By: Christopher Roche

Photo: Raquel Gonzalez. Both McDermott (center) and Rooney (far right) were victorious

There is something utterly refreshing about North Hudson, NJ old-school boxing shows, and John Lynch of Pound for Pound Promotions brought that back tonight at Schuetzen Park in North Bergen.

Local favorite Bobby Rooney, of Bayonne, fought to a crowd pleasing six round split-decision victory over tough Philadelphian Zeferino Albino. Rooney dropped Albino in the first round, but Albino had no plans of going home early.

Albino fought a spirited battle, and he rallied in the later rounds. The crowd was brought to its feet several times, but Rooney was able to stave off the late charge to earn the decision with two judges favoring him by scores of 58-55. One judge scored the bout for Albino at 58-55. The bout was a six rounder.

In other action, Victor Valenzuala defeated Jason Rorie by a score of 39-37 on all three cards. Danny McDermott battled through a cut to take his four rounder over Dorrell Martin in a 40-36 sweep.

Union City’s Jason Escalera stopped Rodell Boler via third round TKO. The time was 1:58. In another four rounder, promising welterweight Jeremy Bryan stopped Sam Gibson at 2:05 of round one, and junior middleweight Ronny Vargas stopped James Denson at 2:39 of round three.

Jorge Diaz of New Brunswick overcame a flash knockdown in round one to stop tough Giovanni Figueroa in the third. In the lone upset of the evening, popular female fighter Noriko Kariya was stopped in round five by Ava Knight.

The raucous crowd was treated to a glimpse at several potential stars, as many of the local fighters on the card showed very good promise. Fighters such as Bryan, Vargas, Valenzuala, Escalera and Diaz all have strong amateur backgrounds, and their performances provided a nice complement to the veteran presence of Rooney, McDermott and Kariya.