Daniel Sackey Headlines Fights at the Fitz

Tunica, MS – Ghanaian native Daniel Sackey (13-1-1 with 6 KO’s) squared off against Ross Thompson (27-14 with 17 KO’s) of Buffalo, NY in a six round cruiserweight main event. Thompson looked like James Toney not only in his face and physique but also with his defensive chicanery. He neglected to bring the offensive artillery though. Sackey applied steady pressure throughout, and kept up a solid work rate. He was unable to do much damage due to Thompson’s good head movement, and employment of a slick shoulder roll defense, but he nevertheless played the role of the aggressor throughout. The veteran Thompson, who has been in with top names like Fernando Vargas, Jeff Lacy, and Kelly Pavlik, proved to be little more than a frustrating night of target practice for Sackey. Thompson was unable to mount a consistent attack of his own despite displaying sneaky hand speed in spots. At the end of six Daniel Sackey had his hand raised for a unanimous decision.

A pairing of formerly unbeaten Junior Middleweight’s, Dante Moore 7-0 (4 KO’s) and Nathan Kempa 1-1 (1 KO), turned into a debate on the merits of skill versus will. Moore quickly showed that he had more options in his arsenal by landing counters over top of Kempa’s jab and unleashing a more accurate stinging jab of his own. He was firmly in control by the end of the first round and beginning to land shots that were hurting Kempa with regularity. Before the bell sounded for the second to begin referee Bill Clancy turned to Kempa and asked him to “show me something” meaning he would have an eye on stopping the bout if it continued to travel on it’s one-sided path. In the second Moore dropped Kempa with a thudding left hook. Kempa beat the count and referee Clancy called the ringside physician up to the apron to take a look at a cut over his eye that was ruled to have come from an accidental head butt unrelated to the knockdown. Kempa was allowed to continue and survived the round. He also managed to keep throwing punches despite being on the wrong end of most of the action. Kempa’s dogged determination finally began to bear some results in the fourth round as Moore began to run out of gas. Moore got on his bicycle and high-tailed it around the ring as Kempa gave chase trying to pull off a desperate rally. He was unable to score the comeback win but he did make a very respectable showing in a fight where he didn’t look like he was going to go the distance. The final scores read 39-36, 38-37, and 39-36 all in favor of Moore.

Jake Thomas 1-0-1 entered the ring for a four round super middleweight match-up with Billy Cunningham 3-4 (3 KO’s) sporting a bald dome that made him look like a young Kelly Pavlik. The rangy lefty drew attention to his height advantage, before the action began, by stepping over the top rope to enter the ring. Once the fracas commenced Thomas was able to control distance with a jab so long it may as well have come from a different time zone. When Cunningham did manage to bridge the distance he frequently found his lead foot entangled with the front foot of the Southpaw leaving him unsteady and unable to get punches off. For most of the fight Thomas was content to keep Cunningham at a distance and look for counter punching opportunities. He did, however, pick a couple spots to slide over into a conventional right-handed stance and become the aggressor. While in the orthodox stance he moved forward and launched straight right hands down the middle with bad intentions. During one of these spurts, in the fourth round, he managed to get Cunningham in trouble. He may have notched a knockdown if not for Cunningham’s desperate attempt at holding that turned into a tackle sending both men crashing to the mat. When the final bell sounded all three judges saw it the same scoring the bout four rounds to zero (40-36) for Thomas.

Mike Wilson 2-0 (1KO) and Larry Slayton 1-1 clashed in a four round heavyweight bout. Referee Randy Phillips earned his paycheck breaking up numerous clinches by the big men. After some early warnings to both for holding and hitting Wilson began to distinguish himself. World-class trainer Ronnie Shields screamed instructions from the corner asking Wilson to double up on his jab. He followed instructions. Slayton kept working to get inside but Wilson kept the jab pumping. By the final round he was turning Slayton in circles, while keeping the left in his face, as he cruised to a unanimous shutout decision (40 – 36 on all three score cards).

Winston Mathis 5-0 (2 KO’s) trudged to a unanimous decision over John Temple 6-11 (1 KO) in their four round junior welterweight spat. He spent most of the fight bodying Temple up against the ropes and being very judicious about letting his hands go. Temple was game but didn’t have the firepower to keep Mathis from leaning on him. At the end of four Mathis slapped Temple on the back three times in acknowledgment of his tough determination but Mathis had captured the decision.

Prize Fight Promotions next event will be at the New Daisy Theater on Beale Street in Memphis, TN Tuesday October 6. They will return to Fitzgerald’s Casino in Tunica November 21 for their next installment of “Fights at the Fitz.”