Braithwaite Retains Title
Bill Calogero - TheDailySports.com
22.02 - Miami, Florida - Wayne Braithwaite stops Ravea Springs with a 4th round TKO to retain his WBC Cruiserweight Title last night at the Miccosukee Indian Gaming Resort, televised live as the Main Event of ESPN's Friday Night Fights.
In a battle of southpaws, a classic puncher vs boxer match, this one ended with the puncher coming out on top. Braithwaite landed a solid left hook that floored Springs during round four. He was up at the count of eight ready to continue. Braithwaite jumped all over him with a barrage of punches, eventually landing a hard left to the jaw, followed by a left to the temple, sending Springs to the canvas again. This time he was up at the count of nine but was not able to continue.
The official time was 2:41 of the fourth round. Braithwaite improves to 19-0, (16 KOs), with his last fourteen fights coming by way of knockout. Springs drops to 25-3 (19 KOs).
In my opinion, ESPN's Friday Night Fights has not produced many exciting under card bouts over the past two years. However, this was NOT the case last night. In what was the best fight of the night, Julio Garcia won a split-decision over Irving Garcia in their 10-round Jr. middleweight battle.
The fight produced non-stop action from the opening bell, to the announcement of the decision by the always beautiful, Amy Hayes. One judge scored the fight 96-93 in favor of Irving Garcia, while the other two had it 95-94 in favor of Julio Garcia, giving him the victory. TheDailySports.com scored the fight 95-94, also in favor of Julio Garcia.
Julio Garcia improves to 23-1-2 (9 KOs), while Irving Garcia suffers his first pro loss to drop to 9-1 (5 KOs). This is a fight that screams REMATCH.
In other action, Roman Martinez stops a grossly under-matched Adisone Sengaroun with a TKO in the third round of their scheduled four-round Lightweight bout to improve to 6-0 (4 KOs).
