Mitchell Bombs Out Telesco in Two!

Promoting a fight is much like a movie trailer in the sense that something enticing has to be put together to create an interest. Star Boxing did exactly that from the minute they announced the headliner of Wednesday evening’s card.

The main event at the elegant Hilton Rye Town in Rye Brook, NY featured two time world champion Byron Mitchell and former title contender David Telesco squaring off in an eight round Light Heavyweight contest.

Mitchell, twice the WBA Super Middleweight kingpin, burst onto the scene in 1999 with an 11th round stoppage of skilful southpaw Frankie Lyles. Mitchell – like many – was later victimized in Germany, losing a decision to the infamous Sven Ottke. From there, things went down hill.

While he became the first man to drop the great Joe Calzaghe, Mitchell got stopped in the second round before stepping away from boxing for four years. His current comeback, which begun in 2007, wasn’t working out too well. Mitchell was stopped in four rounds by both Richard Hall and Beibut Shumenov, leading many to believe he was going to hang it up for good after losing to the latter.

The hard-hitting Telesco had only one fight under his belt since retiring four years ago and most notably lost a one sided decision to Roy Jones Jr. in January 2000. Both men needed a victory to say the least, as a defeat would all but force the loser to retire. Even with the crowd backing him, things didn’t turn out so well for the 41 year old Telesco.

Mitchell, of Ozark, AL, kept his career alive with a devastating second round stoppage. Telesco was the first to attack, hitting Mitchell with a few shots in the opening stanza before each man took a step back and tried to work from a distance. With just seconds remaining, Mitchell dropped Telesco hard with a sharp right hook but the Port Chester, NY native survived. He wasn’t as lucky in the second.

Telesco, 30-7-1 (25 KO’s) was stunned early in the round and forced to hang on. Mitchell continued to stalk Telesco before unloading a monstrous right hook, which sent him to the canvas face first. Incredibly Telesco got up but was in no shape to continue. Time of stoppage was 2:01.

“I never trained as hard as I do now, not even during my days as a world champion”, Mitchell, now 28-5-1 wit 22 stoppages, said after the fight. “It was do or die for me and if I lost, this may have been it for me.”

Where Mitchell goes from here remains to be seen. Whisperings among ringsiders point to a bout with another local Light Heavyweight promoted by Star Boxing: Elvir Muriqi.

Contender Season 4 participant Jon “The Fighting Marine” Schneider dropped a controversial six round decision to John Douglas in a Cruiserweight bout. In a battle of New Yorkers, Brooklyn’s Douglas spent the majority of the fight swinging wildly ala Vic Darchinyan whole the shorter Yonkers based Schneider was fairly effective with quick punches to the head.

Schneider, the clear crowd favorite, landed the majority of the clean punches during the fight and most of Douglas’ punches did not connect. The score of 58-56 Schneider was overruled by 58-56 and a ridiculous 60-54 for Douglas. 15rounds scored the bout 59-55 Schneider.

“I was initially shocked to hear the split decision”, said a dejected Schneider. “When I heard the 60-54 scorecard I thought I won but dropping a decision like this puts me down and makes me not want to fight anymore.”

For the record, this is the second time this writer saw Schneider robbed of a victory in his hometown. A February 2008 draw with Tyrone Smith left me scratching my head to why he didn’t get the decision as well. I guess for every hundred hometown decisions there will be one where the local favorite gets short ended by the judges.

Douglas controversially improves to 7-13-3 (3 KO’s) Schneider falls to 7-4-1 (5 KO’s) with the defeat.

Israel based Super Bantamweight Elion Kedem, 9-1-4 (6 KO’s) scored an entertaining six round unanimous decision over San Antonio’s Julio Valdez 3-7-1. Kedem controlled the contest with a high work rate but was unable to drop the game Valdez. Scores were 60-54 and 59-55 twice.

Todd “Viking” Eriksson, of Stanhope, NJ, 0-0-1, battled to a four round Draw following his Light Heavyweight bout with Stamford, CT’s Ahmad Mickens, 1-1. Eriksson had the busier hands and rocked Mickens in the first round but Mickens rallied late and forced the draw. Scores were 39-37 Mickens and 38-38 twice.

In the opening bout of the evening, former New York Yankee farmhand Richard Brown shut out Andrew Hutchinson. Brown controlled the bout from start to finish, landing a number of clean punches from the outside. Hutchinson was stunned on a few occasions but the durable Hempstead, NY native stayed on his feet throughout the contest. Scores were 40-36 across the board for Brown, who is based out of Ft. Lauderdale, FL but grew up in Ridgewood, NJ

A fight between Heavyweights Ian Millarve and Terrell “Baby Bull” Nelson was scrapped at the last minute. Millarve reportedly failed a medical, which somehow was not discovered until after the weigh in.

Notable members of the half capacity crowd included Kevin “Kingpin” Johnson (who battles Vitali Klitschko December 12 in Switzerland for the WBC Heavyweight title), Tarvis Simms, Elvir Muriqi, Darrel Madison and Maureen “The Real Million Dollar Baby” Shea.