Arsenault
Chalks Up KO 1 in Bay City
Despite the overcast and threatening weather, promoters Greg Ahrens, Carlos Llinas and Art Dore attracted a SRO crowd to the annual summer show in Bay City. As in the last few years, Hooters on the Saginaw River was the venue. The six bout card featured several local favorites and were all scheduled for 4 rounds. In the main event Bay City's heavyweight Brandon Arsenault scored a first round KO over Matt Eckerly. After several minutes of Eckerly holding and grabbing, Arsenault was able to extricate himself long enough to unload several shots to drop his foe for the count to the delight of the hometown crowd. In another heavyweight attraction, Ryan Thompson overcame two knockdowns in the first round to score one himself in the fourth and prevailed in a majority decision over Lee Thomas. The first round started out with some good exchanges but coincidently as a light rain started to fall in the second the bout disintegrated into a mauling, sluggish affair. Bay City UAW electrician and huge crowd favorite Mike Walther won by TKO 2 over Allen Grays. Grays scored a first round knockdown but Walther's continued pressure wore him down for the eventual stoppage. Super middleweights. Heavyweight Philip Jewel knocked down football player Brian Cook in the first and went on to land several hard right hands in the second for a TKO stoppage. In the best fight of the night ring vets Pete Cantu and Jaime Castellano went at each other for the entire four rounds. Cantu's superior technique and speed carried the day for him but little Jaime kept coming forward throwing punches and verbal barbs as well. Art Dore, who always entertains the crowd with his on mic comments and exhortations of the fighters DURING the rounds, kept everyone abreast of Jaime's verbal blasts including his "Come on bitch!" mid ring challenge to Cantu. At the final bell, Castellano was ready for more as Cantu walked away with the unanimous decision in an entertaining scrap. In
the opening bout of the night Alexis Hloros landed a punch on the
inside that almost no one saw yet had sufficient power to drop Phil
McKechnie to his hands and knees in the first round. McKechnie remained
in that position with blood streaming from what was reported later
to be a broken nose. Hloros is a colorful fighter who is deserving
of some stiffer opposition.
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