19.05.06 – By Travis Marks: Ring Promotions and Frankie “G” Productions put on a great card last night. All six scheduled bouts were entertaining. The night was a tremendous success. In the main event, undefeated super middleweight prospect “Mean” Joe Greene continued his winning ways by defeating the gamed but over matched Derrick Graham. In front of a packed house at the Huntington Townhouse in Huntington, Long Island, Greene showed that he has some of that “stuff” that great fighters possess, focus and ring smarts..
Greene like most young fighters came out bombing on his opponent. The crowd “ooohed” and “ahhed” at the thudding sound of every punch that Greene threw. Graham a veteran of 11 years who once fought Winky Wright in an IBF eliminator at light middleweight remained composed and blocked most of the punches that his young opponent tried to land on him, but offered little offense in return.
To Graham’s credit he came to fight. He definitely had a plan. After two rounds of which all the offense came from Greene, Graham began to apply pressure by leading. However, there was no panicking on Greene’s behalf. He redirected his attack to the very soft body of Graham. That opened up the opportunity to land headshots.
Fighting out of the famed Starrett City boxing gym, Greene fought a very smart fight. In Graham he was fighting a fellow southpaw who had terrific defense. Instead of continuing to throw every punch with reckless abandon, Greene started using his brain. He picked his spots and began out thinking the vastly more experienced Graham. From time to time Graham was able to land counterpunches but in the end there was enough of that.
Greene knocked Graham down with a straight left to the body in the sixth round. Although Graham wasn’t seriously hurt, that put the exclamation on Greene’s big night. The bout went the full eight rounds resulting in a unanimous decision victory for “Mean” Joe Greene. The scores were 80-71 on all three judges’ cards. The future looks bright for Greene. If he continues to work hard and learn from his experiences he should be successful. Greene now sports a record of 10-0 (7 KO’s) and Graham falls to 12-8-1 (4 KO’s).
In other action, light heavyweight Paul Kravchenko bested William Gill by majority decision in a competitive four round bout. The first two rounds of the fight saw Kravchenko landing all of the clean shots. His left hook found a home on the right side of Gill’s head time and time again. The third round was very close with each man having their moments. A desperate Gill had a very good fourth round. He hurt Kravchenko a few times and even opened up a cut that left his opponent bleeding profusely. Scores were 38-38 and 39-37 twice in favor of Kravchenko. The disappointed Gill fell to 3-8 (2 KO’s) and his conqueror improved his record to 4-1 (3 KO’s).
Light Heavyweight Marek Dabrowski suffered a setback as he made his pro debut. Steven Marcantino played the role of spoiler when he shook off being hurt early in the fight to comeback and win the succeeding three rounds. Dabrowski came out very strong and hurt Marcantino with a vicious body shot but did not take advantage of it. By the end of the first round Dabrowski was breathing heavily. His nose was bleeding midway through the second round and was never able to keep Marcantino off. All three judges scored the fight 39-37 for Marcantino. Dabrowski is now 0-1 and Marcantino is 2-1 (1 KO).
The controversial bout of the evening was between flyweights Kimberly Tomes and Suszannah Warner. Tomes was making her pro debut against a very credible opponent in Warner. Warner who was fighting for the first time since upsetting young prospect Noriko Kariya (sister of hockey player Paul Kariya) used her excellent boxing skill to thwart the attempts of Tomes. Tomes pressed the action but was jabbed and countered all night. The ring announcer read the scores 39-37 for Warner, 39-37 Tomes and 40-36 for Warner. Boos were showered upon Warner by many of those attending. With the split decision victory Warner improved her record to 4-3 (1KO) while Tomes fell to 0-1.
Cruiserweights Jamal McKay and Andrew Hutchinson fought eight long hard rounds. Both men showed little skill but much effort. At the end of the last round the referee raised McKay’s hand signaling that he had won by unanimous decision. Hutchinson disagreed with the outcome. Scores were 77-74, 76-75, 79-72 all for McKay. He now is 7-9-2 (1 KO) while Hutchinson is 3-7-1 (0 KO’s).
Jason Thompson beat up his opponent Ron Lewis in a scheduled four round bout. Lewis landed some good shots in the opening round but he was able to do much else. The end of the bout came at 2:15 of the third round when the referee step in as Lewis took a number of punches without an answer. Thompson is now 2-1 (1KO) and a very dejected Lewis remains winless at 0-4.