By James Stillerman – Ringside Around 1,200 individuals packed the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, MA to support their two popular local pugilists, “Irish” Joey McCreedy who suffered a unanimous decision loss to Shujaa El-Amin aka Dion Savages and Sean Eklund who prevailed over James Ventry by a unanimous decision. The Chicago Fight Club Promotions (“CFC Promotions”) presented “Homecoming” which was the first boxing event in Lowell in seven years.
El-Amin from Flint, Michigan, in the main event, dominated this ten round super middleweight bout against McCreedy with two scorecards of 100-90 while the third scorecard was 99-91. El-Amin used his superior speed to effectively land at will against McCreedy. He attacked McCreedy‘s body throughout the fight and caused him to slow down as the fight went into the later rounds. He also displayed a good jab which set up his combinations nicely. McCreedy fought hard throughout the fight and was able to pin El-Amin to the ropes for most of the rounds and threw a great deal of punches in this fight; however he was not as accurate and did not land as powerful punches as El-Amin did.
“I was fighting to prove my father, Dion Savage Sr. `s innocence since he has been wrongly imprisoned for the last fifteen years in Illinois,” said El-Amin. “We have evidence that he`s innocent and it`s injustice that he`s in jail.”
El-Amin with the victory improved his record to 12-3, 6KOs and he captured the vacant United States Boxing Organization “USBO” super middleweight title. He ended his two fight losing steak.
“He never hurt me once in this fight. No disrespect to McCreedy, but I knew coming into this fight I would dominate and emerge victorious and that is what I did,” said El-Amin.
McCreedy with the lost dropped his record to 13-6-2, 6KOs and ended his two fight winning streak. He was not available to comment after the fight.
“I`ve a great and loyal team and we are ready to do significant things in the super middleweight division. I want to fight Adonis Stevenson because I only had two weeks to prepare for this fight and if I fought him again, I whop him. I also want to fight Farah Ennis and revenge that lost,” said El-Amin.
Eklund improved to 11-4, 2KOs as he won a unanimous decision in this eight round light welterweight fight by two scorecards of 79-73 and one scorecard of 78-74 over Ventry from Niagara Falls, NY who fell to 7-14-1, 4KOs. Eklund extended his winning steak to five bouts.
“Ventry was a good opponent and his record is extremely deceiving because he has fought a lot of great opponents. I hurt him in the first round but he was tough and hung in there,” said Eklund. “He was an opponent that I needed because this was my first eight round fight and he gave me the rounds I needed to increase my professional experience since I had a very limited amateur career.”
Eklund controlled the fight throughout as he landed good combinations, displayed an excellent jab and was able to land at will. He hurt Ventry badly in the first round with a good three punch combination but Ventry was able to stay on his feet and finish the round. Ventry did not back down throughout the bout and continue to fight hard despite being out classed.
“I`m glad my promoter, Wasfi Tolaymat of CFC Promotions brought this fight to Lowell for the first time in a long time. Hopefully I can have another fight here again because I love having the fans cheering me on since it`s inspirational,” said Eklund. “I`ve gotten better in each of my last three fights and I`m looking to make my way up the light welterweight weight class.”
Antonio “Aztec God of War” Canas and Tyrone Chatman waged a great action packed six round light welterweight bout with both men having their momentums in the fight. After two evenly fought rounds, Chatman knocked down Canas with a straight left hand. Canas got up quickly but was badly hurt from the knock down. Chatman went in for the kill as he unleashed a barrage of punches and had Canas down again. Canas got up and surprisingly went on the attack and landed several effective punches at Chatman. Canas was dropped again in round three; however the referee correctly ruled it a slip. The “Aztec God of War” fought well in the last minute of the round.
Canas controlled the fourth round by being the aggressor while Chatman had his momentums behind his jab. The fifth round and sixth rounds were extremely close as Chapman displayed a great jab while the “Aztec God of War” controlled the second half of those two rounds by being the aggressor. The fight went to the judges where they rendered a majority draw with one scorecard for Chapman, 57-55 while the other two scorecards were 56-56. So, Canas remains undefeated at 6-0-1, 3KOs and Chatman goes to 9-1-2, 6KOs.
Jimmy Smith, who was making his professional debut, knocked down Rafael Justino really early in the first round with a straight right hand. Justino beat the count but was visible shaken up from being dropped. A minute later in the first round, the fight was stopped by the referee at 1:36 because of a gash that developed above Justino`s eye, which he later required four stitches to close the cut. The four round welterweight bout was ruled a no contest, so Smith a US Marine who did two tours in Iraq, is 0-0-0, 1 NC while Justino is 0-6-0, 1 NC.
Anthony Jones garnered his first professional victory with a unanimous decision by scores of 40-35, 40-36 and 39-37 over Bernie Ongewe, who was making his professional debut. Jones improved to 1-0-1 while Ongewe dropped to 0-1 in this four round middleweight bout. Jones was the aggressor throughout the fight, landed at will and staggered Ongewe a couple of times while he pinned him on the ropes.