This past Thursday night TKO Boxing Promotions held a nine-fight card at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California. My first thought was that this would be a long evening. But then I realized that eight out of those nine fights were only four rounds. Little did I know that it would be shorter yet, as only two of those contests would go the scheduled distance.

The main event was for the Interim WBC USNBC Welterweight Title. This was one of those fights where both men stayed until the end, but this 10 round battle was not between the original two fighters. Demetrius Hopkins (29-1-1, 11 KO’s) was one of the participants, but his scheduled opponent, Freddie Norwood, did not make weight. The last minute replacement was Jesse Feliciano (15-9-3, 9 KO’s).

Hopkins was all over Feliciano in the first round, evident by merely looking at the face of Jesse. The next several rounds were the same, with a lot of action that made one wonder if they could keep up with this pace for the entire fight.

Actually, they pretty much did. A lot of back and forth action round after round, with Demetrius consistently landing the more effective punches. There were many times when it seemed as if all that was needed was one more jab to end the fight for Hopkins, but that never quite happened.

Feliciano was nothing if not brave, but threw many more wild and flailing punches than doing much actual damage. That said, it was D-Hop who suffered a cut over his left eye in the sixth round that was caused by a punch and not a head butt.

The final few rounds were almost mirrors of the opening ones; action, punches, dancing, and all in all just a very enjoyable fight to watch. And while it was obvious that Feliciano had no chance to get the victory, he was appreciated for his tenacity. I must give him a bit of credit here as well. He took this fight on very short notice. He was not going in completely blind here, as he had fought Hopkins before back in 2005. He was knocked out in the fourth round in that fight, so he certainly had to be aware that he was in for tough night, and held on the entire time.

In the end, it was a unanimous decision. Two judges saw the fight 100-90, while the third scored it 100-91. B-Hop walked out carrying the belt.

Five fights came before this contest, three afterwards. The first fight of the night was a Heavyweight bout between the heavily tattooed Steve Fierro (3-3-3) and Mike Finney (1-7, 1 KO). Finney was knocked down in the first round, and only lasted 27 seconds of round two before being knocked out by Fierro.

Bit of a scary moment here. These were big guys, now. I mentioned to a friend of mine sitting at the table with me that I hoped one of them didn’t end up on us – damage would be done! When Finney was knocked out, didn’t he end up half out of the ring, with his leg on the table between us – yikes! If I had been tired, which I wasn’t, that would have kept me awake for the rest of the night, to be sure. Glad we made it out OK, Dave.

The second fight was a Super Middleweight contest, and an easy one for the winner. This four-rounder saw Dmitry Chudinov (4-0, 2 KO’s) come away with a unanimous decision against Fernando Calleros (1-1-1). The judges all the fight the same, 40-36.

Fight three was a Super Middleweight fight with a very good J’Leon Love (3-0) taking the victory over Bryan Smith (0-3). Smith was down twice in the second round before the referee stopped the fight at 2:28 of round two.

A fight I really enjoyed a lot was the Welterweight fight between the young Mikael Zewski (2-0) and Moses Alvizo (0-1), who was making his professional debut. Alvizo had a look of surprise when he got pounded by Zewski at the opening bell, and it did not get better for him from there. He suffered a bloody nose in the second, and the ringside doctor stopped the fight after the third. Pay attention to Mikael. He is a good fighter who, if he doesn’t stay too cocky, we should see a lot of success from.

In a Super Middleweight contest, the younger brother of Dmitry, Fedor Chudinov (4-0, 3 KO’s), won his fight as well. He took Jeremiah Jones (1-3-1) to the canvas twice, once in the first and again in the second. He ultimately scored a knockout at 1:28 of round two.

The main event came in here, then three more fights, which most of the fans in attendance stayed for.

If you blinked you missed the next one, a Flyweight match. Randy Caballero(1-0) made his pro debut an impressive one over Samuel Jude Yniguez (2-5-3, 1 KO), as the referee stopped the fight at .49 seconds of round one.

Ivan Redkach (3-0, 3 KO’s) easily won his Lightweight fight over John Lopez (0-2). Lopez was down in the first, and the fight was stopped at 1:52 of, I think, the first round. Sorry, it might have been the second – didn’t write it down.

To close out the night we saw Welterweight Flavio Rodriguez (1-0) be another fighter to make his pro debut a winning one. He took it to Najee Hayes (0-3), knocking him down in the first and third rounds, with the fight then being stopped at 2:27 of round three.

This was quite a fun night. We got to see some young, promising fighters and a good main event. What more could be asked? Good job, TKO Boxing Promotions, for an interesting and entertaining card.



Be safe and God Bless,

Viva La Raza,

Barb.