Tampa, FL – Behind a vocally injected hometown crowd, Port Richey, FL Featherweight Carlos “El Rayo” Rivera took one step closer toward major recognition by earning a unanimous decision over Ali Baba Friday night at the A La Carte Event Pavilion. Rivera was effective from both the outside and inside, making it difficult for his smaller, Doraville, GA based counterpart. Rivera’s thorough offensive arsenal enabled him to control most of the contest however, he was unable to hurt the granite chinned Baba, 26-15-1 (19 KO’s). Rivera raised his ledger to 16-3-2 (5 KO’s) and is unbeaten in his last eight trips to the squared circle..
Middleweight Marcus Upshaw 10-3-1 (4 KO’s) made a major statement by scoring a fourth round knockout over previously unbeaten prospect Ahsandi Gibbs 10-1 (4 KO’s), of Sain t Petersburg, FL. With substantial local interest in this Florida State Middleweight title contest, both fighters came to the ring extremely confident. While the first round was very competitive, the Jacksonville, FL based Upshaw caught up with Gibbs, dropping him in the second round with a thunderous combination. Although Gibbs showed tremendous heart and determination, he was unable to keep up with the lanky Upshaw, and the referee was forced to stop the fight 26 seconds into the fourth.
With many of his loyal supporters once again on hand, Nicholas Iannuzzi of Tampa upped his record to 11-0 (9 KO’s) following a six round unanimous decision victory over a rugged and motivated Hilario Guzman 8-26-1 (4 KO’s). Iannuzzi gave the crowd their money’s worth by turning the contest into a brawl. The supremely confident Iannuzzi was able to get the best of his Orlando, FL based opponent while avoiding many of Guzman’s wild shots.
Rapidly improving Featherweight Jenna “Cow Girl” Shiv er of Tampa raised her pro ledger to 9-4-1 (2 KO’s) following an impressive unanimous decision victory over Montreal, Canada’s Lucia Larcinese 1-4. The superior Shiver controlled the contest from start to finish, constantly pressuring Larcinese. Scores were 60-54 on all three scorecards.
Heavyweight prospect Wilmer Vazquez 8-0-1 (5 KO’s) scored an impressive three round beatdown over experienced veteran Otis Tisdale 25-23-1 (15 KO’s). A 2004 Olympian, Vazquez used his renowned heavy hands to batter his New Haven, CT based opponent until the stoppage. Vazquez is promoted by Warriors Boxing.
Tampa Heavyweight Lamar Davis moved up to 2-1 (1 KO) after pounding out a unanimous decision victory over Robert Burgess 0-2, of Altamonte Springs, FL.
The card was hosted at the exquisite A La Carte Event Pavilion and promoted by Starfight Productions. The next edition of “Fight Night” at the A La Carte will take place on Friday June 26.
Starfight Productions is based out of Tampa, Florida and is operated by Aaron Jacobs, Shea Bailey, Pete Fernandez, Mike Asmer, and Randy Feldman. Their stable of fighters includes Welterweight contender, Irving Garcia, world title challenger/ESPN Fighter of the Year, Edner Cherry and rising star Derrick Samuels among others.
Veto outpoints Romankiewicz!
In a lightweight bout Hungarian prospect Gabor Veto (5-0-0, 4 KOs) won a six round decision over German Hubert Romankiewicz on Saturday night at the Dragon’s Club in Baden-Baden, Germany.
The 20-year-old Veto (5-0-0), former member of Hungarian amateur national team, controlled Romankiewicz in round one with long straight punches. Romankiewicz the former Thai Boxer lacked the speed to danger the Hungarian boxing-talent.
Veto of Varpalota, Hungary immediately showed his superiority over an outclassed Romankiewicz, by landing stiff jabs to the Germans head and body.
In Veto’s corner was Italian Francesco Passanante, a former amateur-opponent of Vassily Jirov and Hungarian boxing-legend Zsolt Erdei, a successful pro.
Veto said “It’s a good learning experience to fight six rounds. I could see that Romankiewicz had a lot of thaiboxing ring-battles, he had a big heart and didn’t give up although I landed many hard punches. I look forward to working hard to reach my goals“.
Veto now looks towards a match with a not yet announced opponent in the Ice Sport Hall in Tramelan, Switzerland next Saturday.