Stevens, Adamek & Chambers "Three-To-See" at Mohegan Sun

Photo By Rich Esposito

 Curtis Stevens crunches Saul Roman in 1; 

Adamek delivers, & Eddie Chambers is upset on the Main Events: Three-To-See Card at Mohegan Sun

By Alex Pierpaoli

Photos by Rich Esposito

Originally published on 8/4/13 at www.BillyCBoxing.com

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, middleweight Curtis “Showtime” Stevens flattened Saul Roman in just two and a half brutal minutes in the main event of a seven bout card promoted by Main Events at the Mohegan Sun Arena, in Uncasville, CT. “Crunch!” was the way Stevens described the highlight footage of his own win with Chris Mannix of NBC Sports Network, which aired the Stevens-Roman blow-out and two supporting bouts, live. And although it was Stevens’ win that electrified the arena, much of it had already emptied out after Poland’s Tomasz Adamek, living and training out of Jersey City, defeated Dominick Guinn over ten rounds. Completing the trio referenced in the Main Events promotion was Fast Eddie Chambers who got the live broadcast started on NBC Sports Network in an unsuccessful drop from heavy to the cruiserweight division.

Just as Gennady Golovkin ignited the Connecticut woods earlier this summer with a single left-hook knockout, Curtis Stevens delivered his own version of similar destruction in stopping Saul Roman at 2:26 of round number one. Both fighters circled and pawed at each other for perhaps 40 seconds before Stevens connected with the first left-hook to the head which got Roman’s attention and sent him backwards. Smelling blood in the water, Stevens surged forward behind a hard straight right that put Roman’s back against the ropes. Swarming him with both hands, a slashing right hooker-cut lifted Roman’s chin violently towards the ceiling and a left hook then seemed to fold him at the knee. But Roman’s courage held him up temporarily until a hard left hook put Roman down for the first time. Referee Mike Ortega let him continue and rather than retreat or hold, Saul Roman chose to try and slug his way out of trouble. But with the power of Stevens already taking effect, Roman could only go down fighting. Seconds later, as Roman went to the body with his own right, Stevens threw a left-hook over it that caught Roman on the chin, and spun his head violently. Roman went down flat on his back, his head bouncing grotesquely off the canvas and Ref Ortega halted the bout without a count.

Photo By Rich Esposito

Just as devastating as the Triple G left-hook to the body of Matthew Macklin back in June, Curtis Stevens’ left-hook to the chin is another harbinger of doom for all middleweights to see. Perhaps that’s why it was the owner of that bomb-blast of a left-hook who brought up Golovkin in his post-fight interview but then went mum on whether or not the fight is in the works for November. One thing is certain, if a fight between Golovkin and Stevens does get made, both middleweights will be bringing nuclear-tipped left-hooks into the battle.

With the highlight-reel victory, Stevens improved to 25-3 (18) while Saul Roman fell to 37-10 (31).

Heavyweight Tomasz Adamek, of Gilowice, Poland, defeated Dominick “The Southern Disaster” Guinn, of Hot Springs, AK, by a workman-like unanimous decision. Guinn showed some life in round seven, the only round all three judges were unanimous in scoring for him, but otherwise Adamek practiced combinations and shook off the cobwebs of an 8-month layoff. An accidental head-butt in round three caused a cut on the face of Guinn but that was only part of his troubles as Adamek used him as a training apparatus he pelted at will for more than thirty minutes.

At the end of ten, the scorecards were 98-92, and 99-91 twice, all in favor of Tomasz Adamek who improved to 49-2 (29), while Dominick Guinn fell to 34-10-1 (23).

Afterwards Adamek told Chris Mannix and the multitude of Polish fans in attendance that he hoped to make one more rush at the heavyweight title held by Vitali Klistchko.

In an extraordinarily dull bout, Durban, South African cruiserweight Thabiso Mchunu upset Philadelphia, PA’s Eddie Chambers by ten round unanimous decision. Although Chambers, 196 lbs, was always small for

Photo By Rich Esposito

a heavyweight, last night he was fighting at his lightest ever and in the division just south of boxing’s unlimited class. How much those factors and a lay-off of 14 months contributed to the loss is disputable, but what is not is that Chambers was faced with a defensive, countering, elusive fighter, like himself, who soundly defeated him. Mchunu blunted, stymied and interrupted Chambers’ offense with single shot-counters and long, reaching southpaw jabs and one-twos all night. The pot-shoting offense was way low on output, much to the chagrin of everyone who hoped to see punches exchanged, but it was extraordinarily effective in scoring points.

After ten, the scorecards were 97-93, and 99-91 twice, all in favor of Thabiso Mchunu who returned to Durban at 13-1 (9) while fast Eddie fell to 36-4 (18). Mchunu may not have done himself any favors or won himself any fans with the way he scored a victory, but it’s very likely, when faced with a more come-forward, aggressive opponent, he might be very entertaining to watch. He boxes very well behind a severe angle, has excellent reflexes and solid pop in either hand and seems exceptionally, well-conditioned.

In one of several off-television bouts, heavyweight Vyacheslav Glazkov, of Lugansk, Ukraine, stopped Byron Polley of St. Joseph, MO, in two rounds. Glazkov thumped away at the courageous but doomed Polley, dropping him twice towards the end of the first, and again for the third and final time at the start of round two.

The official time of the stoppage was :30 of round two and Glazkov improved to 15-0-1 (11) while Polley dropped to 25-15-1 (11)

Welterweight, Tony Harrison of Detroit, MI, remained unbeaten in stopping Gilbert Alex Sanchez of Camden, NJ, at 2:10 of round number two.  It was a left-hook to the body that crumpled Sanchez and dropped him for the second and final time.

Tony Harrison improved to 13-0 (11), while Sanchez fell to 2-3 (2).

New Haven, CT, welterweight Jimmy Williams and Atlantic City, NJ’s Greg Jackson both remained without a loss after they boxed a frustrating, four round draw. Jackson, a counter-puncher, kept Williams hesitating on the outside by cracking him with speedy lead left hooks. Williams found success when he let his hands go, especially with long right hand leads in round three, but neither man made a decisive claim to the bout.

After twelve minutes, the official scorecards were 39-37 for Williams, overruled by two scores of 38-38 for a majority draw.

Jimmy Williams is now 4-0-1 (2) while Greg Jackson leaves CT at 3-0-1 (1).

And in by the far the most competitive and exciting fight of the night, lightweight Mike Brooks of Long Island, NY, defeated Joseph “Chip” Perez, of East Hartford, CT, by six round unanimous decision. Both Perez and Brooks were to have faced separate opponents on the Three-To-See card but when those other bouts fell apart Main Events pitted the two against each other. The results were well worth it.

Brooks outboxed Perez from long range, especially in the second half of the fight, but this observer felt the official tally was a bit too lopsided in Brooks’ favor, save for one judge who saw him win narrowly by a score of 57-56. The other two officials tabbed Brooks the winner by scores of 59-54 and 60-53. Rematch, anyone?

In victory Brooks improved to 10-0-1 (2) and Chip Perez dropped to 10-3 (3). 

Photo By Rich Esposito

Some of the boxing luminaries in attendance at ringside were former cruiserweight king Steve USS Cunningham, heavyweight Tony Grano, and former lightweight great Ray "Boom-Boom" Mancini.