By Srithar Visuasam: Friday 21 November 2008 saw the Elite Cranes Cup held at the Malvern Town Hall, Victoria, Australia. With a capacity crowd in attendance there were two title bouts at stake in the six fight card with Shannon McMahon taking battle with Paz Veijo for the Victoria State Junior Middleweight Title and Luke Moloney up against Frank Ciampa for the Victoria State Super Middleweight Title..
In the main event, Shannon McMahon (15-3-1, 6 KOs) was too busy for the rugged Veijo (10-33-2, 1 KO) in a rough encounter over eight rounds, winning by unanimous decision. Veijo tried to slow down the pace of the fight, which included a fair amount of holding and wrestling that saw McMahon tumble to the canvas on a couple of occasions. McMahon was too skillful where it mattered, picking apart Viejo’s defense through quick combinations. The final round was all action which saw both fighters going for the knockout. The final scores on the judge’s scorecards read 78-74, 79-73 and 80-72 all in favour of McMahon, the new Victoria State Junior Middleweight champion.
Luke Moloney (12-3) barely managed to shake off the tough and gritty Frank Ciampa (7-12, 3 KOs) over eight rounds in a very close split decision victory to claim the Victoria State Super Middleweight title. Ciampa, used his superior advantage in size and strength to continually pressure Moloney, who was unable to freely let his hands go. Despite this, Moloney had the technical smarts to negate this pressure and work his way through Ciampa’s defenses. The bout could have gone either way and the final scorecards of 78-75, 78-75 for Moloney and 77-75 for Ciampa were reflective of this.
In the fight of the night, Lincoln Stewart (15-4-1, 12 KOs) and Filipino Rey Anton Olarte (5-8-1) shaped up in their six round junior welterweight showdown. Stewart out hustled Olarte over the first few rounds and seemed to have his measure. The fourth round saw things take a major turn with Olarte sending Stewart twice down to the canvas. The first was ruled a slip, but clearly affected Stewart where a few moments later took a right hook to the chin which had him down for the count. After surviving the round, Stewart was able to regain his composure but not a clear advantage as Olarte continually pursued in search of the knockout. The final round saw Stewart finish the bout the slightly stronger which proved decisive in securing a split decision victory, with the final scorecards reading 57-56, 57-56 for Stewart and 58-56 for Olarte.
In a welterweight bout, Leigh Purcell (9-3-1, 1 KO) proved too strong for Filipino Jerland Ceniza (6-11-1, 3 KOs) over six rounds, winning by unanimous decision. Purcell, with a patient approach was able to control the fight through accurate combinations with his jab a feature. The final scorecards read 60-53, 58-55, 59-54 all in favour of Purcell.
In a super welterweight encounter, Jimmy James (2-1-1) was too sharp for Malawi’s Jean Claude, 1-6-1) over four rounds, in a unanimous points win. James was cut above the right eye in the third round but managed too stave off the aggressive Jean Claude, with the final scorecards reading 39-36, 39-37, 39-37.
At junior welterweight, Robert Monitto’s (2-3, 1 KO) busy work rate proved effective in defeating debutant Martin Toma (0-1) via fourth round TKO. In the only stoppage for the night, both fighters pressed the action for the entire fight with Monitto’s straight punching and persistence ultimately proving the key.
The Elite Cranes Cup was hosted by Peter Maniatis Promotions. Highlights of the night will be shown on KO Boxing, Channel 31 this Tuesday 25 November across Victoria, Australia. The KO Boxing program is viewed by an audience of approximately 100,000 each week.