Ordinarily a small crowd and two cancelled bouts would seem like the recipe for a bad night of fights; but factor in a full refund and a classic heavyweight war and I’ll guarantee not a single fan walked away from tonight’s card at the Arena at Harbor Yard complaining. The action started out in bizarre fashion as debuting junior welterweight Noel Garcia of Boston MA, was matched up against late replacement Jason Jordan of Akron, Ohio. The bout itself wasn’t strange, but the fact that the announcer proclaimed Jordan to be making his pro debut was certainly odd considering a cursory check of his record showed him to be a 34-fight veteran. Granted, not many of those 34 fights were wins but Jordan was a far cry from making his pro debut, which led me to wonder if Garcia’s team knew what they were getting their young fighter into. Despite the experience gap, Garcia held his own and managed to keep the fight close with straight right hands that caught the longer armed Jordan whenever he came inside. Not to be outdone, Jordan tried to maintain his range with the jab and tied up whenever Garcia tried to work inside. Neither fighter managed to cause any serious damage to the other and when the scorecards came in, they rightfully displayed how even the fight was: 39-37 for Jordan, 39-37 for Garcia with the third judge calling it even at 38-38. Garcia now 0-0-1 held his own against a vastly more experienced fighter while Jordan managed to prevent from adding another loss to his 6-25-4 4KOs record.
The evening’s second fight was a lightweight scrap between unbeaten Newburgh, NY native Luis DelValle and local Stamford, CT resident Francisco Palacios. DelValle immediately showed his class as he shot left hooks around the guard of Palacios and quickly sidestepped out of danger. Palacios had no real answer to this tactic for the first 2 and a half rounds and despite his best efforts to charge in and land a right hand, he wasn’t able to score until late into round 3. For the next two rounds the fight was close as DelValle slowed and left himself in punching range for the onrushing Palacios who managed to get off flurries when he got in close. Perhaps sensing that the fight was slipping away, DelValle upped the pace in round 5 and caught Palacios with a number of right hands, left hook combos that drew a good reaction from the crowd. Round 6 saw more crisp left hooks from DelValle and while Palacios was able to score with lead right hands, DelValle clearly took the round and the fight. Scores were 59-55 (twice) and 58-56 in favor of DelValle who upped his record to 3-0 2 KOs. Palacios slipped to 4-6-4 1KO.
By far the best fight of the night and personally one of the best heavyweight bouts I’ve every witnessed live, was the scheduled 8 rounder between Tony “TNT” Grano and Mark “Oaktree” Brown. Grano is known around CT for his go for broke early style and as a result, has registered 11 of his 12 stoppage wins within two rounds. Brown is perhaps best known for his brash personality outside the ring as much as his free-swinging style inside it. Together, they made for a truly classic edge of your seat firefight that reminded me and everyone else in attendance how much fun it can be to see two big fighters slug it out in the squared circle. Almost immediately after the fight began, Brown began taunting Grano and loading up on right hands, which he swung wildly in an attempt to catch him cold. After missing just such a punch, Brown fell into a clinch and blatantly head butted Grano, which caused referee Arthur Mercante Jr. to issue a stern warning to Brown. Rather than listen to Mercante chastise him for illegal tactics, Brown decided instead to start tossing insults at Grano, who responded by belting him with a left hook at the bell that nearly dropped Brown to the canvas. As the bell sounded to start round 2, Brown wandered out on shaky legs only to be dropped by a huge left hook that lifted him off of the ground and set him on the seat of his pants. By this point, I considered the fight all but over and as Grano dropped him a second time along the ropes, I waited for Mercante to step in and stop it. By some miracle, Brown managed to tie Grano up and survive the round. Were I a betting man, I would have laid my house on Grano dispatching Brown at some point during round 3 but in an almost surreal turn of events, Brown came out and rocked Grano with full power right hands that sent him reeling. After being battered around the ring, Grano collected himself and bashed Brown with 4 clean headshots just as the bell was sounding. Brown was still standing but completely limp and Mercante had to literally tackle Grano to the canvas to keep him from knocking out Brown after the bell. Over the next 3 rounds, Grano threw everything he had at “Oaktree” but could not managed to put him down. Brown was out on his feet for most of rounds 4-7 and was docked a point in the particularly brutal 6th as he clinched excessively to keep from succumbing to the numerous headshots Grano landed. By the time round 8 rolled around, both fighters were dead tired and lumbering around the ring. Seemingly out of nowhere, Brown tapped into the last reserve of strength he had and clocked Grano with two full power right hands. Grano took a knee and rose at the count of 7 visibly exhausted. A follow up barrage from Brown caused Grano to drop to the canvas as Mercante waved the fight off at 1:10 sec of the eighth round. Brown, no less exhausted, collapsed smiling in the center of the ring as he savored his hard fought victory. The time of the stoppage was 1:10 seconds of round 8. Brown improves to 14-1 7KOs while Grano drops to 14-1-1 12KOs.
Coming on the heels of such a great heavyweight bout, headliner Tarvis Simms of Norwalk, CT had a tough act to follow as he took on Paris, Arkansas’ Delray Raines. Luckily for those in attendance, Simms did not disappoint as he showcased every facet of his game in a dominant decision win. After an initial feeling out process, Simms began to dig hard shots to the body, which would become a trend over the course of the fight. From the beginning, Raines had no answer to the movement and angles of Simms. Almost every punch Raines threw was deftly ducked and countered by Simms, ultimately making Raines appear statuesque as the rounds wore on. The deeper the fight went, the more Simms opened up and the less Raines seemed to be able to do. The best he could manage were quick arm punches that Simms ducked, slipped and avoided before following up with impressive combos. The crowd roared every time Simms opened up and with good reason, as each combo was crisp and nearly flawless in its execution. If anything can be said for the negative of Simms in this bout, it was that he was a bit too hesitant to open up against his overmatched opponent; choosing instead to fire only when he knew he would land. Arguably the only round Raines was able to win was the seventh; and that was simply because Simms coasted and threw fewer punches than in previous rounds. Despite the number of hard shots landed against him, Raines never appeared to be in trouble with the exception of the ninth round when two left uppercuts seemed to stun him momentarily. As the final bell sounded, the only thing missing from Simms’ performance was the stoppage, which, in my opinion, could have been had if Simms had opened up a bit more. Regardless he pitched a shutout on all three judges scorecards, winning by scores of 100-90 three times. Raines dropped to 13-4 9KOs while Simms improved to 23-0-1 11KOs. It would be interesting to see Simms in a fight with a ranked middleweight, as his slick style would cause problems for all but the best fighting today. Provided he ups his work rate a bit, he could become a legitimate threat in the middleweight division sometime in the near future.