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‘Night Of Heavyweights’
Trillerverz 4 Recap From New York City
On Thursday night, Triller Fight Club returned to New York
City with the fourth installment of its highly successful
TrillerVerz series, ‘Night of Heavyweights’, as the
legendary Hammerstein Ballroom in Mid-Town Manhattan played
host to the five-bout evening of world class professional
boxing. Following the live boxing event, the broadcast moved
to the world-famous Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, CA
for an iconic VERZUZ battle between Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and
Three 6 Mafia.
Among the celebrities in attendance at the Hammerstein
Ballroom were Triad Combat Team Captains, Former Heavyweight
Boxing World Champion Shannon ‘Let’s GO Champ’ Briggs
(Boxing Captain) and Former UFC Superstar and Light
Heavyweight World Champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson (MMA
Captain). Also, in attendance was Former Light Heavyweight
Boxing World Champion Chad Dawson in addition to Legendary
Hip-Hip DJ Eric B and Welterweight Boxing Contender, Blair
‘The Flair’ Cobbs, both of whom were part of the broadcast
team.
In the main event at the Hammerstein Ballroom, World Ranked
Heavyweight Michael ‘The Bounty’ Hunter II, (20-1-2, 14
KOs), of Las Vegas, NV and crafty southpaw Jerry ‘Slugger’
Forrest, (26-4-2, 20 KOs), of Newport News, VA fought to a
ten-round split-decision draw in an outstanding clash of
heavyweight titans. Scores were 96-94 Hunter, 96-94 Forrest
and 95-95. The fight was a rematch from their battle in June
2014 won by Hunter.
From the opening bell both heavyweights threw every punch
with bad intentions as each was rocked in the early rounds
by hellacious hooks to the head. With the huge crowd at the
Hammerstein Ballroom on their feet throughout, Forrest
seemingly took control of the action in the fifth and sixth
rounds only for Hunter to dominate the seventh with huge
head shots to end the round.
Fighting the last three rounds knowing the fight hung in the
balance both Hunter and Forrest emptied their proverbial
gas-tanks with each landing massive bombs that would have
ended many heavyweight fights. The crowd in attendance
roared with their appreciation at the end of the ten rounds.
In the co-featured ten-rounder between two UNDEFEATED
heavyweight contenders, ‘Gentleman’ George Arias, (17-0, 7
KO’s), of Bronx, NY out landed and outworked Cassius C.O.G.
Chaney, (21-1, 14 KOs), of New London, CT. Scores at the end
of the exciting contest were 99-91 and 97-93 for Arias
taking a split decision with the third judge awarding his
card to Chaney, 96-94.
Using the first two rounds to navigate the height advantage
of Chaney, Arias started peppering the former college
basketball player at will in the third round and continued
through round six. Chaney came out firing bombs in the
seventh and while several did damage, Arias was able to
weather the storm and put the fight back on track towards a
wide victory on two of the judges’ cards.
In a special attraction ten rounder between UNDEFEATED
heavyweight contenders, heavy-handed southpaw Mike Balogun,
(18-0, 14 KOs), of Upper Marlboro, MD wasted no time against
‘Son of a Legend’ Trey Lippe-Morrison, (18-1, 17 KOs), of
Tulsa, OK. Drilling Lippe-Morrison to the canvas with a
massive left hand midway through the first round, the former
NFL linebacker would connect against the standing but badly
hurt Lippe-Morrison with a barrage of punches as referee
Eddie Claudio called a halt to the contest at the 2:41 mark
of the opener. Lippe-Morrison is the son of former
heavyweight champion of the world, Tommy Morrison.
In a scheduled six-round heavyweight clash, Joe ‘Louis’
Jones, (13-4, 10 KOs), of Jersey City, NJ knocked out
‘Hurricane’ Junior Wright, (18-4-1, 15 KOs), of Evanston, IL
in the second round. After a feeling out portion for most of
the first round, Jones would drop Wright with a stunning
right hand in the final seconds of the stanza. Sending
Wright to the canvas again to start the second round with a
left hook, overhand right combination, Jones would be
awarded the knockout victory as the fight was waived off
just 13 seconds into the second round.
Rounding out the exciting card in an action-packed light
heavyweight six round clash, Khainell Wheeler, (6-1, 5 KOs),
of Bethlehem, PA picked up his first decision victory
defeating the heralded and previously UNDEFEATED Frederic
Julan, (12-1, 10 KOs) of Brooklyn, NY by unanimous scores of
59-55, 59-55 and 58-56.
TrillerVerz, successfully bringing together first-class
professional boxing with iconic VERZUZ battles, is produced
by the award-winning Nigel Lythgoe, the Triller Fight Club
visionary in addition to the producer and creative force
behind American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.
Triller Fight Club is celebrating the one-year anniversary
of its extraordinary launch on November 28, 2020 which shook
up the sports and entertainment world as Boxing Legends Mike
Tyson and Roy Jones battled in Los Angeles, CA on a
Pay-Per-View broadcast which garnered 1,600,000 PPV buys.
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