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LAWRENCE DISPLAYS POWER AND PERSONALITY WITH KO |
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Indianapolis heavyweight prospect Franklin Lawrence made short work of Raymond Ocheing in the scheduled 8-round main event bout at Harrah's Casino & Racetrack in Chester, PA tonight. Lawrence pounded his foe to the canvas twice in round one and once more in the second to finish the job at 31 seconds of round two. Referee Gary Rosato halted the bout with Ocheing on the mat, saving him from further punishment that he was more than willing to absorb. The loser of the fight argued with the referee and the doctor after the fight was stopped. The steam-rolling win raised the victor's record to 17-2-2 with 12 KOs. After the bout, he showed as much personality as he did punch with a post-fight rant that called out just about every boxer in the world north of 200 pounds. The gold-toothed prospect set his sights specifically on "Vitali Klitschko and his little brother", predicting knockout wins over both heavyweight champs. Ocheing, a native of Nairobi, Kenya and no stranger to early ring exits, fell to 23-15-3 with 18 KOs.
Goyco repeatedly missed his intended target but as the rounds flipped by, his shots came closer and closer to Webster's unguarded chin. By the fourth or fifth round, as Webster tired and breathed from his open mouth, Goyco began landing a few looping right hands. He did enough to take the fifth round, but Webster was never hurt and resumed control in the sixth and final round. A few of the rounds were close, but the official scores showed Webster as the clear-cut winner. Bernard Bruni gave all six sessions to Webster and scored 60-54, while Joe Pasquale and Pierre Benoist both had it 59-55. The win for Webster brought him the B.A.M. Light-Heavyweight title belt. The rest of the limping fight card was filled out with a trio of 4-rounders.
Atlantic City welterweight Anthony Young won his professional debut by 4-round unanimous decision over Philly's Kywane Hill. Young dropped Kywane in round one with a left hook and again in the second with a right hand. Young mixed in a number of showy and effective right uppercuts the rest of the way to scored a landslide decision in his first outing. Pasquale and Bruni scored it 40-34, while Benoist tally read 40-33.
The final preliminary
was an uncompetitive battle between two bantamweight
southpaws. Philly's Alex Barbosa won his pro debut with a
second round TKO of Brian Gonzalez of Puerto Rico, who
exited 0-2. After a flurry in round two,
The fifth boxing show at Harrarh's Chester promoted by Joey Eye and David Feldman, was a troubled promotion that turned out to be far weaker than originally promised. The planned main event, a PA State Title bout between light heavyweights Tony Ferrante and Tom Karpency (originally scheduled for September) fell out this time after Karpency's infected tooth forced him to cancel. A scramble for a new opponent produced Charles Hayward as a the replacement foe for Tony. However, Ferrante was then forced to pull out of the fight after coming down with Mononucleosis. Come-backing Philly heavyweight Gerald Nobles was scheduled to appear on the card, but was not permitted to fight due to high blood pressure that was detected at the pre-fight physical exam. Another 4-rounder involving debuting Sean Beckles was also scratched on the day of the fight. But even with all these problems, for better of worse, the show still went on and even ended in time for me to catch the last half of Game 7 of the World Series. |
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The
evening's co-feature was a 6-round light heavyweight contest
between undefeated Derrick Webster of Glassboro, NJ and
Taneal Goyco of Philadelphia. The fight was a one-sided yet
still competitive bout, with the 6' 4" southpaw Webster
continuing his winning ways thanks to his long right jab and
snappy punching power. However, his low guard proved to be a
tempting target for Goyco, who swung for the fences
throughout the battle. 
Lightweight
Joey Tiberi of Newark, DE opened the show with a brisk TKO
of Whiting, IN's Mike Maley. Tiberi stormed out and dropped
his foe with a combination and referee Shawn Clark stopped
the storm after just 40 seconds. The win improved Tiberi's
record to 6-1 with 5 KOs. Maley slipped to 4-9 with 3 KOs. 
Gonzalez
turned his back to Barbosa and complained to referee Gary
Rosato that he had been hit in the kidneys. However, Barbosa
only paused his attack and resumed the flurry as Gonzalez
hovered in the red corner. Once the punches again began
coming in, Gonzalez took a knee, complained a little more
and then surrendered. The time was 2:30 of the second.