Over in New York City, another fighter with a massive following took the ring. His name is Miguel Cotto, and his Puerto Rican fans were out in full force to support their hero. Over in the opposite corner, Michael Jennings came in all the way from the United Kingdom to dash Cotto’s comeback hopes.
The bout began with Jennings attempting to work his jab and establish movement. Cotto was calm and collected, hoping to find the ring moment to show Jennings what the big leagues are all about. He focused mostly on the body, which would slow Jennings’ movement. By the second round, Cotto still hadn’t loosened up, and Jennings seemed to be more comfortable with throwing punches without fearing what would come in return. Finally, by the end of the round, Cotto had Jennings at the ropes and threw hard punches to the body and ended his flurry upstairs.
In the third, Jennings landed a solid right hand, but it did not seem to phase Cotto at all. It seemed evident that Jennings’ power was not going to be a bother for Cotto. Finally, Cotto began to get agressive, and landed a right hand of his own, and a strong flurry to the body that seemed to hurt Jennings.
The fourth round saw some solid action. Jennings landed a right hand which seemed to anger Cotto. Cotto decided to respond by crashing his left hand onto Jennings’ jaw and ripping shots to the body, which sent Jennings into his own corner. He then continued with powerful combinations, and Jennings went down to a knee. After beating the count, he was still on shaky legs, and Cotto came back to the body, forcing Jennings down for the second time. The crowd was wild to see their hero back at the top of his game. After beating the count, Jennings survived as best he could until the round ended and saved him from further punishment.
The sixth saw jennings throwing punches not so much to hurt Cotto, but to keep him away. Those punches did nothing to stop Cotto’s continuous attack, and after working him into a neutral corner, a right hand sent Jennings down once again. Referee Benjie Esteves called a halt to the bout with 24 seconds left in the round.
The punch stats showed that Cotto landed an amazin 50% of his punches.
John Duddy survived a few late but anxious moments to hold on to win a ten round unanimous decision over Matt Vanda ina middleweight fight.
Duddy boxed well and kept Vanda at bay by using the jab and good body work to build up a nice lead over the first nine rounds. In round ten, Vanda rocked Duddy with a plethora of punches but Duddy showed a great chin to hold on to the 99-91, 99-91 and 97-93 victory.
Duddy, 162 lbs of New York via Ireland now will look for a world title shot with a record of 26-0. Vanda, 162 lbs of St. Paul, Minnesota is now 39-9
Good looking Middleweight prospect Matt Korobov remained undefeated and kept his knockout streak by scoring a sensation one-punch knockout over Cory Jones in the final scheduled of their four round bout.
Korobov won the first three rounds until he landed a thudding right to the top of Jones head that sent Jones down for the ten count.
With the win, Korobov, 160 lbs of Lantana, Fla via Russia is 4-0 with all wins coming early. Jones, 157 1/2 lbs of Brookyln is now 4-5
In a very one sided matchup, Pawel Wolak took on Noberto Bravo for a bout scheduled for eight rounds. Nobody expected the fight to last the distance, and for some time, it seemed like the fight wouldn’t even pass the first round. Wolad got right in Bravo’s chest and began ripping shots to the body while pushing him back into the ropes. Bravo had little in response, and even less once Wolak’s punches came up and began finding their way to his chin. After a difficule time at the end of the round, Bravo had made it through to the second. There still wasn’t much of a difference between the second and first rounds though, and Wolak continued to work Bravo into the ropes and land thudding punches. Finally, while Bravo was backed into a corner, Wolak landed a right hand that hurt Bravo badly. After a series of hard blows, the referee was forced to stop the bout giving Wolak a third round stoppage victory at the 1:33 mark.
In an interesting matchup featuring New York’s very popular Maureen Shea took on the very formidable Kin Malpartida of Peru. Malpartida was much taller than Shea, and she hoped to use that to her advantage. Unfortunately for her, Shea wanted to go home early and started the fight off with a strong left hook that sent Malpartida down. It seemed more like a balance issue rather than a chin issue, and Malpartida did not seem phased.
After the difficult first round, Malpartida found her rhythm and began making some distance between her and her shorter opponent. That worked perfectly, and despite taking some hard punches from time to time, she maintained control of the pace of the fight. The next nine rounds was much of the same, with Shea landing a few hard shots, but Malpartida landing more frequently. Finally, in the tenth and final round, Malpartida decided to turn it up a bit to solidify her victory. A right hand sent a tired and swollen Shea face first to the canvas. She beat the count, but was on very wobbily legs, and referee, Eddie Cotton, was forced to call it off. Malpartida won by TKO at 1:35 of the tenth round.
Jorge Diaz remained undefeated with an entertatining unanimous decision over Lante Addy in a Super Bantamweight fight. Diaz was consistant throughout until the sixth round when the two went toe to toe for the last two minutes of the fight that thrilled the corwd.
Diaz, 122 lbs of New Brunswick, NJ won by scores of 59-55, 59-55 and 58-56 to raise his record to 8-0. Addy, 122 lbs of Ghana ia now 6-4
Angel Rodriguez and Hector Marango fought to a four round draw in a Lightweight bout.
Marango landed the harder shots but Rodriguez was active.
Marango took a card 40-36 while the two other cards read 38-38.
Rodriguez, 131 1/2 lbs of Houston, Texas is 3-2-1. Marango, 132 1/2 lbs of Arcebio, PR is now 5-0-2.
In the first bout of the evening, Lenroy Thomas scored a four round unanimous decision over Terrell Nelson in a Heavyweight bout.
Thomas, 247 lbs of St. Petersberg, FL won by scores of 40-36, 40-35 and 39-37 to raise his record to 11-1. Nelson, 260 1/2 lbs of Plainfield, NJ is now 8-8
Arben Paloka contributed to this report