA here and a little there, garnering the needed ingredients to come up with the desired result. It will be your job to give a detailed description of what you want. Don’t leave anything out. Make it known you want your boxer (not fighter) to have power in both hands. He must be technically sound, demonstrating the ability to block, slip, parry, duck under and counter each and every shot thrown at him.
Undoubtedly, you will want your fighter to be tough and not to get flustered when defending or attacking. Give your fighter great instincts, so he can read opponents’ tells. Go ahead and let the biologist know your man should not expel energy unnecessarily. He should be graceful and move well, but only at the right time and at the right distance, not wasting any motion or get himself out of position.
Tell the scientists, your boxer must always be on balance, ready to strike at any instant and with power. After supplying these instructions, chances are you will end up with a boxer closely resembling Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia.
By Joseph Herron – After many months of eagerly anticipating his first world title opportunity, 25 year old Mikey Garcia (31-0, 26 KOs) captured the WBO Featherweight Championship by defeating the widely recognized number one ranked 126 pound fighter in the world, Orlando Salido (39-12-2, 27 KOs), by way of an eight round unanimous technical decision.
Unfortunately for those in attendance, the judges’ verdict was forced prematurely and the action was ceased after only eight stanzas had materialized because of an accidental headbutt that inadvertently broke the nose of Mikey Garcia.
During the closing seconds of the eighth round, Orlando Salido lunged in while attempting to land an overhand right, which was followed by a forehead shot that bludgeoned the snout of the young title challenger. Although the vicious butt was deemed unintentional, the fight was ultimately stopped after referee Benjee Esteves, Jr. followed the recommendation of the physician at ringside.
By Joseph Herron – Gennady Golovkin (25-0, 22 KOs) successfully retained his WBA Middleweight Championship with a technical stoppage over a lively but overmatched Gabriel Rosado (21-6, 13 KOs) at the 2:46 mark of round seven.
The decision to stop the contest was made by Rosado’s trainer and friend, Billy Briscoe, when it became abundantly clear that the courageous Philly native’s vision was being impaired by a horrid gash over his left eye. After bleeding profusely for the majority of the seven round contest, the 27 year old fighter stopped being competitive and shifted gears into survival mode throughout the final stanza of the halted bout.
While the stoppage was unanimously supported by those at ringside, it was also collectively understood that Golovkin’s second consecutive HBO appearance was much more competitive than most fight pundits and boxing scribes had anticipated.
By Peter Wells: After a great night of boxing on Friday night for all UK fans on Boxnation followed by one of the best Prizefighters to date, the whole world was treated to another great nights action to round off a superb weekend. Boxing 2013 has well and truly kicked off, after a triple-header full of explosive punchers.
To kick off the three world title fights was the fight of the night between pressure fighter Roman ‘Rocky’ Martinez and the powerful counter puncher Juan Carlos Burgos. It was to be another classic instalment to the Puerto Rico-Mexico rivalry.
The challenger for the WBO Super Featherweight title, Burgos, started the faster, but both fighters landed heavy blows in the first round. It was an exciting round where Burgos’ quick combinations won the round over Martinez’ single big right hands. The fight stayed relatively in the centre of the ring where Burgos had his most success but occasionally the champion would force his younger foe onto the ropes where he would later have huge success.
Four rounds gone and although the fight hadn’t quite caught fire, Burgos seemed to have taken all the rounds, which invoked a response from the champion in the fifth. Martinez started to force the pace more but Burgos had plenty of success too. Martinez banged his chest whenever Burgos landed a solid punch, calling for the challenger to engage in a brawl that would suit the champion down to the ground.