Fight Night at the Boat XL

Brian Halquist Productions produced an excellent fight card at the Emerald Queen Casino on Saturday night and all in attendance benefited from a superb night of entertainment.

The main event featured Spokane’s Chauncy Welliver and Travis Fulton, from Iowa, in a ten round heavyweight bout. Chauncy began the fight with the added edge of the fan’s backing as he’s a longtime favorite of the Northwest faithful. Travis stepped into the ring with some experience in Ultimate Fighting competitions and sported a nasty cauliflower right ear which he attempted several times to rub in on Welliver. But Welliver largely stayed away and out of range of the UFC fighter. A big man, Chancy moved agilely around the ring and landed a few bombs even in the opening round. Headshots kept coming and by the third round, Travis sprayed blood into the audience with more pounding taking place. By the fourth, the referee called the fight, taking Chauncy up the ranks in the heavyweight division.

Welliver’s story is interesting. He’s one of seven children who’s father died when he was very young and Chauncy was named after a friend of the father’s. “The Hillyard Hammer,” as Welliver is called, aspires to fight WBO Champion Lamon Brewster and buy his mother a home with his winnings. Welliver idolizes one of the all-time greats, Rocky Marciano, and hopes to one day pick up the killer money punch that the Brockton Bull used so effectively.

During the bout with Travis, Welliver surprised the crowd with his agile side stepping of the opponent’s blows. He made short work of Travis but must get past John Sergeant on November 12th in Lewiston, Idaho. The Hillyard Hammer plans to have 100 plus fights and then retire. He already sports over 30 fights under his belt yet is still a young 22 years old. Welliver improves to 28-4-3 (11) while Travis falls to 12 -13 (12).

Also on the card, super feather Nate Smith debuted from Puyallup, Washington and knocked out Matt “Badass” Blake from Billings, Montana in the first 52 seconds of the first round. Smith begins his career at 1-0 (1) while Blake remains winless at 0-3 (0), with

all the losses coming inside the distance.

18 year old middleweight Roger Cantrell, also from Puyallup, Washington, won his fight against Aaron Soboleski, from Syracuse, New York. Soboleski, making his pro debut, ate canvas in the first few seconds of the first round, and started to grab and hold. The referee decided to stop the fight since it was apparent that Soboleski was going to get hurt, and perhaps permanently injured. He never landed one punch. Cantrell goes to 4-0 (4) while Soboleski drops to 0-1 (0).

Next up, cruiserweight Kevin Reynolds, from Vancouver, BC, Canada won on points against Leo Bercier from Billings, Montana. Reynolds smacked Leo around the ring and gave a good performance overall. We will see Kevin back since it was clear he trained hard for his second professional win. Leo dropped his hands and caught some atomic bombs in the final rounds. Reynolds sees his mark to 2-0 (1) and Bercier remains winless at 0-2 (0).

At light middle, Walter Wright of Seattle, Washington fought Daniel Neal of Columbus, Ohio. Neal dropped some early shots that stunned Walter. Wright countered with a hard liver shot and took the fight to Neal the rest of the way. Even though Daniel got clipped with some massive body shots, he took the pressure, even at 42 years old. Neal danced away from most of the artillery of the young Wright but dropped the six round decision.

Wright goes to 9-1 (4) while Neal, nicknamed “Drain Man”, falls to 9-11-1 (2).

Super feather Yamin Mohammad, Dayton, Ohio, stood up against Daniel Gonzalez from Billings, Montana, as both fighters took and gave tremendous shots. It was all concrete jaws and pounding stone fists. By the fourth round, Yamin ran out of steam and lowered his guard. Gonzalez prevailed with more energy, even though he gotjolted by Yamin’s heavy hands during the contest. Southpaw Gonzalez moves up to 7-3-2 (2) while Mohammad drops his fourth in a row at 3-9-1 (3).

Lastly, light welter David Torres, from nearby Othello, Washington, advanced in his fight against Andrew Marquez, from Pueblo, Colorado. One of the first punches in round one landed and crunched Andrew to the mat. David then proceeded to skillfully knock out Andrew in the first round. The flurry of punches flickered so fast that many in the audience missed the force and power of the “El Torrito”. It seems as if the Northwest has a raging bull in David Torres and it’s clear that he will go for a title shot soon in the 140 pound weight class.