By Steve Peacock, Ringside
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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