by Kevin Kulyeshie, ringside
On November 10th, KEA Boxing put on another great night of boxing at the Birchwood Manor in Whippany, NJ. The night opened with a flurry of continuous power punches from Bantamweight JV Tuazon and ended with one solid right from Wayne “Lights Out” Johnson!
In the main event, Super Middleweight Wayne “Lights Out” Johnson (13-1) entered the fight against undefeated Josh “The Hammer” Haddock (7-0) with a decided height and reach advantage. After sizing each other up in the middle of the ring, Wayne Johnson opened with a big right hand that dropped Haddock to the canvas. “The Hammer” would not return to action as the doctor called the fight at :33 seconds. For Wayne, that is his fourth consecutive knockout as he continues to impress.
The heavyweight matchup of the evening featured Kevin “Kingpin” Johnson weighing in at 239 pounds against 350 pounder Michael Rhodes from Philadelphia. The 6′ 5″ Johnson featured a steady diet of jabs throughout the fight while Rhodes looked for opportunities to counter with power shots. Rhodes most impressive round was the fourth as he showed more aggression and tried to control the round. In the end, the big shots never connected for the 350 pounder as he couldn’t catch up to the quicker Johnson. The fight went 6 rounds and Johnson improved to a 12-0-1 record with a unanimous decision (2 judges 59-55 and 1 judge 58-56).
In what was a very impressive boxing display from start to finish, welterweight Henry Crawford from Patteron improved to 13-0-1 after winning by a unanimous 60-53 decision against Christopher Henry. Crawford displayed an excellent mix of combinations and landed solid left hooks throughout the 6 round fight. Crawford knocked Henry off balance in the second round with consecutive left hooks and scored a knockdown in the 6th round when a good right cross was followed by another big left hook.
Lightweight Antonio Espinoza from West New York improved his unbeaten record to 6-0 with a unanimous 40-36 decision over Felisberto Fernandes (4-6). Fernandes fought through a cut above his left eye from what appeared to be incidental contact early in the first round. Espinoza controlled the fight and Fernandes wasn’t able to find any openings against Espinoza who won all 4 rounds.
The night opened with a barrage of punches as Jersey City Bantamweight JV Tuazon battled Anolan Rigal. JV came out firing long combinations and dominated the first half of round one, opening a small cut under Rigal’s left eye with consecutive straight right hands. But Rigal was able to withstand the onslaught and was able to control the second half of the round. The second round was dominated by Rigal and JV barely escaped the round as Rigal pinned him in the corner and landed power shot after power shot of the final minute. Rigal won by TKO at 1:20 of the third round after landing a big right hand.
In another lightweight matchup, local Nicky “Lil Nicky” DeMarco improved to 2-0 with a TKO victory over Alex Matos. Matos opened the fight with wild punches and the southpaw maintained his composure and boxed out of the opening round. DeMarco then knocked down Matos with a big left cross and the fight was called at 2:08 of the second round.