On Friday night at the Grand Star Receptions, Altona North, Victoria, Australia, in the six fight card hosted by Adam Wilcock’s Fight Card Promotions, WBA #5 middleweight Jarrod ‘Left Jab’ Fletcher took on former world title challenger, Filipino, Randy Suico in a defence of his PABA middleweight title.
Fletcher possessed a significantly great advantage in size to Suico, who for the majority of his career campaigned at super featherweight and lightweight, the latter the division he fought Juan Diaz for his WBA title in 2006. However at middleweight, Suico would’ve entered the bout knowing he would likely present sparring practice for the emerging Australian, particularly given he entered the ring at a mere 70kg, significantly under the 72.57kg middleweight limit. Fletcher, on the other hand weighed at nearly the maximum, at 72.50kg.
This apparent size advantage was clearly evident from the outset as Fletcher stalked Suico around the ring looking to finish things quickly. In the first round, one combination saw Fletcher unleash a flurry of power shots that threatened to end things very quickly. Fletcher established a continued regularity to land on Suico with his precision punching with Suico continually fighting on the retreat.
After two rounds, it was expected Suico would have been finished by Fletcher, but Suico showed a great heart and willingness to compete with the local fighter. Despite appearing to be dominated by Fletcher, Suico did show his boxing ability and was able to land a number of clean shots on Fletcher with his left hand. However, Suico was never able to follow up those quality shots with further offensive work to pressure Fletcher and his power at middleweight was nowhere reflective of his excellent knockout ratio of 26 KOs from 31 wins.
In the fifth round, Fletcher caught Suico cleanly on numerous occasions and nearly had Suico out on his feet. At the end of the round, Suico’s trainer called an end to the bout with Fletcher victorious and improving his record to 15-1, with 9 KOs with Suico’s now to 31-9-1, 26 KOs. After the bout, it was revealed by WBA official Brad Vocale that plans are in place for a world title fight for Fletcher at the end of 2013.
The main event of the card saw welterweights Tim Hunt (15-3, 5 KOs) and Robert Whaley (7-8-2, 4 KOs) do battle over twelve rounds for Hunt’s PABA title. The fight was a one sided affair, with Hunt’s speed and work rate a feature, with Whaley reluctant to engage in the first half of the fight. Despite dominating all aspects of the contest, Hunt was unable to put Whaley away, which saw Whaley pick up his intensity in the second half of the bout. Despite this, Hunt was able to negotiate Whaley’s offense and triumphed with a 120-108 shutout victory on all three judge’s cards.
The fight of the night saw the much anticipated rematch between Andrew Wallace (9-2-1, 5 KOs) and Terry Tzouramanis (9-1-3, 2 KOs) for the Victorian light welterweight title. The first fight in August 2012 saw Wallace defeat the then unbeaten Tzouramanis via a narrow split decision. Tzouramanis started strong and showed more intent and willingness to engage in the first two rounds, but from there, both fighters went toe to toe with some terrific exchanges, with Wallace seeming to edge the middle rounds. Tzouramanis came home strong and the result went to the scorecards. The first scorecard read a 76-76 draw, but the next two 77-76 and 77-75, saw Tzouramanis get his revenge over Wallace and claim the Victorian light welterweight title. A third fight between the two is certainly not out of the question.
Other winners on the night were Oscar Ledlin, who defeated David Galvin via six round unanimous points decision, at light middleweight, Marc Pante outpointing Brad Traynor over four rounds at light heavyweight and Josh Robertson stopping Joe Lloyd in the fourth and final round of their cruiserweight bout.