On Friday night Frank Luca presented Crown Boxing at the Crown Nightclub and Theater at the Rio All-Suites Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. The main event was a rematch of a July 2008 match-up between former UNLV boxing team member Henry Namauu and Chad Davis of Phoenix, AZ. In their first match, Namauu beat Davis over four one-sided rounds, including knocking him down and winning 40-35 on all three cards. The rematch wasn’t as easy.

In the first round the cruiserweights came out throwing heavily, with Davis taking a hard right hand in the corner just 20 seconds in. Davis recovered after a shaky minute, even landing a solid left hook near the end of the round.

Davis came out in the second round only throwing one punch at a time, causing his corner to beg him to throw two shots at a time, shouts that could be heard throughout the theater. From time to time Davis landed a nice counter shot, but Namauu easily took this round by being the aggressor.

The tide turned in a big way in the third round. Namauu, perhaps feeling comfortable, started following Davis around the ring, confidently throwing shots without much concern for defense. Namauu trapped Davis against the ropes, and while teeing off left his guard down just enough for Davis to land a big counter right that dropped Namauu for a count of four. Namauu was on shaky legs the remainder of the round, but Davis couldn’t land the shot that would end the deal.

The minute rest was welcomed by Namauu, who came out for the fourth round with a flurry. Davis responded by landing a couple of solid body shots, but while it was a close round, the activity level of Namauu helped him win the round on the Pound4Pound card. Namauu’s corner couldn’t have asked for a better bounce back round.

The fifth round saw Davis sitting back along the ropes for most of the round looking for the same type of counter punch he landed in the third. This time Namauu was more prepared, holding his hands up between his flurries. This was another fairly even round, with the fight seemingly up for grabs going into the final three rounds of the scheduled eight rounder.

The fight was taken out of the judges’ hands in the sixth. Both fighters came out looking for the knockout. Davis landed a combination that saw Namauu take a step back. Instead of continuing to retreat, Namauu countered with a big right hand that visibly shook up Davis. Davis, while hurt, continued to throw punches, even landing a number of his own. Referee Tony Weeks must have seen something in Davis that most of the fans didn’t see, as he stopped the fight in the middle of the two throwing punches back in forth. After the fight Weeks said he thought Davis had taken too much punishment.

After the fight Davis naturally didn’t agree with the stoppage, and also added that he had to lose 25 pounds in three weeks to make the cruiserweight limit. Davis falls to 2-6 with the loss.

When asked about the knockdown after the fight, Namauu said, “All I could think about was how I had to get up. I cleared my mind and went back to what I should have been doing the whole fight.” Promoter Frank Luca said that if Namauu can get past his next opponent (TBA) on the October 27th Crown Boxing show, then he will fight for the IBA Cruiserweight Championship (title vacant) on December 3rd, also a Crown promoted show. Namauu now stands at 7-3 with 5 KO’s.

Undercard Results:
Local favorite Rocco “The So Cal Kid” Santomauro continued his winning ways with a four-round unanimous decision over Walter Santibanes. Featherweight prospect Santomauro is now 5-0 while Santibanes drops to 1-1.

Super Bantamweight Alexis “The Beaver” Santiago moved to 4-0-1 1KO with a four round unanimous decision over Brian Battease, now 6-3-2 2 KO’s.

Mandy LaPointe returned from an eight-year layoff to earn a four-round majority draw against Crystal Hoy.

In the opening bout between light welterweights, Juan Alcolea dropped a four round decision to Daniel Reece. Reece improved to 2-0 while Alcolea drops to 2-3.