In Quarter number 1, 25 year old Ukrainian Skorokhod (9-0, 7 kos) dominated southpaw Michael Moore (13-1, 6 kos) from Cleveland, Ohio, scoring a four round TKO.
Right hands did the trick. Moore was dropped 29 seconds into the third but survived as Skorkhod went for one big punch. It came in the fourth, a right hand around Moore’s high guard, with referee Mike Ortega stopping it at 1.03.
Unbeaten middleweight Tom Doran 14-0 (4KO’s) collected the 34th Prizefighter trophy tonight and more importantly a £34,000 cash injection that at this stage of his career is massive.
The 27-year-old started superbly dropping Craig Cunningham with a powerful straight right hand in his first round of his quarter final, to progress to the semi finals.
Doran proceeded to dispose of pre-tournament favourite with a controlled performance behind a strong jab that saw him win out 29-28 on all judges’ scorecards to set up a meeting with previous Prizefighter finalist Cello Renda.
Disaster struck for Blackpool’s Brian Rose tonight when Carson Jones, 37-10-3 (27KO’s) dramatically stopped him inside the first round.
Rose, 26-3-1 (8KO’s) was stepping in the ring for only the second time since his unsuccessful WBC World light middleweight title tilt against Demetrius Andrade, when he was stopped in 7. The first of which was an encouraging first round stoppage over Ignacio Lucero Fraga in Leeds in October.
Reigning British, Commonwealth and European flyweight champion Kevin Satchell has his eyes firmly fixed on World title glory in 2015.
Satchell 13-0 (2KO’s) returns to action on the undercard of Frank Warren’s ‘Mersey Boys’, which includes Paul Butler’s chance to become a two weight World champion when he faces current IBF super flyweight champion Zolani Tete.
It’s a sad statement of fact that in boxing a controversial public persona – or an image – can propel a fighter to levels and fights where they don’t belong.
Some fighters are carefully piloted to the top of the mountain aboard a Sikorsky helicopter and others are given a pickaxe and a battered old rope at the bottom – enter Ovill McKenzie.
Kevin Barry is currently coaching Las Vegas based (by way of New Zealand) heavyweight prospect Joseph Parker. However Joseph Parker isn’t the only talented heavyweight Barry is training, he also has 28 year old Polish heavyweight Izuagbe Ugonoh (10-0-0) on his training books, and he thinks Ugonoh like Parker has the potential to be a world class heavyweight.
Ugonoh has been refining his skills sparring the likes of Bermane Stiverne, and later this year he will accompany Parker and Barry to spar with heavyweight King pin Vladimir Klitschko as Klitschko’s prepares for his April bout with challenger Bryant Jennings. Kevin Barry talks about how he came across Ugonoh and his development as a fighter.
LOS ANGELES (Feb 13.) – Chinese heavyweight sensation Taishan and rising stars Manuel “Suavecito” Roman and Nick Arce hosted a Los Angeles media workout at Westside Boxing Gym before their respective bouts at that will take place on Feb. 27 at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino and live on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Deportes.
Taishan(2-0, 2 KOs) will fight against Roy McCary(3-2, 3 KOs) in the opening four-round televised bout and Manuel Roman (17-3-3, 6 KOs) will be facing the exciting rising star Diego De La Hoya(8-0, 6 KOs) in the co-main super bantamweight eight-round event. Nick Arce (1-0, 1 KOs) will fight in his second professional match against Lyonell Kelly (1-4-1) of Los Angeles, Calif. in a four-round lightweight swing bout hoping to make air time.
Here are what the fighters had to say about their preparation and their hopes for fight night on Friday, Feb. 27.
7 foot heavyweight Taishan Dong (2-0-0 2KO) from China has received quite a bit of coverage in the media not usually enjoyed by fighters with just one or two professional fights. He has said in the past that he has only been fighting for a few years and to pick up boxing in your early twenties is not usually followed by a successful career, but in this case the physical tools are so rare that he could defiantly make it. In recent years we have seen Valuev take up boxing a little later than most and go on to become a title holder at heavyweight, and this could become a similar story.
Several of the biggest names in the business have no scheduled fights in place. Over the past few weeks there has been tons of talk and chatter about potential matchups and especially between the never-ending lists of May-Pac ‘news.’
When you consider that Mayweather, Pacquiao, Froch, Khan, Bradley, Cotto, Ward, Marquez, Stevenson and Maidana are all without an opponent lined up, you have to believe that some awesome fights are going to be announced in the coming weeks. It is almost guaranteed that some fights will be made within this list, mainly in and around the welterweight region where there is a lot of talent.