Reading, PA (Sept. 21, 2009) – Following the first defeat of his professional career, heavyweight prospect Travis Kauffman is taking the experience in stride vowing to return a better fighter. The Reading, PA native swept the first three rounds of his scheduled ten-round bout against Tony Grano at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, CA, televised in the main event of the Showtime network’s ShoBox: The New Generation series this past Friday night. Kauffman came out aggressively to try and finish a waning Grano in the fourth round before getting hit with a serious intentional low blow, stemming his momentum. Kauffman elected to continue without taking any of the allotted five minutes to recover.. Grano shortly after turned around and spit out his mouthpiece to buy more time to rest.
Grano recovered and stunned Kauffman with a series of legal blows. Kauffman pulled back in Grano’s corner to elude a punch and was struck in the back of the head with a camera, badly hurting him. His gloves then touched the canvas – which should have sent the referee to intervene and issue an 8 count. Instead Kauffman was downed by a Grano clothesline and the referee waved the fight off.
“I thought I fought a good fight but I got caught with a good shot,” says Kauffman, 18-1 (15 KO).
“His tactics were really dirty. I didn’t take the time I needed after the low blow. Being a fighter and not using my head, I wanted to go for the kill. I was stunned no doubt. I’m not mad at him, he did what he had to do to win. I showed my inexperience instead of sticking to my game plan.”
“I’ve said many times that the day I stop learning is the day I stop fighting. I learned a lot from this fight. I can’t sit here and cry about it, I have to move on. I’ll live to fight another day. Real champs bounce back. I want a rematch and as exciting as the fight was, so should Showtime.”