05.08.05 – By Danny Serratelli: The “Chin Checkers” Jaidon “The Don” Codrington and Curtis Stevens both came to fight and both handled their business in their own ways. In the main Event from Lou DiBella’s Broadway Boxing series at the Manhattan Center in New York City,Codrington improved to 9-0, all by KO, and Stevens to 8-0, with 7 KO’s. Codrington’s opponent, veteran Levan Easley 17-12-2, came to fight and went right after Codrinton early.. Codrington weathered the early storm and showed that he could move laterally and box. He didn’t display the type of punching power that was expected as he began to take over the fight, but showed very good movement and put his punches together nicely. Easley was cut in round 2 and the cut worsened as the fight went on until referee Steve Smoger halted the bout the round 5. With the win, Codrington picked up the New York State super middleweight title.
In the New York State cruiserweight championship fight “Punching” Pat Nwamu, 10-1, 3 KO’s scored a minor upset over crowd favorite Ehinomen “Hino” Ehikhamenor, 11-1, 7 KO’s over 10 rounds. Pat was the bigger man and had and had an awkward southpaw style that “Hino” seemed to have a problem figuring out. Former Middleweight Champion Vito Antuoermo’s pupil, Pat walked away with a unanimous decision by the scores of 96-94, 97-93 and 99-91.
Fellow “Chin Checker” Curtis Stevens came out fighting and didn’t stop until he got his man. It looked as if Stevens was a little upset that he was forced to go the distance for the first time in his prior fight and did not want that to happen again. Curtis kept the pressure on Jason Quick, who fell to 4-1-1, and did not let up until the fight was over in round number 2. Stevens dropped Quick in both rounds and stopped him at 1:55 of round number 2.
The knockout of the night did not come from either one of the “chin checkers”, but from a guy fighting for only the second time as a pro. Middleweight Peter “Chocolate” Quillan went after Antwuan Hedgemond, 0-1, with a vengeance in round 1. Quillin was caught on several occasions but did not seem to care until dropping and stopping his opponent with a picture perfect left hook, not allowing Hedgemond to make it out of round 1. While none of the featured fighters lacked and showmanship (“The Don” Codrington entered the ring to The Godfather theme and Stevens looked like he had his entrance choreographed) Quillin came prepared as well with a bag of chocolates. After the brutal knockout victory “Chocolate” walked around the ring and showered the crowd with chocolates.
Junior welterweight Emmanuel Clottey, 22-6, 14 KO’s won a unanimous decision over durable Marteze Logan, 20-16-2, 5 KO’s by the scores of 80-71, 79-73 and 78-74. Also on the undercard, Irelands junior middleweight James Moore won his debut over Gabriel Garcia who was also debuting with a second round KO. Cruiserweight Jamal McKay, 4-7-2 upset Sam Elashry 5-4 with a unanimous decision.