By Geno McGahee (At Ringside)
Photographs by Pawel Watracz
In front of a rowdy crowd in Worcester, Massachusetts, Shearns Boxing Promotions presented a fun fight night where it was “Every Man For Himself.” In the main event, Kendrick “Peppa” Ball, JR., 12-1-2, 8 KO’s, won the vacant New England Middleweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Danny “Feel Good Hollywood” Rosenberger, 4-7-4, 1 KO.
From the opening bell, Ball, JR., used his size and strength advantage to dominate the action. Rosenberger moved and tried to use quick combinations to overcome the bigger man, but he just couldn’t get anything going. Ball, JR., worked the body well and that told the tale down the stretch. A big right hand in round three really stunned Rosenberger, but he held on and continued the fight, but the momentum didn’t shift.
In the end, Ball, JR., won the title by a unanimous decision by scores of 60-54 (twice) , and 59-55.
In the co-main event, Wilfredo “El Sucaro” Pagan, 6-0, 3 KO’s, had a much harder time than anticipated with Carlos Galindo, 1-8, taking a hard-fought unanimous decision. In the opening round, Pagan came on strong and chased down Galindo, who was moving around the ring and looking for spots. It looked like a mismatch until round two when Galindo landed a good left hook as Pagan backed away with his hands down. Despite the lack of perceived power in the hands of Galindo, he did have an impact on his bigger opponent.
The effectiveness of Galindo diminished, but he began showboating and trying to get the crowd into it. Despite the attempt, they didn’t bite and the hometown hero was able to regain total control and take the fight by scores of 39-37 and 40-36 (twice) in a welterweight showdown.
Heavyweight Owen Minor, 1-0, 1 KO, came into the ring at 232 pounds and was in good shape. The same could not be said for his opponent, Corey Morley, 0-3-1, who came in at 279 pounds and looked every bit of it. The heavy heavyweight played up to the crowd, but that’s all he had. The minute the bell rang, Minor hunted down Morley and began landing some decent body shots. Morley claimed low blow and really played it up, but the shot looked like it landed in the belly.
The dance became holding by Morley and then claiming low blows in hopes of getting a DQ win, obviously. Minor got visibly frustrated in round two and allowed his opponent to grapple and wrestle with him too much, but in the third round, he got it squared away. He would land more body shots, leading to another low blow claim, which prompted the referee to stop the fight, noting to Morley that “you don’t want to fight.” Minor had a great following in Worcester, but a bad dance partner. When he fights somebody that wants to fight, he will look much better I’m sure.
Lightweight Carlos Marrero, III, 1-2-1, used his superior skill and speed to control and easily beat, Edwin Rosado, 1-9-1, 1 KO, by unanimous decision with all three judges agreeing on 40-36 as the score. Rosado tried, but he looked like he was just three steps too slow. He kept walking forward and eating punches and Marrero kept finding the mark. At times, it seemed like he was going to win by stoppage but he just kept the same pace and cruised to an easy win.
In the most entertaining bout of the night, cruiserweight Jake Paradise, 1-2, 1 KO’s, got up off the floor to stop Francisco Artri Neto, 0-3. Paradise came out of his corner, aggressively stalking his opponent, but a hard right hand would drop him and hurt him badly. He got up on wobbly legs. Neto threw everything that he had and was out of gas at the end of round one. Paradise sensed that his opponent punched himself out and came out strong with a body attack in round two. That attack would eventually collapse Neto, leading to a 10 count and the shout of “who’s next” from the celebrating Paradise.
In other action, light heavyweight Angel Camacho, JR., 16-0, 5 KO’s, easily outpointed Larry Smith, 10-40-1, 7 KO’s. Smith tried using a rope-a-dope strategy but it led nowhere. Calls from the corner to Smith to do it for his daughter and to show the city what Dallas, his hometown, was all about, didn’t help and the final scores were 59-55 (twice) and 60-54.
Welterweight Anuel Rosa, 2-0, 2 KO’s, beat up Danny Morales, 0-8, en route to a third round stoppage. The stoppage was quick, but the end result was never in doubt with the fight being so incredibly once-sided.
