0.05.06 – By Bill Calogero, TheDailySports.com: Uncasville, CT – Mike “Machine Gun” Oliver won a unanimous decision over Vernie Torres in their scheduled ten-round Jr. Featherweight bout. It was the main event of Battlezone Boxing from Mohegan Sun Resort & Casino. Oliver’s superior boxing skill, especially his hand speed, controlled the bout. Every round of the fight featured “Machine Gun” battering Torres with punches in bunches, landing a full assortment of crisp snapping jabs, right and left hooks to the head and body and solid uppercuts to bang Vernie Torres from one end of the ring to the other..
In the fourth round, Oliver landed a solid right hand that immediately caused swelling to develop under Torres’ left eye. Round six was the most action-packed round of the fight, with both fighters landing punches from all angles. It was also the closest round of the fight.
During seventh round action, Oliver had Torres against the ropes and was landing a barrage of punches to the head and body. Torres was clearly in trouble and when attempting to get out of the way, found himself almost through the ropes at which time Oliver landed a solid right that staggered Torres, causing his knee to hit the canvas, resulting in a knock-down and an eight-count.
The eighth round began like the previous one but an unintentional head butt caused a serious cut over the left eye of Vernie Torres. The Doctor at ringside determined that Torres was not able to continue. Since the cut was ruled accidental, by rule, the judges went to the scorecards scoring through eight rounds.
Two of the three judges scored the fight 79-72 while the third saw it at 78-73 in favor of Mike Oliver. TheDailySports.com scored the fight 80-71 also in favor of Mike Oliver.
Mike “Machine Gun” Oliver improves to 19-0 (7 KOs) and Vernie Torres drops to 27-10-0 (15 KOs).
The Co-Feature was for the vacant IBA Light Heavyweight Americas Title. The scheduled twelve round bout had Anthony Russell of Brockton, MA against Rodney Toney of Boston.
Toney was bullying Russell, throwing random punches with some landing and some missing, for the first and second rounds. In the third round Russell began to work his jab, which set up his ability to land several solid three and four punch combinations. He also started counter-punching very effectively until an accidental head butt caused a severe cut over Toney’s eye.
During the break between the third and fourth rounds, the doctor at ringside ruled that Toney was not able to continue due to the cut. Since the fight had not completed four rounds, the fight was ruled a No-Decision.
Anthony Russell’s record is now 15-2-1, 1 ND (4 KOs) and Rodney Toney goes to 29-4-4, 1 ND (17 KOs).
In the best fight of the night, Dat Nguyen out-pointed Jorge Ruiz in their six-round Jr. Lightweight contest.
This fight featured BOTH fighters landing punches. Lots of them! The fight was close. During the first round, Dat landed a flurry of punches to the head of Ruiz, opening up a serious cut on the side of his head by his right eye. The blood was pouring down his face. I thought the fight would be stopped.
I am not sure what they did, but Jorge Ruiz’s corner did a GREAT job working his cut. It was NOT a factor for the rest of the fight. There were no knockdowns during the bout.
The fifth round was a brawl for three minutes and during the sixth and final round, Nguyen staggered Ruiz with a hard right-left-right combination. Ruiz did not go down and found himself still standing at the final bell.
Two of the three judges at ringside scored the fight 60-54, while the third had it 59-55 all in favor of Dat Nguyen for the unanimous decision victory. TheDailySports.com scored the fight 58-56 in favor of Dat Nguyen.
Dat Nguyen stays undefeated at 9-0 (5 KOs) while Jorge Ruiz loses for the second time in his career dropping to 5-2-1 (0 KOs).
In Heavyweight Action, local fan favorite Tony Grano continued beating untalented opponents, dismantling Jay Sweetman with a KO at 1:35 of the very first round. He improves to 9-0-1 (8 KOs), while Jay Sweetman drops to 7-6-0 (3 KOs). When will Grano face a quality opponent?
In other action, Chris Mclnerny stopped Eric Starr at 2:10 of the 5th round of their scheduled six-round Cruiserweight bout, to improve to 8-0-1 (5 KOs) while Eric Starr drops to 15-31-3, 1 NC (4 KOs).