On Saturday night unbeaten Scottish boxer Craig McEwan battled to a hard fought eight round stoppage of Canadian light-middle weight champion Kris Andrews. In front of a massive crowd at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas McEwan dominated every round, continually out-manoeuvring Andrews as the tall, Edmonton southpaw struggled with the Scot’s subtle switch-hitting strategy.
Freddy Roach, who trains McEwan in the Wild Card gym in Hollywood, was delighted with his Scottish charge. “This is the best performance I have seen from Craig. We have had him sparring hard with top class boxers like Edison Miranda and Vanes Martirosyan and Craig has been more than holding his own. The hard work has certainly paid off!.”
McEwan was also happy with his night’s work. “Kris was certainly a tough opponent and has definitely improved in the last couple of years. He was constantly changing his tactics which forced me to adapt mine. He’ll be disappointed at the last round stoppage but he was out on his feet and referee Joe Cortez made the right decision.”
The Edinburgh boxer continued, “my manager has been trying to get me fights at a higher level, but my promoters Golden Boy are telling him that the most likely big name opponents are refusing to fight me. I will just have to be patient, keep training hard, and beat whoever they put in front of me.”
McEwan moves to eighteen victories unbeaten, ten inside the distance.
Derek “Pooh” Ennis and Jose Gonzalez thrill fans at Spring Fling at The Legendary Blue Horizon
PHILADELPHIA (April 4, 2010)—Boxing historians can now add this past Friday’s bout between USBA Jr. Middleweight champion, Derek “Pooh” Ennis and Jose Gonzalez to list of classic biuts that have taken place at The Legendary Blue Horizon as they engaged in a ten round war that was won by Ennis via majority decision.
The show was promoted by Vernoca L. Michael and Blue Horizon Boxing LLC
Ennis and Gonzalez waged a classic toe to toe war which had the near capacity crowd on the edge of their seats throughout the ten round classic.
Ennis showed amazing hand speed as he ripped up six and seven punch combination’s that rocked Gonzalez all over the ring. Gonzalez stunned Ennis in round two for which Ennis seemed like he was in big trouble as Gonzalez continuously landed hard shots to the head but Ennis showed a great chin and came back more furious then before.
It seemed that every time Ennis would have Gonzalez in serious trouble and ready to go, the visitor from Garden City, Kansas would come back as not only did he show a granite chin but heart that was unparalleled as he would come but to be more than competitive in the ebb and flow contest. Ennis himself showed heart and determination because not only beat a relentless opponent but over the final few rounds he fought with a nasty cut on his right eyebrow,
Ennis won by scores of 98-92; 98-92and 95-95 to raise his record to 21-2-1. He will now look to defend his USBA crown in June or July.
The co-feature saw Derek’s brother, Farah dominated and then scored a emphatic second round knockout over Frankie Santos in their scheduled eight round Jr. Middleweight bout.
Ennis dropped Santos at the end of the round and Santos was not able to continue at the 3:10 of the second frame.
Ennis remained undefeated at 13-0 while recording his seventh stoppage.
Heavyweight Bryant Jennings landed a perfect uppercut that laid out Jon Bolden for several minutes as Jennings scored a highlight reel third round knockout in a scheduled four round bout of undefeated heavyweights.
Other winners on the card were Clemente Bethea, Jose Ortiz and Duane King.
FULL RESULTS
10 ROUNDS JR. MIDDLEWEIGHTS—Derek “Pooh” Ennis (21-2-1), 157 ½ lbs of Philadelphia MD over Jose Gonzalez (13-7-1), 155 lbs of Garden City, Kansas…Scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 95-95
8 ROUNDS SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHTS—Farah Ennis (13-0, 7 KO’s) 169 lbs of Philadelphia KO 2 (3:10) over Frankie Santos (17-9-4) 173 lbs of Salinas, PR
4 ROUNDS HEAVYWEIGHTS— Bryant Jennings (2-0, 1 KO) 221 lbs of Philadelphia KO 3 (3:06 over Jon Bolden (1-1) 237 ½ lbs of New York, NY
4 ROUNDS JR WELTERWEIGHTS— Clemente Bethea (2-0) 139 ½ lbs of Camden, NJ U DEC over Jason Sia (0-2) 139 lbs of Philadelphia….scores were 38-36 on all cards
4 ROUNDS FEATHERWEIGHTS—Jose Ortiz (3-2) 129 lbs of Jersey City, NJ U DEC over Luis Esquilin (1-3-1) 126 lbs of Philadelphia…Scores were 40-36; 40-36 and 39-37
4 ROUNDS MIDDLEWEIGHTS—Duane King (1-1) 154 lbs of Reidsville, NC MAJDEC over Kamel Al-Olabi (0-3) 159 lbs of Saudi Arabia… Scores were 39-37; 39-37 and 38-38