Shamrock’d: Results from Lincoln, Rhode Island

March 21st, 2010

St. Patrick’s Day arrived two days late for boxing fans with the presentation of “Shamrock’d.” The show proved to be CES’ version of a fistic tribute to the Irish in the surrounding communities of Lincoln, Rhode Island.

The main event featured Danny O’Connor (11-0, 3KO) of Framingham, Massachusetts against Franklin Gonzalez (13-4, 9KO) of Brooklyn, New York in a junior welterweight contest.

From the outset of the fight, O’Connor proved himself to be firmly in control of the action, outboxing Gonzalez and using intelligence to determine his punch output. Practically all of the rounds mimicked the action from the round preceding it. O’Connor remained patient and measured through the entire performance. Gonzalez was throwing some good shots, but O’Connor’s effective defense ensured that most of Gonzalez’ aggressions were caught on the gloves.

Rounds 4 and 5 saw O’Connor throwing a couple of well formed combinations. In the 5th, Gonzales was momentarily stunned by one of these combinations, but with O’Connor lacking the firepower to complement his boxing skills, he was able to shake it off immediately.

Gonzalez did have some success in the bout with his left hook. On several occasions, it was able to make its way around O’Connor’s guard and land to the body.

In the end, O’Connor was awarded a unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the fight 80-72.

Honors for most exciting bout of the evening came in a welterweight match between John Revish (10-1-1, 8KO) of Gold Meadow, Louisiana and Jason Pires (22-3-1, 9KO) of New Bedford, Massachusetts. The fight began very much in the favor of Revish, who had a better punch output than Pires.

Round 2 looked convincingly like it would bring the fight’s conclusion, but as the three minutes wore down, it became a question of who would be the one to decisively bring about the end. Pires was caught with a left hand and went down. He answered the count and instantly changed fortunes when he backed Revish into the corner, almost knocking him down. Revish found his way out and punctuated his recovery with another shot that sent Pires to the canvas again.

By round 4, Pires was cleaning up his punches and they were beginning to land with more accuracy. He was succeeding in lessening some of Revish’s activity.

In the 6th and final round, Revish almost went down again, but he was able to make it to the bell. One judge scored the bout 56-55 for Revish, while the other two judges scored it 56-56. The fight was declared a majority draw.

Perennial crowd favorite, Mickey Ward was in the corner to assist his nephew, Sean Eklund (7-4, 1KO) of Lowell, Massachusetts in a junior welterweight bout against Pawtucket, Rhode Island’s Eddie Soto (12-1, 4KO).

Round 1 served only to demonstrate each fighter’s jab. In the 2nd round, Eklund was stunned by a right hand from Soto. In the 3rd, the fighters traded punches. Soto connected with a good body shot. Eklund came forward and answered with one of his own.

Eklund spent several seconds of round 4 backed into the ropes, but he was still punching spiritedly. In round 5, Eklund was bestowed an avuncular trademark of Ward, knocking Soto down with a left hook to the body.

Eklund capped off round 6 with more activity, leaving the judges to record scores of 59-55 and 58-55, all in favor of Eklund.

The bout between super middleweights Joe McCreedy (11-4-2, 6KO) of Lowell, Massachusetts and Dhafir Smith (22-19-7, 4KO) of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania was up for grabs by either fighter for its six round duration. One judge saw the fight 59-56 in favor of McCreedy; another judge saw it 59-55 for Smith; the other saw it 57-57, resulting in a decision draw.

The night’s only heavyweight bout took place between Barnstable, Massachusetts’ Jessie Barboza (3-0, 3KO) and Long Island, New York’s Richard Mason (0-1) in his professional debut.

Barboza spent round 1 tempering the aggressive flailing of Mason. He didn’t punch much in the round, but was considerably more accurate than Mason when he did. By the 2nd round, closure was in order. Barboza began catching Mason with left-right combinations. One opened Mason’s nose.

Mason tried to maintain his tempo in the fight, eventually punching himself out. He was attempting to raid his emptied arsenal for an elusive uppercut when Barboza took the situation out of his hands. Mason couldn’t answer the count, and the fight was called at 1:45 of the 2nd round.

One female bout in the junior welterweight division made a distinct impression on the evening’s card. The fight between Warwick, Rhode Island’s Jaime Clampitt (21-4-1, 7KO) and New York, New York’s Jill Emery (9-3-3KO) was competitive from the opening bell. Clampitt is always a game fighter, throwing a good amount of punches. Emery’s style of leading with a pawing jab is oddly reminiscent of Wladimir Klitschko. One judge saw the fight even with a score of 57-57. The other two judges saw the fight 59-55, giving Clampitt a majority decision victory.

The opening bout of the evening was scheduled for four rounds between super middleweights Keith Kozlin (5-0, 3KO) of Warwick, Rhode Island and Roberto Burgess (4-3, 2KO) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Kozlin clearly began the fight with the determination to knock his opponent out. His punches rained down in torrents from the opening bell. He took no time in pinning Burgess to the ropes. He was knocked down by a right hand but was able to get up. Shortly thereafter, he was caught by one of Kozlin’s combinations. He was unable to answer the count. The fight was called at the 1:59 mark of the first round.