| |
|
|
Results From The Non-Televised
Fight Card At Yankee Stadium
By Tim Donaldson
If you haven’t seen Super Welterweight Pawel Wolak fight, I
think you might be seeing him soon. He increased his wins
from 26 to 27, by defeating James Moore. Wolak is a puncher
and seems most comfortable trading punches in the middle of
the ring. At the start of each round, he charges into the
action like a bull into the ring. James Moore decided to
fight Wolak’s fight. Rather than moving and trying to keep
Wolak off his game, he stood his ground with him. At times,
Moore was able to catch Wolak with an uppercut as Wolak
charged in.
The other thing about Wolak is that if he feels pain, he
never shows it. He is willing to take the hits as long as he
is hitting. Sooner or later, his opponent will tire. By the
fourth round, Moore was showing signs of fatigue. By the
sixth round, he looked exhausted. But Wolak kept moving
forward, kept pressuring Moore, and kept attacking Moore’s
body. Wolak won by unanimous decision by doing nothing
fancy. He just out fought Moore. Anyone who hopes to defeat
Wolak is going to have to come up with a better plan than
simply trading punches with him.
The second fight of the evening featured another Cotto.
Lightweight Abner Cotto defeated Edgar Portillo, winning by
unanimous decision. Going into the fight, I was afraid that
this might just be a fight to showcase the talent of Cotto.
Cotto has a professional record of 7-0, while Portillo has a
record of 6-4-1. In the first, Portillo came out swinging,
but he seemed to be able to do little once Cotto started
swinging. This did not seem to deter Portillo. He stepped up
the pressure on Cotto in the second. However, like all great
boxers, and those who someday might be, Cotto remained calm
and stuck to his plan. Although Cotto did not win every
round, he did what he had to do to win the fight.
Local favorite Jorge Diaz got the TKO victory over Jae Sung
Lee of Korea. Lee was outclassed from the beginning, going
down in the first round. Although Lee was throwing a lot of
punches, he landed few of them. Lee stayed in the fight
until the final round. By the sixth, Diaz seemed to be able
to knock Lee around the ring with little response from Lee.
The only thing Lee seemed to be able to do was to hold.
Referee Sparkle Lee stopped the fight at 1:54 in the sixth.
In what might be the only upset of the evening Terry
Baterbaugh won over Tommy Rainone by unanimous decision.
Although Baterbaugh’s punches did not seem to pack a lot of
power, he never let up his attack. Rainone had trouble from
the first round responding to Baterbaugh. Rainone tried to
counter more in the second with very limited success.
Baterbaugh chased Rainone for the majority of the second
round, was able to pressure him into the corner right at the
opening of the third, and chased him the majority of the
fifth and sixth rounds.
Juan Gonzalez used his height advantage to defeat Juan Lucio.
Whenever Lucio would get close, Gonzalez would dance out of
reach. Lucio was able to land more in the fourth and final
round, but it was too little, too late. By this point, he
needed the knockout to win.
Christian Martinez won by TKO over Jonathan Cuba. Martinez
dominated all four rounds. After some confusion at the end
of the third round, after Cuba got up from being knocked
down at the bell they fought on, Martinez dropped Cuba twice
in the fourth. Referee Sparkle Lee called a halt to the
fight at 1:18 in the fourth.
|
|
|
