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Duddy Destroys Astorga;
Wolak Looks To Move Up;
& Other Results From The
Undercard At Madison Square Garden
By Tim Donaldson
A lot of people were stunned last April when Billy Lyell
defeated John Duddy. However, in October, John Duddy won the
unanimous decision in a hard fight against Michi Munoz.
Duddy continued his winning ways against Juan Astorga,
knocking him out 1:55 in the first round. How much can be
said about a one round fight? Well, not a whole lot. But
Duddy looked aggressive from the beginning. He knocked
Astorga down once. At this point, Duddy saw that he had the
fight. He became even more aggressive, not letting up on the
pressure until Astorga was down again for the final time. It
is hard to judge a fighter in less than two minutes, but
John Duddy looked better than he has in his past couple
fights. He truly lived up to his name The Derry Destroyer in
this fight. Will he continue? We will see. Duddy is to fight
on the Pacquiao, Clottey undercard.
Possibly the most entertaining fight of the undercard
belonged to Super Welterweights Pawel Wolak and Ishmail
Arvin. In the tradition of Adamek, Wolak, a Polish fighter
out of New Jersey, never lets up the pressure on his
opponent. Wolak and Arvin stayed in the middle of the ring
and traded punches for all eight rounds. Neither fighter had
much of a defensive strategy, just land more punches than
the other. By the sixth round, Arvin was looking tired, but
Wolak never let up and never looked tired. The fight ended
much like it began, with both fighters trading shots in the
middle of the ring. Wolak won by unanimous decision.
Speaking to Wolak’s manager after the fight, he laid out the
rest of the year for Wolak. In April, Wolak is to fight on
Fox’s Sports Net. In June, he is to be on the Cotto
undercard. Then, if all goes well, they are hoping to get
Wolak a shot at a title in October.
In the Super Lightweight division, Chris Algieri defeated
James Hope by unanimous decision. The first couple rounds
Hope looked in control of the fight. At the beginning of the
third round, Hope was chasing Algieri around the ring, but
Algieri made a comeback late in the round. The fourth and
fifth rounds were much the same. Hope looked good at the
beginning of the round, but Algieri was in control by the
end of the round. Algieri nearly knocked out Hope at the end
of round five, and he dominated the sixth round. On the
scorecards, Algieri won every round after the second. So if
you are a fighter, remember to make the last half of the
round count.
One other fight deserves mentioning. Light Heavyweight Will
Rosinsky defeated Markas Gonzales. Will Rosinsky showed why
he was the Golden Gloves champion for New York. From the
beginning, Rosinsky was in control of the fight. Gonzales
was throwing a lot of punches, but he did not have the
accuracy of Rosinsky. The only thing Rosinsky had to fear
was that lucky punch that could have landed him on the
canvas. Rosinsky won by unanimous decision.
Jorge Diaz has always shown a lot of promise. He knocked out
his opponent Tommy Atencio 1:27 in the first round. However,
comparing records, Diaz is 10-0 with 6 KOs and Atencio is
4-3 with 2 KOs, the question must be asked is Diaz’s talent
is being wasted? What might be worse is that his skills
might atrophy from the lack of competition.
The first fight of the evening was between Cruiserweights
Garrett Wilson and Carlos Negron. This was a mismatch, not
because of records, but because of height. Negron stands at
six feet six inches. Wilson is only five feet nine inches.
Wilson was never able to get inside to do much damage.
Negron won the unanimous decision. This fight was followed
by Welterweights Gerardo Prieto and Tommy Rainone. The fight
was a lot of movement, little fighting. Neither seemed to
throw more than one punch at a time. Rainone won the fight
by unanimous decision. I always wonder in a fight like that,
how do the judges determine who wins the round?
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