On June 27th at The Roxy in Boston, fans filed excitedly into a transfigured night club. Replete with purple walls, mood lighting, and crystal chandeliers, it looked like fight night was being hosted in Liberace’s living room.
In the main event, a nightmare scenario reared its ugly head, quite literally, in the form of an accidental head butt suffered by Junior Featherweight Castulo Gonzalez during the second round of the main event. Gonzalez (9-8, 3 KO’s) seemed clearly outmatched against his opponent, Mike Oliver (21-2, 7 KO’s), at least on paper. Backing that statement up with a first person account, however, is difficult when considering the length of the bout. Oliver did appear to have slightly more impact with his shots, though neither fighter succeeded in connecting at an impressive rate. The judgment of punch impact led this observer to give the first round to Oliver. The bout was declared a No Decision and it was announced that they plan to commence with their unfinished business at a later date.
In a six round Junior Welterweight contest between Danny O’Connor (7-0, 2 KO’s) and Sebastian Hamel (10-19, 1 KO), the Irish pride contingent of Boston showed their support loudly, as would be expected, to their native son. From the first round, O’Connor’s work rate far exceeded Hamel’s, who seemed more focused on defense than on his own punch output. More of the same occurred through the following rounds. Many of O’Connor’s punches landed on Hamel’s gloves, but he continued to pour on the shots, with Hamel barely countering. Hamel’s overly cautious handling of the fight caused him to lose a unanimous decision with scores of 60-54. Hamel will have to learn to be more offensively minded, or else he’ll be setting himself up to endure the frustrating constancy of points losses.
In a four round Junior Middleweight bout between Antonio Chavez Fernandez (0-2) and Derek Silveira (2-0, 1 KO), unseasoned aggression proved to be the deciding factor in the tempo of the fight. Both fighters are new to the professional landscape. Silveira began in round one slightly off foot and excessively eager. His slight lack of control led this observer to award the first round to Fernandez. That would be the last of that, though. In round two, Silveira gained greater composure, and with his Malignaggi hairdo, he pumped his jab into Fernandez, intimidating him. By round four, Fernandez was haphazardly throwing hooks, to no effect. A unanimous decision of 60-54 was handed out in favor of Silveira.
A Super Middleweight contest between Andrey Nevsky (7-0, 4 KO’s) and Roberto Burgess (4-2, 2 KO’s) engendered the interest of the crowd, not only for the showing in the ring, but also for the strident chanting of each fighter’s respective mother country emanating from two factions. One man circled the perimeter of the ring, bellowing at the top of his lungs, “USA, USA!” It was a direct affront to the small cluster of friends who supported the Russian in the front row, as they brandished their country’s flag. Arguably the best bout of the night, Nevsky performed well, demonstrating good, clean shots and skilled transitioning in his attacks from the head to the body. He was in constant motion, capable of predicting the counter attacks of his opponent, enabling him to slip most of those punches. Hardly at a standstill himself, Burgess would occasionally land, enough to award him round three on my card. It also remains to be seen whether Nevsky can retain such fluid movement when he is engaged in deep water rounds. The fight concluded in round five, with Nevsky delivering a knockout blow to Burgess.
The professional debut of Heavyweight Lewis Cotuna (0-1) didn’t go so well for him. The fight was a practical nonentity, with comparably experienced opponent Rashad Minor (2-1, 2 KO’s), drilling a starching right that sent Cotuna reeling to the canvas in the first round. He remained down for a few moments, causing a bit of concern, but was fortunately able to regain his senses and leave the ring.
Don’t stop ‘till you get enough: two Heavyweight bouts in one night; what a treat. Phil “The Killer” Miller (5-0, 2 KO’s) entered the ring in gregarious fashion, paying tribute to the recently lost King of Pop. He danced, he gyrated, he threw bits of his sweaty attire into the crowd. He also won his four rounder against Steve Jaeger (0-2). Jaeger’s motivation throughout the fight was to try to clinch with Miller whenever he could, and then administer a series of shots to the body. Miller was often backed up by the shots, looking somewhat bothered, but not hurt, by them. Conversely, Jaeger seemed more than willing to walk through Miller’s power punches. In round three, Jaeger was able to back up Miller numerous times, so that round was given to him on this observer’s card. It was the only round that could be rightly awarded to Jaeger, as Miller’s rate of connectivity was higher throughout the fight. The official scores were 39-37 on two cards (as well as mine), with one judge seeing it as a draw. Miller danced away with a majority decision.
Super Middleweight contender Elvin Ayala (20-3, 8 KO’s) took on Eddie Caminero
(5-2, 5 KO’s) in a match that lasted three rounds. The fight began with Ayala revealing his experience over Caminero, who charged to the center of the ring, tossing his hands wildly. Calm and controlled, Ayala intelligently acquitted himself of Caminero’s attack, using patience to temper Caminero’s blind urgency. Caminero attempted to hold his hands up, but Ayala’s punches were penetrating his guard. In round two, Caminero was warned for punching the back of Ayala’s head. Caminero seemed to be lunging out of desperation; he was likely influenced by his high KO rate, mistakenly relying on his feral instincts to overwhelm his opponent. He should have realized that the man in the ring with him survived into the twelfth round with Arthur Abraham, and that it would take a more sophisticated technique to make the fight truly competitive. In the third round, Caminero went down twice; the second time was the one that counted. Ayala gained a KO victory over Caminero. At the conclusion of the fight, Ayala told reporters that he wanted to take on John Duddy next, followed by Kelly Pavlik, then continuing on to a rematch with Abraham.
The fight that began the evening unfortunately initiated the trend of cut stoppages that befell two of the fights, including the main event. Junior Lightweight Gerardo Alarcon (0-5) took on Frankie Trader (5-0, 2 KO’s) in a bout that lasted into the fourth round. Alarcon appeared game, coming forward and throwing punches, though he rarely managed to connect them. Trader was much faster. A cut was opened up over Alarcon’s left eye in the second round. He fought through three, but by the fourth, the official decided that the cut was too severe for the fight to continue. Trader was awarded a technical victory.
These fights, along with others, are available at NESportsTV.com
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