Boxing News Boxing News
Saturday evening, Zahir Raheem has taken the next step in his quest to a world title bout by effortlessly beating Justin Juuko via a technical knock out inside the 4th rd. Raheem headlined the action packed Battle at the Boat card presented by Halquist Productions at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, WA.
Six other exciting bouts took place through out the evening that left the fight fans in attendance buzzing about every thing from TKO victories to dubious scorecards.
Raheem’s fan base in Tacoma has grown immensely since his very first bout in the town back in March. As he entered the ring and name announced to the audience, the whole 2000 seat crowd cheered on the former Olympic boxer that defeated Erik Morales in 2005.
Fans left the fight impressed yet again by Raheem who landed the technical knock out win against previous title contender, Justin Juuko (45-11-1, 30 KO’s). Within the very first rd, Raheem took his time analyzing Juuko and throwing in sporadic jabs.
The fight pace picked up in the next rd when Raheem began to throw even more combos including a devastating body shots that won him the bout back in March. The 3rd rd revealed that Juuko had no chance in this bout as he had only thrown a few punches and was getting greatly outworked.
A couple of instances in the rd, Juuko lost his balance placing him in serious risk of getting knocked down. At 27 seconds into the 4th rd, Raheem had Juuko cornered and threw a range of combos that Juuko couldn’t deal with causing his corner to throw in the towel. Raheem improves to 33-3-0, 20 KO’s.
Raheem is scheduled to headline Battle at the Boat 93 in August at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, WA against an opponent to be determined.
In a semi-main event, Gabriel Pineda and Dave Petryck slugged it out for the planned six rds and kept the fight at a high pace from start to finish. Pineda and Petryck both stayed inside and were persistent in their effort to outbox one another.
At the conclusion of six rds the fight went to the scorecards where one judge preferred Pineda every rd (60-54) while the other two scored the fight 59-55 in favor of Pineda giving the Hillsboro, OR resident the unanimous decision victory and enhancing his record to 4-0-2.
Controversy surrounded the hyped undercard fight between Zach Cooper (2-0) and Charon Spain (0-2). Cooper looked to control the entire fight landing haymakers that phased Spain, but Spain showed a great chin as he never went to the canvas.
At the end of four rounds, Cooper seemed to have victory locked up, but the judges disagreed. One judge gave the fight to Cooper (40-36) while the other two judges scored the fight 38-38 resulting in a majority draw.
Other Boxing Undercard Results:
Marcelo Gallardo def. Anthony Smith via MD (38-38)(39-37)(39-37)
Drew Brokenshrie def. William Fernandez via UD (39-37)(40-36)(40-36)
Ricardo Maldonado def. Cory Vom Baur via UD (39-37)(39-37)(39-37)
Antonio Neal def. Juan Carlos Rodriguez via 3rd Round TKO, 1:32
Charon Spain vs. Zachary Cooper – Majority Draw (40-36, Zach Cooper) (38-38)(38-38)
