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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY — Boxing returned to downtown Newark once again, but this time not at the Prudential Center. Rather, Wednesday night’s fights were held in the cozy ballroom at the Robert Treat Hotel just down the street from The Rock.
Fans in attendance saw knockouts, a DQ, a fighter try to spit on his opponent, an entrance that had to be close to ten minutes, a fighter grab the microphone after his win and taunt the man he just defeated, among other things.
Wednesday night had a little bit of everything.
Ossie Duran vs. Latif Mundy — 10 rounds, middleweight
In the main event of the evening, Ossie Duran won a USBA regional middleweight title when he stopped a resilient Latif Mundy in the tenth and final round of their championship bout.
It was a fight that riled up the crowd, had them yelling, and ultimately brought them to their feet. To be quite honest, Duran fought a brilliant fight — a beautiful fight. Lundy, to his credit, fought a tough, rugged fight — a classic Philadelphia-style fight.
The Ghanaian Gladiator started off the fight whipping his jab in Mundy’s face — which was never too hard to find. It the same signature jab that marked up Matt Vanda’s face some months earlier in North Jersey. Duran opened strong, using his jab well, and finding success with his left hook.
The second round was really the only speed bump Duran hit on his road to victory. He came out flat, while Mundy scored clean shots to Duran’s head.
The fight was kept at distance and nobody was “in control” for the first half of the fight. But then the sixth round happened and Duran turned up the heat. He opened with three straight left hooks to the body of Mundy — the start of a conscious effort to attack Mundy’s body — to let the air out of his tires.
In the seventh, Duran continued to assert control, constantly walking forward and pressuring his counterpart. Throughout the mid-rounds, both fighter’s landed and ate their fare share of punches, but it was Duran’s punches having the most effect — especially his left hooks to the body.
By the eight round, Mundy was beginning to tire. After a break in action, Duran cornerman, Lenny DeJesus, got the attention of his fighter and shouts at him to throw an overhand right when action resumed.
Like a good student, Duran listened and the punch landed with a loud thud on Mundy’s head, drawing “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd.
Duran continued to follow the blueprint from his corner — throw combinations, he isn’t hard to hit; but never forgetting to let some more air out of the tires along the way.
Finally, in the tenth round, Duran’s persistent approach paid off. An right hand rocked Mundy who immediately retreated. He quickly ran out of real estate and found himself with his back on the ropes. Duran took it from there — he began wailing away on Mundy. Left hook to the liver here, right hand to the face there. It was punch after punch, a ferocious flurry.
Mundy never left his feet, but his head almost left his neck. It bounced back and forth with each blow, prompting the referee to step in and end the punishment.
The time of stoppage was 2:29 of the tenth round.
With the win Paterson’s via Ghana’s Duran captures a USBA regional middleweight title and improves his record to 26-8-2, 10 KOs. Philadelphia’s Mundy falls to 10-3, 4 KOs.
Derrick Webster vs. Kentrell Clayborn — 4 Rounds, light heavyweight
Derrick Webster has all the tools to be great a fighter. He has size, he has pop, he has high ring IQ. Kentrell Clayborn, through no fault of his own, has neither the size or the pop. The ring IQ doesn’t matter at that point.
Clayborn couldn’t get inside and land much of anything against Webster. Webster continually punished Clayborn with his snapping jab for four straight rounds. Couple that with a left hook he landed at will and you have a Derrick Webster who improves to 9-0, 6 KO after winning this one via shutout on all three judges scorecards.
Clayborn of Cleburn, Texas’ record falls to 2-2.
Andy Mejias vs. Yasin Rashid — 6 Rounds, super middleweight
Yasin Rashid is a pretty good fighter. Andy Mejias is fortunate.
Coming into this fight, he was 7-2 with 2 knockouts. He has pop in both fists — he should have more than two knockouts, but he lacks natural instincts.
Twice there was blood in the water, but he couldn’t smell it.
In the second round, Rashid rocked Mejias with a short crisp right. Mejias legs gave out, looked like Jell-O, acting like it too.
Mejias clinched immediately — he has those instincts Rashid is missing. Instead of coming forward, pressing the action, blasting away at the body before coming back up top to head, Rashid just let Mejias recover.
Replay this scene in the 4th and give every other round to Mejias — who besides two scary moments had an alright night — and you have a Yasin Rashid who is wondering how he is now 7-3.
Judges scored the bout in favor of Mejias — 58-56 and 59-55, twice. He is now 10-0, 4 KO.
Thomas “Cornflake” LaManna vs. Yahudy Vargas — 4 Rounds, middleweights
Thomas “Cornflake” LaManna out-dueled a very game Yehudy Vargas to improve his professional record to 3-0, 2 KOs.
Not even a week removed from his high school graduation, the tall, lanky LaManna showed why many in the boxing know have high hopes for him. It’s likely that whoever LaManna faces at middleweight will be shorter than him — and LaManna takes advantage of that.
Credit him for trying for a full twelve minutes, but Vargas couldn’t figure out how to get to LaManna. Each time Vargas bull-rushed, he paid some sort of price. When Vargas lunged in and threw a punch, he was countered.
After four rounds of action, all three judges scored the bout in favor of “Cornflake.” One judge had it 39-36, while the two others agreed LaManna won 40-36.
Vargas drops to 1-3 with the loss.
Jon Bolden vs. Tyabb Beale — 4 Rounds, heavyweights
Newark’s Tyabb Beale bested New York’s Jon Bolden in a battle of the big men. Beale came into the at a full-bodied 238 pounds, while Bolden weighed ten less, at 228.
Both are big, strong, athletic men. Both throw bombs and lack defense. Both are a bit reckless and wild. And both men have a hell of a chin. Add to the similarities the fact that both wore black shoes, black shorts, and blue gloves — they were almost one in the same.
Somehow, someway, someone had to stand out. And Beale was that man.
They exchanged and threw punches for four straight rounds, both finding success. It was Beale who got the better of Bolden, however, he landed the cleaner blows.
Judges scorecards read 39-37 Bolden and 38-37 and 39-36 for Beale.
Newark’s Beale improves to 3-4, while New York’s Jon Bolden falls to .500 — 2-2, 2 KO.
John Thompson vs. Valdez Eason — 4 Rounds, middleweight
In his professional debut, Newark, New Jersey’s John Thompson did away with Cincinnati, Ohio’s Eason Valdez in less than a minute. By the way, I swear Joe Antonacci announced him as John Thompson as John Thompson IV — not sure if he was joking or he really is the fourth. Either way, I’ll assume he isn’t related to the Georgetown royalty.
Thompson dropped Valdez once after a flurry of punches were registered. Referee Sparkle Lee decided to rule it a slip, somehow, and it wasn’t counted.
Turned out to be irrelevant anyway as another Thompson flurry only moments later. Valdez beat the ten count but slowly got to his feet hunched over and wincing. Sparkle Lee stopped the bout at the :59 mark in the first round.
Thompson starts his career 1-0, 1 KO. Eason stays winless, now at 0-4.
John Lennox vs. Kareem Wilson — 4 Rounds, heavyweight
File this one away in the absurd folder.
First off, Kareen Wilson — from Washington, DC — looked like he made a pit stop for a half-smoke at U Street’s Ben’s Chili Bowl before heading north. He was soft, out of shape.
He entered the ring to some funk song with some good soulful base. But then things got out of hand.
John Lennox, who was 3-0 before entering the ring tonight — which would take him ten minutes to do — brought with him a legion of fans. Some wore John Lennox t-shirts. All were pumped up, all made sure Lennox knew they were there.
After Wilson entered the ring, the lights went out. Michael Buffer’s voice blared over the speakers — “Ladies & Gentleman…Let’s Get Ready To Rumbleeeeee!” Then came a weird remix of songs before the entrance music finally fixed on just one — “Headstrong”, possibly? I can’t exactly recall, but it was a familiar song from one of those bands that sound like Korn.
Eventually, Lennox emerged, the lights came back on, the crowd roared, and the fight began.
About thirty seconds into the opening round, referee Sparkle Lee went to separate the two fighters. On the break, Wilson nailed Lennox. He was issued a warning.
No matter, who follows rules nowadays anyway, right? The very next break, Wilson decided to throw one more Lennox’s way. Lee deducted a point from Wilson — who looked scared int he ring — like a cat, he pawed, didn’t punch.
The next break — with Lennox’s back against the ropes, Wilson thought it best to throw five punches — Sparkle Lee thought it best to disqualify the pathetic Wilson right then and there. All in attendance agreed.
Wilson went from pathetic to despicable when he tried to spit on Lennox before exiting the ring. Fortunately, his spit fell at the feet of Lennox. Wilson was immediately ushered out of the ballroom and hopefully out of the ring forever.
Also fortunate was that it only took Lennox about half the time to exit the ring as it did for him to enter. With the DQ victory, to his fans delight, he improves to 4-0, 1 KO, while Wilson remains winless after seven tries — hopefully his record will stay that way forever.
Eddie Edmonds vs. Yasin Abdul — 4 Rounds, middleweight
In the second bout of the evening, Newark’s own Eddie Edmonds fought to a majority draw against Atlantic City’s Yasin Abdul.
Edmonds would have won the fight if it were not for his constant lunging in — and in doing so, putting his chin on a platter. He does it too much, he bends at the waist when he throws pretty much everything. It was a fight he should have won.
One judge scored every round for Edmonds, in fact, 40-36. Two other judges had it even, however, 38-38 and 39-39, resulting in a majority draw.
The crowd booed, but no qualms here. For what it’s worth, I had it 38-38.
Edmonds is now 2-1-2, 1 KO, while Abdul’s record morphs to 0-1-1.
Vadim Gurau vs. Fitzgerald Johnson — 4 Rounds, middleweight
Admittedly, I only caught rounds three and four in this one. I live 15 minutes outside Newark and have spent more time there in the past year than ever before. I should have known to read the fine print — 50 Park PLACE, not 50 Park Avenue.
Anyway, I showed up eight minutes late — in time to catch the last two rounds in full. The best entertainment came after the fight anyway, so I lucked out.
Once the result were read — Fitzgerald John scored a UD victory, 40-36 and 39-37, twice — John took the microphone from ring announcer Joe Antonacci and talked proceeded to talk shit — telling Gurau to “go back to New York.” Then John tried to force the microphone into Gurau’s hands, who wanted no part of it. Like BHop trying to hand Pascal his belt back after he won it in Montreal, I came down with a case of secondhand embarrassment — this time for the defeated Gurau.
It was a classless move by Johnson. I’ll remember him more from that than his twelve (well, six that I saw) minutes in the ring.
With the win, Asheboro North Carolina’s Johnson improves to 2-5, while Gurau drops to 1-1.
