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Kingsley Ibeh Knocked Out Dante Stone
To Become 'King Of The West' Heavyweight
Kingsley “The Black Lion” Ibeh (17-3-1, 15 KOs) dominated
last night’s pro boxing card, presented by Whitfield Haydon
in association with Toro Promotions, Inc., at The Celebrity
Theater in Phoenix, Arizona.
Born in Nigeria and fighting out of Phoenix, Ibeh threw-down
with fellow Arizona heavyweight Dante “The Inferno” Stone
(21-3, 13 KOs) in the aptly called main event, “King of the
West,” to determine the top heavyweight boxer based west of
the Mississippi River.
Ibeh, a former college and Canadian pro football player,
stopped Stone in the eighth round, successfully defending
his World Boxing Council (WBC) FECARBOX) title belt, in
addition to capturing the vacant World boxing Association
(WBA) Continental Americas and Arizona State championships.
Stone had never been knocked out in 23 pro fights.
Ibe, whose cousin is the infamous former heavyweight boxer
Ike Ibeabuchi, gained fame this past January at Madison
Square Garden, in which he lost an impressive 10-round split
decision to world-rated Jarrell Miller (26-1-2).
“The goal was to beat him at his own game,’ Ibeh said after
the fight, “which we did. All respect to Stone but he was
just in the way and a stone we need to move out. This means
bigger opportunities. I want ‘DDD’ (‘Dynamite’ Daniel
Dubois) next!”
Stone’s previous fight was last October in the championship
final of the WBC Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia, when his
21-fight win streak was snapped by Kevin Cristopher Ramirez
via a 6-round split decision.
In the co-featured event, local star Elijan Garcia (18-2, 14
KOs) needed little time to take care of super middleweight
Ryan Adams (12-12-1, 7 KOs), quickly closing the show in the
opening round. Garcia’s pro record includes a major victory
against WBC World Middleweight challenger and 2012 USA
Olympian, Terrell Gausha (24-4-1) in 2025 by way of a
10-round split decision last year. A former WBC Latino
middleweight champion, Garcia was a 2017 U.S. National
Championships gold medalist, who turned pro in Mexico at the
age of 16.
Adams was coming off an eighth-round split decision victory
over Yoanki Urrujia (17-1) last October in Miami.
Three other heavyweight matches featuring Arizona fighters
were on the undercard: Adam “All American” Stewart (17-1-1,
10 KOs) knocked out Desmond Thompson (9-3, 8 KOs) in round
two, Trevor “Titan” Kotara (5-5-1, 12 KOs) took out Jalen
Davis (1-6, 1 KO), and in a battle of pro debut fighters
Angel Lainez won a 4-round unanimous decision over Javier
Arroyo (0-1).
Promising Armenian prospect Narek Hovhannisyan rolled to his
fifth straight win without a loss, out-classing 76-fight
Mexican veteran Dayryus Cotton enroute to a 6-round
unanimous decision.
Undefeated Phoenix featherweight Brayan “Pow’ Gonzalez
continued his hot streak with a technical knockout of Carlos
Mujica (9-10, 2 KOs) in the second round.
In other undercard matches, unbeaten Mexican light
heavyweight Sergio Leon Rodriguez improved to 13-0-1 (9 KOs)
with a third-round disqualification win against Antonio
Louis Hernandez (7-25-4, 4 KOs), while Erick Munguia (3-0, 2
KOs) took a 4-round unanimous decision from pro-debuting
Patrick Quick (0-1) in a battle of Arizona lightweights.
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