Cunningham
and Hloros Win on TKOs
In the main event light heavyweight Darryl Cunningham scored a knock down and a standing eight against Douglas LaFontsee in the third round. Cunningham came out in the 4th round determined to close the show and after trapping Lafontsee in a corner with some hard shots referee Dale Grable decided to stop it without a count. Cunningham now improves to 11-2. Alexis Hloros showed continuous improvement in scoring a very good stoppage over Dan Wallace in a scheduled 6 rounds, light middleweight affair. The fight started out with a very aggressive Hloros stalking Wallace. Some good exchanges dominated an exciting first round. Unable to take Wallace out early, Hloros wisely switched to a more cautious but still forward moving style. The next 4 rounds saw good activity by both boxers. Hloros seemed to be ahead in the scoring heading into the last round and probably could have coasted to a decision victory. Impressively, however, not content to leave it up to the judges he really poured it on and was able to trap Wallace along the ropes. Referee Dale Grable waved it off at 2:53 of the last round with Wallace taking too much punishment. Hloros moves to 7-2-2 with the best win of his young career.
Heavyweight Rich Power got the job done in a hurry against big Tony Phillips. Power is by no means a small guy but Phillips seemed to tower over him. It didn't matter in this one. Power backed Phillips against the ropes in his own corner and whaled away until referee Frank Garza pulled him off. As Phillips walked back to his corner with a dazed "what happened" look Power celebrated another first round TKO victory. In the only fight of the night to go the route Andrew Kooner won a very entertaining 6 round bantamweight tussle over Elvis Martinez. Kooner always seemed to be just a step ahead, but Martinez kept trying thus making for a fight with lots of good exchanges. Canadian Kooner had a vocal cheering section that loudly voiced their approval of the proceedings. Kooner moves to 9-1 with the hard fought victory. Pete Cantu took his time figuring out opponent Eric Hall for the first three rounds of their welterweight bout. Suddenly in the fourth Cantu turned up the heat and battered Hall for a 4th round TKO victory to extend his current win streak. Andres Gorges had no problems keeping Jamal Khan winless, knocking Khan out in the first round in an easy outing. Light welterweight Gorges now 3-0, Khan heading the opposite way is now 0-4. James Lester, Jr. banged out a TKO in 3 over a somewhat listless Ramon Guevara. Guevara made a fight of it for awhile but seemed to fold when Lester applied the pressure. Lester improves to 5-2.
In the opening fight of the card Larry Ventis looked good in using a tremendous body shot to drop and stop debuting Eric Ricker in the second round. Ricker was game but the undefeated Ventis had too much for him in advancing his record to 4-0. After
promoting at different locations in the Detroit Metro area (Dearborn
Civic Center, The Roostertail, Fort Wayne) it seems that the promoters
have found a home in Royal Oak. With two successful shows here and
another one planned for November, the fights have been generally
good and the crowds growing. Boxing fans can only hope the momentum
keeps up and perhaps a future contender can arise from the mix.
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