Perhaps Panamanian boxer Santander Silgado misconstrued Mark
Fratto’s words when the Rising Star Promotions ring announcer proclaimed “It’s
go time!” late Saturday night. But just two rounds later in the scheduled
10-round heavyweight fight against Chazz “The Gentlemen” Witherspoon of
Paulsboro, N.J., Silgado (28-7; 22 KOs) indeed decided to “go”—quite literally.
Silgado exited the ring, enabling the referee to subsequently raise the hand of
Witherspoon (38-37; 28 KOs), who won by way of TKO.
As Silgado began to traverse the decorative rug toward the Showboat-Atlantic City arena exit, multiple audience members, clearly angry and disappointed, peppered him with shouts of “Where the hell are you going?”
It remains unclear why he apparently abandoned basic boxing-sportsmanship protocol by failing to remain in the ring while the announcer formally revealed the winner.
It remains perplexing why Silgado—who intermittently unleashed jolting lefts to Witherspoon’s body and did not appear to struggle greatly with his otherwise undaunted opponent—would, so it seemed, spontaneously terminate his Main Event fight.
One knowledgeable but anonymous observer of the fight expressed to The Weigh-In, however, that the answer was not as complex as it seemed. “It’s simple,” he said. “He quit. Plain and simple, Silgado quit.”
N.J. Welterweight
State Welterweight Championship
Several attendees—this writer included—opined that the co-main event between Anthony “Juice” Young of Atlantic City and Juan “The Beast” Rodriguez, Jr., of Union City, N.J., unequivocally demonstrated combat qualities worthy of Fight of the Night designation, even if informally.
After the opening Round-One bell of this recently formed N.J. Welterweight State Championship title, Young (20-2; 6 KOs) wasted no time in asserting dominance. He landed a pair of powerful shots to the face of Rodriguez, who alternated between reciprocating and merely attempting to reciprocate, however aggressively, however unsuccessfully.
One notable but wild shot from Rodriguez missed yet no doubt would have stung Young if he had effectuated that desired fist-to-face connection.
“Juice,” however, dramatically if not with a hint of comedy feigned relief by slowly pretending to wipe his brow with his glove.
Young soon after floored Rodriguez, albeit momentarily, and the first ended with both boxers solidly remaining in contention. In the next round, a resurgent Rodriguez reminded Juice it was not too late to get squeezed, connecting multiple punches to the face and body of Young, who appeared unfazed.
Over the next few rounds, a cadre of Rodriguez supporters in the audience repeatedly screamed “Watch out for his right! Watch out for his right!” It was a wise warning, particularly in the fifth when Young unleashed a battering barrage of blows that simultaneously demonstrated his vast endurance while exposing its limits.
This level of intensity, impossible to sustain indefinitely, was unmatched out of all ten Boardwalk Boxing bouts. Understandably, it also slowed Young’s punching pace. Clearly exhausted and potentially vulnerable, Juice nonetheless hit Rodriguez not only powerfully enough to deliver him to the canvass, but to send him tumbling end-over-end.
“The Beast” got to his feet and made a last-ditch effort to survive, but “Juice” immediately overwhelmed the wobbly and befuddled Rodriguez, who then stumbled into the ropes. The ref stopped the fight at the 1:12 mark of the sixth, and Anthony “Juice” Young was then crowned N.J. Welterweight State Welterweight champion.
Heavyweight Bout
Quian Davis (6-0; 2 KOs) of Vineland, N.J. from the start of this 4-round bout exhibited signs he might dominate Larry Knight (3-17; 1 KO) of Birmingham, Alabama. Knight was no pushover, but he simply could not connect enough punches to be considered a viable threat. Unsurprisingly, Davis emerged victorious by way of unanimous decision.
Middleweight Special Attraction
Although Chris “Sandman” Thomas of Toms River, NJ, emerged victorious after six rounds by way of unanimous decision over Joe Hughes of Indianapolis, significant grumbling simultaneously emerged from the audience. Thomas (12-0; 7 KOs), who failed to make weight and literally had a sizeable advantage over Hughes (6-2; 4 KOs), was the target of derision from some audience members, several who lamented—in their opinion—the purported inadequacy of Sandman’s punching technique. Thomas, taller than his opponent, repeatedly leaned over and onto him clearly to further wear him down. The ref deducted a point for doing so, but Thomas maintained a narrow but wide enough margin point to secure the win.
Super Middleweight Bout
Gabriel Pham (10-1; 4 KOs) of Pleasantville, NJ, by way of TKO defeated Ronald Montes (18-12; 16 KOs) of Barranquilla, Colombia. Though appearing to be equals in the first, the start of the second prominently featured Pham slamming a sequence of rights into Montes, who returned the favor with some solid shots of his own. After a brief delay following the third, Montes swiftly departed as the announcer stepped into the ring to declare Pham the winner.
Light Heavyweight Bout
Although scheduled for eight rounds, officials after four full rounds suddenly stopped the fight between Frederic Julan (11-0; 8 KOs) of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Milton Nunez (35-22) of Miami. Considering there was minimal action worthy of mention, it remains unclear why the fight was halted.
Middleweight Bout
Jersey City’s Robert Terry remains undefeated (3-0) after beating Roanoke, Virginia’s Albert Delgado (0-7-4) by way of unanimous decision after four rounds. Each of the three judges scored the contest 40-36.
Welterweight Bout
Yurik Mamadev (11-1; 3 KOs) of Brooklyn, N.Y. early in the bout exhibited an edge over Jordan Rosario (3-7) of Jersey City, whom he peppered with a trio of left hooks but little else significant enough to warrant specific mention. Rosario in the sixth briefly let loose an unexpected combo of shots that feasibly could have altered the outcome of the match; in the final seconds of the fight, however, Mamadev unleashed a brief battering of his opponent that seemed to say, “See, I told you I was on top.” All three judges score the fight 60-54 and Mamadev emerged victorious by way of unanimous decision.
Super Featherweight Bout
This “Garden State Battle,” as announcer Mark Fratto put it, pitted Andrew Bentley (5-3) of Jersey City against Vidal Rivera (9-1; 5 KOs) of Camden. Bentley early in the bout conveyed authority over the ring. Rivera in the second landed multiple shots which, at best, briefly stunned Bentley, who soon after turned around and dropped Rivera to a knee prior to Round Two’s conclusion. Despite this temporary setback, a resilient Rivera briefly pounded his opponent. Nonetheless, the fight was stopped at 2:14 of the fifth due to Bentley’s accidental head butt of Rivera. As the planned six-round bout had met and surpassed the NJSACB four-round minimum, all three of the judges’ scorecards—50-45, 49-46 and 48-47—unanimously were in favor of Bentley.
Lightweight Bout
Alejandro Salinas (10-1) of Youngstown, Ohio threw the first slaps of leather of the evening in his defeat of Pablo Cupul (10-29) of San Diego. After a Salinas punch sent Cupul stumbling backwards during the fifth of, the ref stopped by the fight, thereby giving Salinas the TKO victory.
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