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Joe Hand Prom’ns and Brittany
Rogers (BAM Boxing) put on a reduced but exciting card at Parx
Casino in Bensalem on September 20th. With the usual pullouts and
drop-offs, the eight-bout card was reduced to five, but with J
Russell Peltz matchmaking, there’s never a bad show.
In the eight-round main event,
Steven Ortiz, 132 ½, Phila., 11-0 (3), faced dangerous spoiler
Alejandro Salinas, 131, Youngstown, 10-3 (9). Ortiz is known to
local fans as the recent conqueror of Jeremy Cuevas.
The first was cautious, with
Salinas stalking while the much bigger favorite used his size to
beat Alejandro to the punch. Action became more open in the second,
as Ortiz began trying to force the fight and bailed out with his
punches. Again, a greater reach helped, until late in the round when
Salinas caught him with a short right counter and spilled Ortiz to
the canvas. Stevie didn’t appear badly hurt and made it to the bell.
But that set up a wild and tense third, with the crowd going crazy.
Salinas was looking for the
payoff and Ortiz trying to turn the tide and gain control when he
missed a left, dropped his arm, and got floored again when Salinas
fired a short right counter. Again it was late in the round and
Stevie held on to get to the bell. The fourth was virtually a street
fight with both throwing payoff punches over and over but Ortiz
beginning to take control while his fans went bozo.
The second half was a bit of a
different fight, a bit more controlled. Salinas had wilted some
under the pressure of trading while Stevie moved around and picked
his shots, making him harder to counter. The rest of the fight was
characterized by this pattern, but the explosive tension was still
there.
In the seventh, Ortiz missed
with two successive big rights and fell in behind the missed punch
to get tagged by a short right counter. His knees buckled and he had
to grab, but fortunately fell into the ropes which got in the way of
Alejandro’s attempts to follow. It was a narrow escape, but enough
to gain Ortiz the decision. Lindsey Page scored 75-75, but John
Poturaj and Robert Rubnitz each had 76-74 for Stevie. This was not a
bad call, despite the two knockdowns against him. He clearly won the
second half of the fight plus the first round, with the fourth
close.
ORTIZ TOPS BENTLEY
Joshafat Ortiz, 128 ½, Reading, 7-0 (4), didn’t have the scare of
coming off the canvas, but otherwise had his hands full in a good
six with Andrew Bentley, 126 ½, Jersey City, 5-4 (1). Bentley is a
standup southpaw and a tough guy to fight. Ortiz set the pace and
forced the action throughout, relying on the stock method to beat a
southpaw, the right lead. Josh showed good poise and picked his
punches smartly, while the difficult underdog played ‘possum and
tended to lunge in. By the third, Ortiz was putting left-right
combos together. But in the fourth, his nose started to bleed while
he again nailed Bentley with lead rights.
In the fifth, Ortiz suffered a cut left eye, which his corner loudly
blamed on head collisions when Bentley lunged in. Combined with the
bloody nose, anyone walking in at this point might have taken
Joshafat for the loser, but he was actually controlling the fight
and outscoring the tough Bentley. The final round was wild and
sloppy, with Joshafat getting the unanimous decision, a shutout from
Lynne Carter (60-54) and 59-55 from Page and Poturaj.
BUTT WINS IN FIRST
One round knockouts for the favorite look like crap fights on paper,
but not on a Peltz show! Latorie Woodberry, 142 ¼, Roanoke, 2-10-2,
didn’t bring a threatening record but came to fight against Daiyaan
Butt, 140 ¾, Phila., 5-0 (3), in a scheduled six. The underdog came
out aggressively and the contest immediately exploded.
Both let fire continuously with both hands in a wild blur of
punches, but Butt was mixing in body shots and that was critical.
Both hands were flying by both fighters, but it was a crushing right
under the ribs that collapsed the visitor onto all fours the first
time. Adding to the injury, Woodberry was penalized by referee Shawn
Clark for spitting out his mouthpiece. Again they mixed all out in a
shootout and again Daiyaan finished the job with a crushing right to
the body. The TKO came at 2:45 of round one, but fans weren’t
cheated on this one.
PLLANA RETIRES DAVIS
Genc Pllana, 165 ¾, Hagerstown, MD, 6-1 (3), stopped Jamaal Davis,
164 ¾, a Philly veteran fighting now out of Charlotte, 18-16-1 (7),
in 2:28 of the fourth of six. Davis really offered nothing but a
sparring workout for the “Sexy Albanian”, as Pllana likes to be
known. The stocky Davis plodded forward willing to fight, but could
never work inside effectively.
The loose-limbed and casual Albanian just took target practice, then
shut him down on the inside by tying him up. Jamaal was repeatedly
rocked by both hands but refused to yield. Late in the third, Genc
may have been getting frustrated that Jamaal was still there and
began living up to his nickname with pelvic gyrations. In the next
round, ref Rosato aided Genc’s cause by stopping the fight. Jamaal
wasn’t particularly hurt, but just taking cumulative punishment.
After coming out of a clinch and getting popped with a right, the
ref pulled the plug. After dressing, Jamaal came back to the ring
later in the show, took the mike and in a dignified manner announced
his retirement from the ring.
KING UPSETS CZERKLEWICZ
Debuting Afunwa King, 173 ¾, a Nigeria fighting out of The Bronx,
scored a mild upset belting out Jan Czerklewicz, 173 ½, Warsaw via
Berlin…NJ, that is…2-1, at 1:23 of the second of four. Czerklewicz
started out trying to make it a boxing match with the jab, but once
the muscular Nigerian began bailing out with overhand rights, he
took over the contest. Jan was driven back, bombed again and again,
and dropped by a short, straight right just inside the 10-second
tap. In round two, a sweeping left hook sent Czerklewicz down again,
and when he arose, still wanting to fight, referee Clark had a
different idea.
Joe Hand and BAM Boxing return
to the Parx on November 15th. |
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