The opening quarterfinal bouts of the Boxcino junior middleweight eight man bracket got underway on Friday night from the Mohegan Sun Resort in Uncasville, Connecticut on ESPN Friday Night Fights. A 2014 middleweight Boxcino finalist made a statement to the field and a last minute replacement busted a few brackets.
In the main event, 2014 Boxcino middleweight tourney runner up, Brandon Adams 16-1 (11 KO) knocked out Alex Perez 18-2 (10 KO) with a beautifully timed right hand at 2:47 of the fifth round.
The heavily muscled Adams looked every bit “The Cannon” from the opening bell. Adams was slick and quick landing left hooks and right crosses with bad intentions. Adams would trap Perez on the ropes and swing away. Perez would counter occasionally but Adams wore Perez down round after round with strong power and pressure.
There were a few moments in the fight where Perez would keep Adams at the end of his his jab and control portions of the rounds but Adam’s relentlessness was too much.
After the fight, Adams spoke on how he felt at 154, “I felt great man, every round that went by I was feeling like it was almost the first, to be honest”
His next opponent due to the bracket seeding will be Vito Gasparyan whom Adams knows well, “He got me started when I first turned professional, I was on my way turning pro and he was one of the veteran professionals who helped me get going and taught me a lot”
I’m looking forward to fighting him to show him how much I have advanced and to see how much he advanced as well”
Gasparyan 15-3-5 (8 KO) defeated Simeon Hardy 13-1 (10 KO) by unanimous decision with scores of 60-54, 59-55 58-56.
Hardy began the fight using his size and jab, doubling up his left hook, and making Gasparyan’s three year layoff seem obvious; however, Hardy did not sustain this effort.
About half way into the second round, Gasparyan became more active and began landing left hooks to the head and working the body. Over the next few rounds, Hardy had some moments but Gasparyan was simply more aggressive, accurate, and began walking Hardy down capturing the second half of the fight on his way to victory.
Ricardo Pinell 10-2-1 (6KO) thought he would be fighting fellow southpaw Cleotis Pendarvis 17-4-2 (6 KO), a smaller fighter with whom he had sparred with in the past but Pendarvis failed to make weight opening the door for replacement John Thompson (15-1 5 KO).
Thompson defeated Pinell by unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the fight the same, 60-54.
Although the “Apollo Kid” had not fought for thirteen months, he was the quicker fighter. Thompson utilized a snapping left jab with combination punching and applied constant pressure while landing the more effective punches.
Thompson was landing left hooks, straight rights, sneaky uppercuts, and committed to the body. Pinell failed to cut off the ring and he looked like the fighter who had a year layoff rather than the one who had fought four times in 2014.
For a guy who wasn’t in the tournament a few days ago, Thompson looks like a serious contender for the Boxcino crown.
In the opening bout, Stanyslav Skorohod 9-0 (7 KO) stopped Michael Moore 13-1 (6 KO) by technical knockout at 1:03 of the fourth.
After a good opening feel out round that saw both fighters landing and exhibiting good quickness and snapping jabs, Skorohod landed a left hook early in round two that set the tone for the entire round and the fight.
30 seconds into round three, Skorohod dropped Moore with a quick chopping right hand. Moore was up quickly and for the remainder of the round, Skorohod landed several additional right hands but Moore showed toughness and threw back even catching Skorohod with some nice shots of his own albeit, not enough to slow the Ukrainian.
A few left hooks by Skorohod dazed Moore to start the fourth and about forty seconds in, Skorohod landed another big right dropping Moore. Moore was up and allowed to continue as referee Mike Ortega looked on. Skorohod landed a big straight right that visibly rocked Moore as he looked out of it causing Ortega to jump in and stop the fight. No problem here with the stoppage, Moore needed to be protected from himself. He was game but overmatched.
The “Nuclear Ghost” showed a quick jab, nice left hook, strategically timed right hands, and although he could have went to the body a bit more, did some good work there as well.
So the junior middle semifinals are set, Adams v. Gasparyan and Thompson v. Skorohod.
Get ready for the Boxcino heavies. Quarter finals begin next Friday the 20th.
Standing-8 