KO Fantasy Boxing: March 2018

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Team USA tops Team Ireland in Springfield, MA

Team USA beats Team Ireland Seven Bouts to Three at the Mass Mutual Center

By Alex Pierpaoli

Amateur boxing was center stage Thursday night at Springfield, MA's Mass Mutual Center in the second stop of a three city USA vs. Ireland Northeast Boxing Tour. Team USA won seven of the ten amateur bouts on the card which also featured live music from "Back In Black" a hard-rocking AC/DC tribute band from Massachusetts.

In the first stop of their 2018 tour, Team USA defeated Team Ireland 7 bouts to 3 on Monday night at the Club Royale Entertainment Center in Boston. Both teams collide for the third and final time on March 21st at the Manchester Downtown Hotel in Manchester, NH and tickets are available here.

On Thursday night only 4 of the ten decisions were unanimous despite the lopsided appearance of Team USA's win. Heavyweight Kiril Afanasev of Dublin, middleweight Brett McGinty of Derry and Paddy Donovan of Limerick all scored 3-0 decision wins for the Emerald Isle in their respective bouts.

The women started the fight card with lightweight Amelia Moore of Alexandria, VA defeating Kellie Harrington of Dublin by split(2-1) decision after three rounds. In bout two, Oshae Jones of Toledo, OH beat Grainne Walsh of Ofaly in a women's welterweight contest. Jones scored another 2-1 split decision for the host nation.

In the third bout of the night one hundred nineteen pound Marc Castro of Fresno, CA beat George Bates of Dublin in a speedy, back-and-forth, bantamweight shoot-out. Castro-Bates went on to win Outstanding Bout of the Night as well.

Next up light welterweight Charlie Sheehy of Brisdane, CA, notched a victory over Wayne Kelly of Laois. Team USA picked up another win after that when Tiger Johnson of Cleveland, OH picked up a split decision(2-1) over Caoimhin Ferguson of Antrim, also at 141lbs.

Then Back-In-Black took the stage and rocked the house with their worthy interpretation of the Aussie Hard Rock Legends including a rousing version of Thunderstruck.

When boxing resumed Team Ireland picked up their first victory of the night when welterweight(152lbs) Paddy Donovan of Limerick beat Quinton Randall of Katy, TX in the first unanimous decision of the night.

Next Team USA swung things back in their favor when Troy Isley of Alexandria, VA won a UD over rugged Gerard French of Antrim at middleweight(165lbs). Isley scored Outstanding Boxer of the Night with the effort as well.

In another middleweight bout, Brooklyn, NY's Nikita Ababiy lost a split decision to Brett McGinty of Derry as Ireland scored their second victory in eight fights.

Next up, Light Heavyweight Khalil Coe of Jersey City, NJ scored the most dominant victory of the night with a UD over Caoimhin Hynes of Antrim.

But it was Ireland who won in the final bout of the night when the big men clashed. Heavyweight(201lbs) Kiril Afranasov of Dublin controlled Adrian Tillman of Colorado Springs, CO, through three rounds and picked up a unanimous decision and the third win of the night for Team Ireland.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

USA vs. Ireland Amateur #Boxing @Twitter recap

Team USA defeats Team Ireland at Springfield, MA's Mass Mutual Center

Ringside Twitter Recap

By Alex Pierpaoli

Ringside report here

As is our tradition here, if we covered a fight live and tweeted details from ringside we like to post a recap later for any of you anti-social media types. Here is a chronological recounting of our live-tweets from ringside, made slightly more grammatical and a little bit less hashtaggie.

You can follow us on Twitter here

@FistThingsFirst is live and up in the sky at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, MA for amateur #Boxing USA vs. Ireland

we're in the middle of Bout number 1! Looks like Ireland may take this first bout. In round 3 now.

very good third round for Amelia Moore of Alexandria, VA. this writer thought the first two rounds belonged to Kellie Harrington but that's not how the scoring works here. They use punch counts so the big 3rd may have done it. #boxing

Amelia Moore picks up a split decision victory, 2 judges to 1, over Dublin's Kellie Harrington in this 1st women's 132llbs bout. 9 more fights scheduled tonight. #USAvsIRLBoxing #Boxing

up next women's 152lbs, Oshae Jones of Toledo, OH versus Grainne Walsh of Offaly, Ireland. And southpaw Jones scores a knockdown in 1st 30 seconds with a solid right hook.

Jones really landing easily and often in the second half of round one.

much closer second round. Walsh able to find instances to land her own shots while Jones was throwing. Clash of styles here, Jones a cool, countering southpaw and Walsh more of a front foot, pressing jabber.

Split decision victory goes to Oshae Jones of the US of A. Grainne Walsh battled back from a rough first and finished a helluva lot stronger than she finished.

Bout 3, Marc Castro of Fresno, CA represents the US versus George Bate of Ireland, 119lbs, Bantams. #Boxing

George Bates is the name of the Irish fighter. Round one belonged to Castro who is the first fighter to throw any punches to the body tonight. He's a long, lean, speedy Bantam.

Castro looks to be in charge through two. These are quick-handed fighters.

Bates finding Castro with the straight right hand in round three.

Split decision goes to the red corner, USA boxer Marc Castro picks up the victory.

Bout 4 underway here, Charlie Sheehy of Brisbane, CA of the US versus Wayne Kelly of Laois, Ireland, Light Welters, 141lbs #Boxing

Another split decision and another victory for team USA. Charlie Sheehy picks up the win.

Bout 5, Tiger Johnson of Cleveland, OH versus Caoimhin Ferguson of Antrim, Ireland. 141lbs, Light Welters #boxing

good first round for the Irish boxer. Ferguson is an aggressive southpaw who put a lot of pressure on Johnson in round 1

The US fighter just got a long break in the corner in order to fix a loose head guard.

Another split decision goes to the USA, Tiger Johnson of Cleveland, Ohio notches the victory. They aren't announcing any scores so I'm not sure how close these split decisions are. I thought that one should have gone to Ireland.

there's an intermission here right now featuring the musical stylings of "Back in Black" an AC/DC cover band