Boxing News Boxing News
In front of a standing room only house at the Manhattan Center’s Grand Ballroom, “Mighty Mike” Arnoutis thrilled his legions of fans in attendance with a dominating twelve round decision victory over the very tough Domincan fighter, Harrison Cuello, capturing the vacant USBA Jr. Welterweight title.
A sea of blue and white flags filled the arena as Arnaoutis’ fans banged their drums and waved their flags as they cheered on their fellow compatriot to an impressive victory. Arnaoutis showed great boxing skills and pin point punching throughout.
“Mighty Mike” was relentless the entire fight as Cuello tried to figure out how to slow down the ever pressing Arnaoutis. Cuello fought a brave fight and never stopped trying in the fast paced bout but Arnaoutis’ skill and will was just too much to handle. All three judges scored the bout 119-109 for Arnaoutis who improves to 18-2-2 (9 KO’s), while Cuello slips to 15-6-2 (11 KO’s).
The semi-final 8 round Heavyweight round bout saw popular Queens brawler Vinny Maddalone improve his record to 29-4 (20 KO’s), with a second round destruction of Indiana’s Jeff Yeoman, 21-9 (7 KO’s). Maddalone dominated putting Yeoman down twice in the second round, the latter being the final blow, causing referee Dick Flaherty to called a halt at 2:11 of round 2.
In a wild Super Middleweight contest, Curtis “Showtime” Stevens and Thomas Reid fought in the fight of the night. Stevens started out aggressively in round 1 often cornering Reid while unleashing powerful combinations to the head and body. The pattern remained the same for most of the second round until Reid uncorked a devastating overhand right which put Stevens down.
Stevens arose at the count of eight but was clearly wobbly and luckily for him the bell sounded saving Curtis from a possible knockout. The action was hot and heavy the entire fight, often bringing the SRO crowd to their feet. Entering the last round it was anybody’s fight. The gutsy Reid tried desperately for the win but was corned by Stevens with about thirty seconds left in the fight.
Stevens let loose with a barrage of punches culminating with a vicious left hook which had Reid out on his feet forcing referee David Fields to move in and stop the fight at 2:55 of the eighth round. With the win Stevens improves to 18-2-1 (13 KO’s) while Reid falls to 35-22-1 (13 KO’s).
Top young Welterweight prospect Raymond Serrano Jr. 4-0 (3 KO’s) destroyed the usually durable Abe Bruno 6-11-4 (3 KO’s) at 2:59 of the first round of a scheduled four round bout. Serrano displayed the skill and punching power that has boxing experts talking about him as he overwhelmed his game opponent. Bruno tried to fight back but Serrano just had too much speed and firepower for Bruno.
Debuting Heavyweight Tim Skolnick and Shawn McLean 2-2 (1 KO) opened the show in a big way. The two went at each other from the opening bell and in round two McLean dropped Skolnick with an overhand right but Skolnick came back in round three to flatten McLean with a crushing overhand right scoring the knockout win in the scheduled 4 round bout.
Dominican Heavyweight prospect Nagy Aguilar remained undefeated, 7-0 (5 KO’s) with a devastating first round KO of Mike Jones 6-14 (2 KO’s). The plodding Jones started out quickly landing some good shots on Aguilar but walked smack into a crushing right hand which stretched him out at 1:35 of round 1.
Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing, show filled the Manhattan Center with a standing room only crowd for the second consecutive time. It was an exciting night of fights and all in attendance had a thoroughly electric and enjoyable evening.
