By
Alex Pierpaoli
Last night junior middleweight Freddy
Hernandez gave Delvin Rodriguez all he could handle in a 10 round contest that
ended after 8 due to a severe gash over
the left eye of Freddy Hernandez.
Hernandez was coming off a 10 round decision loss in January, and losing
efforts in four of his last five since being stopped
in 1 round in November of twenty-ten by Andre Berto. Hernandez’ efforts however,
were only temporarily validated as
he saw an abbreviated Majority
Decision loss turn into a Technical Knockout defeat after the State Athletic
Commission reviewed video of the
bout and determined the cut to
Hernandez was in fact caused by a
punch from Rodriguez and not a clash of heads as originally ruled. Despite being out of the ordinary and adding to
a somewhat frustrating evening of professional prizefighting that saw four of
six bouts end early due to cuts, the amendment did herald a change that should
benefit the sport in the future.
With the vacant IBF North American title up for grabs, Delvin
Rodriguez, 154 lbs of Danbury, CT,
was cut in the very early going after a collision of heads with Freddy Hernandez, 154lbs, of Mexico City. Both fighters dug in early and
were exchanging with force after a brief feeling-out round in which both got a
look at the other’s defense. Hernandez was going to the guts of Rodriguez early
and his hard body-punching was the difference in making what looked to be a sure-thing victory for Delvin Rodriguez
into an interesting and grueling contest. Rodriguez drove a speedy jab followed
by the hard straight-right into the face of Hernandez repeatedly in the fourth round in one of several momentum
shifts in the night’s Main Event. But Hernandez seemed
to re-exert himself in the following frame with several hard blasts to the
ribcage of Rodriguez that wilted the
Danbury fighter
a bit.
By round seven both combatants were bleeding form cuts along their brows and another head
clash at the start of the eighth seemed
to really stun Rodriguez who was allowed
a moment to clear the cobwebs by the referee. The bout continued but only for another minute or so when another
bad cut, appeared to be caused by a clash of heads, opened
up on the face of Hernandez. The referee had the ringside doctor look at it and
the fight was stopped. The fight was
in the middle of round 8 at the time of the stoppage so that round was scored, the totals calculated
and then the official decision was announced;
Rodriguez was tabbed the victor by 2
of the judges while a third had the fight even. For about 5 minutes or so the
result was a majority decision win for D-Rod.
However, after reviewing the ESPN replay, CT Commissioner
Mike Mazzuli overruled the decision
and called the bout a TKO as a
replay showed the gash which caused a halt to the bout was opened
by a punch and not an accidental head-butt. Despite it being the correct call,
unfortunately for the assembled, and
especially for Freddy Hernandez, the
bout ended just as things were getting
interesting and a real gut-check for Delvin Rodriguez looked to be coming in the 9th and tenth.
With the TKO win Delvin Rodriguez improved to 27-6-3 (15) while Freddy
Hernandez left CT with head held high at 30-4 (20).
In another cut-shortened
bout, heavyweights Excell Holmes, 232 lbs of Buffalo,
NY and Constantin Bejenaru, 217lbs, of Catskill NY,
had to settle for a no contest after one and a half hard-swinging, sloppy,
exciting, almost thrilling, rounds of big-men-brawling. The Mohegan Sun Arena
crowd was loving the two-fisted
assault Bejenaru launched at Holmes
in round two which scored a
knockdown and had Holmes in a retreat. But as Bejenaru was trying to finish him
with power-punches, the fighter’s heads collided
and Bejenaru’s face was split along the brow and the ringside physicians
determined the gash was too severe
to let go. As two rounds had yet to be completed
the fight was determined a No
Contest and both fighter’s records are unaffected
by what took place, which certainly seemed
to benefit Holmes greatly.
Excell Holmes remained
at 2-1-1 (1) and Constantin Bejenaru remained
at 3-0 (2).
In the first televised
bout of the night, Chris Howard, 140lbs, of Crossville, TN, beat Issouf Kinda,
139.5lbs, of NY, NY, by split decision after their scheduled ten rounder ended
after only six due to a severe gash over the eye of Howard. In a competitive,
back and forth contest it looked to
this observer that it was Kinda using a heavy overhand right and several
ripping uppercuts to score the heavier more damaging blows. However when the
fight was stopped due to the cut and
the scorecards were read, the officials had it 58-56 & 59-55 in favor of
Howard versus one score of 58-56 for Kinda.
In victory, Howard improved
to 15-2-1 (7) while Kinda dropped to
16-1 (6).
Also, Michael Moore, 155lbs, of Cleveland,
OH, defeated
Doel Carrasquillo, 154lbs, of Lancaster,
PA, by a six round unanimous
decision. Moore
dominated the bout despite a gritty
effort from the rugged veteran.
There were a few moments of trash-talking and rough-stuff as Carrasquillo
switched back and forth from
southpaw to orthodox, clutched and
grabbed, and tried his best to derail Moore’s momentum. It was not to be.
After six the ringside officials tabbed
Moore the victor by scores of 60-54 twice and 59-55.
Moore
improved to 12-0 (6) while
Carrasquillo fell to 17-24-1 (14).
New Haven, CT’s
Jimmy Williams, 148lbs, defeated
Marqus Jackson, 148 ¼ lbs, of Atlanta,
GA, by TKO after 3 rounds of
fighting. Jackson
fought an excellent round one, using the oft-imitated
but never-duplicated Floyd Money
Mayweather shoulder-roll style of counterpunching. But Williams poured on the pressure in round two and squelched any Mayweather-aspirations Jackson had that night.
In victory Williams improved
to 3-0 (2) while Jackson
dropped to 2-10 (2).
And making his professional debut, Saul Almeida, 162 lbs, of
Framingham, MA, dropped a 4 round
decision to Michael Mitchell, 158 ½ lbs, of Paterson, NY. Mitchell was the
heavier handed fighter throughout,
while Almeida’s punches were plentiful and accurate but carried little mustard on them. The judges were unanimous
is scoring it 40-36 in favor of Michael Mitchell who improved to 1-1-1 while Almeida became a pro at 0-1.
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