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Schofield Shines In Headliner Debut
By Igor Frank
San Antonio, Texas - In the main event of the evening
undefeated lightweight from Austin Texas, Floyd Scofield
(15-0,11 KO's) thrilled devoted fans at AT&T Center With a
dominating performance over crafty and awkward opponent from
Las Vegas, Haskell Rodes (28-5-1,13 KO's). All three judges
scored this contest 100-87.
As if he said, No Virgil Ortiz, no problem, Kid Austin
wanted to demonstrate to fans in the arena as well as around
the world that he deserves to be a headliner. He attacked
his opponent with speed and agility reminiscent of young
Floyd Mayweather. His sustained attack from all angles
started to pay dividends in the fourth stanza. Scofield’s
two fisted offense intensified in the 7th stanza as he
scored two knock downs one with a left hook and the other
with a barrage of punches that simply overwhelmed Rhodes.
Floyd scored another knock down in the eighth stanza with a
body shot. In the ninth fans started to chant knock him out,
knock him out as Kid Austin continued his high-powered
assault. Big drama culminated at the end of 9th when Floyd
Scoffield ended up on the canvas from what seemed like a
hook from Rhodes. The referee correctly didn’t rule it a
knockdown , because it was scored by a head butt.
‘It’s boxing you are going to get cut,” said Schofield after
he was declared a winner:
“I ain’t going to lie that man can take a punch. “When asked
about future opponents Kid Austin exclaimed: ”Keyshawn
Davis, sign a contract . I am not playing.”
Joseph Diaz Jr. (33-4-1,15 KO's) overweight by 6.5 pounds
still had enough in his tank to dominate a younger opponent
from Harbor City, California Jerry Perez (14-3-1,11 KO's)
All three judges scored the fight for veteran Diaz:
97-93,97-93,98-92.
Former champ Jo Jo Diaz hurt his opponent early in the
second stanza, but couldn’t finish the job, then he hurt
Jerry Perez again in the fifth, but resilient youngster kept
fighting back without a lot of success until the final
rounds when he really let his hands go and had fans on their
feet, but unfortunately it was a little too late.
Female firefighters Marlen Esparza (14-1,1KO) from Houston
and Gabriela Alaniz (14-1,6 KO's) from Argentina put on
quite a show for the fans. They came out swinging from the
opening bell and never stopped for the duration of a
fast-paced battle. Alaniz pressed the action, but Esparza
held her own with sharp counters. Judges scored the fight
95-95,99-91,97-93 in favor of Marlene Esparza, but the crowd
didn’t agree and booed the decision.
In the opening televised bout despite being lighter than his
opponent undefeated Eric Tudor (9-0,6 KO's) scored a hard
fought unanimous decision over Reggie Harris Jr.(7-4,3
KO's). Judges were in agreement and scored the fight 77-74
and 78-73 twice.
Tudor dropped his opponent with the left to the body right
to the head combination in the first round but couldn’t
finish the job and had to go eight hard rounds to get the
victory.
Texas own Tristan Kalkreuth (11-1,8 KO's) stopped Joe Jones
of Jersey City (13-9,10 KO's) at 2;12 of round number two.
It was a third knock down that forced referee to end the
fight.
In the opening bout Cruiserweight from Houston, Texas Darius
Fulghum (6-0,6KO's) stopped Jeremiah Curtwright (2-2,2 KO's)
at 2:17 mark of the 3rd stanza.
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