MAIN EVENT — Joel “El Rey” Castillo sent a wave of electricity through the Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn, New York Saturday night when he delivered a violent one punch knockout to Billy Cunningham just eighteen seconds into the fight!
The punch, a vicious left hook on the button, sent Cunningham crashing stiffly the canvas where he would remain until ringside physicians propped him up onto a stool for a medical examination.
Cunningham came out of the corner, circled Castillo, and walked right into a perfectly placed left hook. He immediately crumbled. His legs stiffened upon hitting the mat, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, Undertaker-style.
The crowd, who had been awaiting a knockdown of note got more than they bargained for in the main event. Not only was it a knockdown of note, it was a KNOCKOUT of note.
With one murderous left hook less than twenty seconds into the fight, the Bronx’s Castillo improved his record to 8-0, 5 KOs, while Cunningham, a native of Jackson, Mississippi’s, fell to 5-10, 4 KOs.
Mark Davis vs. Ramesis Gil — 6 Rounds, lightweight
In the night’s co-main event, Cincinnati, Ohio’s Mark Davis scored a TKO victory over the Dominican Republic’s Ramesis Gil when Gil was unable to answer the bell for round six.
It was clear from the onset that Davis’ superior hand-speed and overall athleticism was going to be a lot for Gil to handle, and it was. To make matters worse for the Dominican, his defense was average at best.
The speedy Davis first hurt his counterpart in the second round when he landed a textbook one-two to the face of Gil. He continued to find Gil with ease for the next two, including a huge right hand to the chin that wobbled Gil in round four. While Davis was unable to shut the door at that particular moment, he only needed one more round the finish the job.
In the fifth round, Davis started to attack Gil’s body. After an exhausted Gil recovered from a grazing low blow, Davis turned up the heat and began wailing away at Gil’s midsection. As he back him into the ropes, Davis delivered a bruising left hook to the liver of Gil, who immediately absorbed a flurry of more body shots courtesy of Davis before falling to the canvas.
When Gil returned to his corner after the round concluded, his corner stepped in and advised the referee to call a halt to the bout at the end of round five.
Davis improved his record to 15-0, 5 KOs with the win, while Gil loses his second fight and sees his record morph to read 6-2-4, 5 KOs.
Leon Moore vs. Felipe Almanza — 6 Rounds, bantamweight
Lean “Hurry Up” Moore cruised past Felipe Almanza
When watching this fight, I was trying to think of new nicknames for Moore. I only came up with two, and they are both sub-par, but here you go. Leon “Hurry Up And Get This Fight Over With” Moore? Leon “Hurry Up And” Snore?
Point is, Leon Moore is an extremely talented fighter, and his record shows it — 28-2, 23 KOs.
With that said, his style is not exactly crowd-pleasing.
The Guyanese-born Brooklynite works methodically behind his crisp jab, taking little risks to land punches that would offer large rewards. But in all fairness to Moore, he didn’t have to take unnecessary risks in this fight, and he didn’t.
The bout saw some fiery exchanges, but they were few and far between. Although the bout was pretty much out of Almanza’s reach by the fourth round, he was deducted a point by the referee for hitting after the break. That, if nothing else, sealed his fate.
In the end, Moore took home the unanimous decision victory. All three judges scored the bout 59-54 in his favor.
Ramadan Yasser vs. Mario Flores — 4 Rounds, heavyweight
In the night’s lone heavyweight bout of the evening, the Egyptian-born New Yorker, Ramadan Yasser scored a majority decision victory over Washington, D.C.’s Mario Flores.
Yasser, a flamboyant boxer, clubs more than he punches. His ‘punches’ are awkward and extremely wide, but he throws them from all angles, which created problems for the Chris Arreola (but fifty pounds lighter) look-a-like, Flores.
Throughout the fight, Yasser taunted Flores, doing all kinds of showboating over the course of twelve minutes. While it didn’t seem to phase Flores, I know if it was me, I would have been pissed. Flores, took it in stride, and continued to try walk down his opponent, who seemingly was treated this fight as some sort of comedy act.
Flores’ only round won on my scorecard was the second round, where he made a commitment to attack Yasser’s body. He got away from that however, and didn’t see much success elsewhere.
In the end, judge Julie Lederman scored the bout even 38-38, while the other two judges agreed that Yasser won the bout by a score of 39-37.
With the win, Yasser stays perfect as a professional, improving his record to 4-0, 3 KOs, while Flores drops his first professional fight, and falls to 1-1, 1 KO.
Frank Galarza vs. Noel Garcia — 4 Rounds, junior middleweight
Hometown favorite Frank Galarza easily outpointed the lesser talented Noel Garcia in a four round junior middleweight bout.
Garcia looked hesitant from the opening bell, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to be in the ring that night. Conversely, Galarza looks like a boxer and he acts like one too.
Galarza controlled the pace and domination the action from bell to bell, stalking Garcia around the ring. The only knock on Galarza this bout is that when he had Garcia hurt, he showed no desire to follow-up quickly and try to stop his opponent. Instead, he chose to slowly stalk his prey, which worked as well, resulting in another ‘W’ in the young prospect’s win column.
With the win, Galarza runs his record to 3-0, 1 KO, while Springfield, Massachusetts’ Garcia falls to 2-8-1, 1 KO.
Tommy Rainone vs. Arthur Medina — 6 Rounds, welterweight
Arthur Medina’s trunks read “All Heart.” His tattoo that arched across his back said the same. After the fight ended, I didn’t doubt those words. Too bad he has “All Heart” and not much else, however.
His opponent, Tommy Rainone’s trunks, read “Razor” across the waist. And that too turned out to be an appropriate nickname as he continually sliced through Medina’s shoddy defense with a razor-like left hand.
I was convinced by the third round that if Rainone’s trunks said “Hammer” across the belt-line instead of “Razor”, his “Hammer” would have trumped Medina’s “All Heart” and this fight would have been over by the second round.
Rainone dominated this fight bell to bell, literally. No more than seconds into the fight Medina was sporting a cut on the cheekbone under his right eye. While the cut never became a factor in the fight, it certainly was an indicator of the now would go for Medina.
The Colorado native, Medina, was too easy to find for Brooklyn’s own Rainone. Time after time, Rainone shot his left hand through Medina’s hand-made uprights.
While Rainone never lost control of the bout, it was a dirty and chippy fight that saw the referee constantly getting in-between the southpaw, Rainone, and the orthodox, Medina.
In the third round, Rainone through a half straight left/half push that resulted in Medina falling to the canvas. Referee Sparkle Lee, incorrectly in my view, ruled it a knockdown.
Later in the fight, in the fifth round, however, Rainone scored a legitimate knockdown when a one-two sent Medina to the mat.
When it was all said and done, all three judges awarded Rainone the victory. Scores were 59-53 and 60-52, twice..
With the win, Rainone improves 14-4, 4 KOs, while Medina drops to 14-23, 5 KOs.
Jonathan Arias vs. Angel Cruz — 6 Rounds, super flyweight
While there was no doubt that Joel Castillo’s knockout of Billy Cunningham was the knockout of the night, there was also no doubt that Jonathan Arias versus Angel Cruz was the fight of the night.
The bout opened up with fireworks and the they were constant throughout, until the finale, which commenced at the sound of the bell to end round six. Arias, the crowd favorite and Dominican Republic native now resided in New York City exchanged blows with the Puerto Rican, Miami resident, Cruz from the opening ‘ding.’
In the second round, Cruz stumbled Castillo with a huge one-two which backed Castillo against the ropes. Cruz continued to attack, but Castillo weathered the storm and fired off a few crushing blows of his own.
The best action of the best fight came in round five when Arias hurt Cruz with an uppercut, forcing him to backpedal until he reached the ropes. Arias continued to wail away at Cruz, who was covering up and not firing back. After absorbing a few more blows, it was Cruz’s turn to fire back, and in doing so the crowd was on their feet, half the arena cheering for while Arias, while the Puerto Rican fans in attendance adopted Cruz to root for.
Although Arias gave it everything he had, Cruz was the more technical, less wild, and quicker boxer, with heavier hands. Ultimately, that carried him to victory.
Scores were 59-55 and 58-56, all in favor of Cruz.
At the end of the fight, HBO’s unofficial offical, Howard Lederman, who was sitting in the first row exclaimed, “Man that’s as good as it gets! Incredible!”
With the win, Cruz improves to 5-1, 4 KOs, while Arias drops to 11-7, 9 KOs.
DonYil Livingston vs. Greg Hackett — 6 Rounds, middleweight
In the evening’s first contest, Los Angeles, California’s DonYil Livingston scored a narrow unanimous decision victory the hard-nosed Greg Hackett of Philadelphia.
The underdog, Hackett, gave Livingston all he could handle in this fight and all three judges agreed he had one half the rounds. However, his downfall came in the sixth and final round when he delivered his third low blow to Livingston and was deducted a point.
That point proved vital as all three judges scored the bout in favor of Livingston, 57-56.
With the win, Livingston improves his record to 3-0, 2 KOs, while Hackett drops to 2-7.
