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MAULING MAIN EVENT |
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Ryan Belasco and Jesus Barbosa mauled each other for the full six rounds of their welterweight main event at the South Philly Arena Friday night (03/13/09). It was quite an intimate encounter for the two fighters - one from Delaware and one from Philly - with just about every moment of the bout fought at extremely close quarters. Belasco tried to use his height and rangier frame to his advantage. He showed his left jab and some outside punching, but his North Philly foe forced the infighting and did his best to turn the match into the brawl that it became. Barbosa was effective in doing this, and it seemed he had no choice. Belasco clearly had the edge from the perimeter, and probably would have had a much easier time of it had he not been brought into such a battle by the shorter and stockier Barbosa.
After six rounds, all three judges saw the fight exactly the same, 58-56 for Belasco. That translates to 4-2 in rounds. That doesn't sound particularly close, but it's one round away from being a draw. With the win, Belasco's fifth straight, he improved his record to 10-2-3 with 3 KOs. Barbosa dropped to 4-2-1 with 3 KOs.
Immediately after the end of the round, the fight was stopped in Archer's corner by referee Steve Smoger. It looked like Archer shook his head "No" when Smoger asked him if he was okay. After a brief discussion, the fight was halted. It was Ferrante's sixth career win and his third by KO. Archer fell to 10-7, with 6 KOs.
The remaining four bouts matched young professionals with four fighters making their pro debut. And this Friday the 13th turned out to be unlucky for three of the four.
Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe watched the fights at ringside and joined Salem, NJ's heavyweight Mark 'Oak Tree' Brown in the ring. Unlike Oak Tree, Bowe left his shirt on. It was a well-attended card with a large walkup crowd. The total attendance was about 1,000, including active Philly fighters Mike Jones, Rasheem Jefferson, Dave Brunelli, Hank Lundy, Olivia Fonseca, and Chucky T. |
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Every
round of the fight was close and difficult to score.
Belasco's punches were a bit cleaner, but Barbosa was
forcing the action. Over the course of the grueling bout,
both men scored to the head and body, and neither ran away
with a single round. The rounds they each won were earned
with a slight advantage at best. After each round, the
judges must have been secretly flipping coins to determine
the winner of the session they had just watched. It was the
same at ringside where most observers instantly polled each
other as soon as the bell ended each round. There was
disagreement everywhere - except with the common opinion
that this fight was a toss-up. 
Both
fighters were busy throughout. Both were scoring. And both
were getting tired. So who was winning? The one clue that
surfaced could be read on their faces. Neither came out
ready to pose for a picture, but Barbosa's face was showing
some real signs of punishment. By the end, his left eye was
swelling and closing up. He also had a mouse under his right
eye and a nasty knot on the right side of his forehead. He
really looked like he was in a fight. To be fair, Belasco
was red and pulpy around the right eye, and had a slight cut
over his left eye. You can't judge a fight on facial damage.
There is a long list of fight winners who looked like losers
at the end. And who knows whether punches, heads or elbows
caused most of the damage. Belasco and Barbosa were throwing
everything in there. But in a fight as close and
questionable as this one, I have a hunch that the heavy
marks on Barbosa'a face it played a part in the official
call. 
In
the semi-final bout, Tony Ferrante's opponent, Chris Archer
of Tarentum, PA, didn't look like he was going to be very
tough, but he proved otherwise. Ferrante jumped out to an
early lead and maintained his edge all the way. But Archer
was game and able to hang in there for quite a while. Archer
even raised a nasty egg-shaped swelling on Ferrante's left
temple early in the fight. It must have come from an elbow
or a head butt. However, Ferrante had super-cutman Joey Eye
in his corner who brought the swelling down with his handy
meat tenderizing hammer. He didn't whack Ferrante with the
kitchen instrument. He just chilled it and applied as much
pressure as his Popeye arms could manage. The swelling went
down immediately and only slightly inflated here and there
during the rest of the fight, but it was nothing that Joey
Eye couldn't handle. 
The
fight belonged to Ferrante. He was the better pro and he led
Archer into deep water as the bout went on. By round four,
Archer looked tired and a little worse for wear. In the
fifth round, Ferrante bullied Archer into the red corner and
hurt him with an uppercut. He then beat him across the ring
and hurt Archer again in the red corner. A volley of punches
landed, especially a stiff right hand, but it was the
cumulative affect of all the shots, this round and prior,
that finally dropped Archer to his knees. He bravely rose,
and his left eye was swollen shut. Ferrante resumed his
attack, but the bell ending round five interrupted him. 
The
evening started with a four round light-heavyweight bout
between Khalil Farah of the Allegheny Recreation Center in
North Philly and Gonzalez Jones of Akron, OH. Southpaw
Farah, up from super-middleweight in his last two fights,
struggled with his stamina during the fight. He tired rather
quickly, but had enough right jabs and movement to keep the
hard-charging Jones off of him. In the end, Farah won the
contest by a narrow margin on the judges
cards.
The scores were 40-35 for Farah, 40-37 for Jones, and 39-37
for Farah. The win brought Farah's record to a winning 4-3,
with one knockout. Jones' record dropped to a 1-13.
Immediately after the fight, Farah told the crowd that he
thought he had broken his left hand in the fight, and
apologized for his sluggish performance. A little while
later, Farah resurfaced at ringside with his left wrist
wrapped in tape, but said that he thought his best weapon
would be okay. Farah 
Upper
Darby cruiserweight Kamarah Pasley continued his winning
ways with a unanimous points win over first-time pro John
Burgos of North Philly. Southpaw Pasley dropped his foe with
a boomingleft hand in round three and cruised to a
unanimous shutout victory of 40-35 on all three official
cards. It was his third straight win after beginning his
career with three straight losses. So Pasley is now 3-3 with
one KO. Burgos goes back to the drawing board 0-1. 
Bethlehem's
Ronald Cruz continued to impress, but it came at the hands
of first-timer Russell Cloak of Kensington. Cruz dropped
Cloak three times in the very first round and won the bout
in just 2:41. Cloak fell from the third knockdown in a
frightening way, and had to be attended to by EMS staff.
After a prolonged period, Cloak stood up and eventually left
the ring on his own power. It was a fine win for
welterweight Cruz, now 3-0 with 2 KOs, but poor matchmaking
helped him. 
Philly's
Wahib Raheem spoiled the debut of Philadelphian Gabriel
Diaz, but the scores were close, and both junior lightweight
southpaws came away marked. Raheem bled from his nose
throughout the fight, while Diaz left lumpy around the left
eye. Raheem got the slim nod with his flashier skills and
walked away with a four round majority decision. Judge Dave
Greer had the fight even at 38-38, but the 39-37 scores of
judges Alan Runbenstein & Frank Cappuccino overruled. Raheem
improved to 3-0 (1 KO), while Diaz barely dropped to 0-1.
The
lone pro debut that ended with a victory belonged to
welterweight Jackie Davis of North Philly. She battered
Natoya Ervin, Akron, OH, in their scheduled four
rounder and came away with a TKO at one second of round
three. All the damage was done in the first two rounds.
Ervin was marked and exhausted after two and failed to come
out for round three when the ringside doctor suggested the
bout should end. Ervin fell to 0-3. Davis, with Former
Philly star Ivan Robinson in her corner, marked her pro
debut with a TKO win and left 1-0.