Ringside Boxing Report: Ali Oubaali vs. Chris Fernandez
© Jim Everett / Saddo Boxing
Wednesday night at the Aviator Sports Arena in Brooklyn, NY, was the second night in only five days that Sal Musumeci’s Final Forum hosted a televised professional boxing card this time in association with Star Boxing.
The ESPN broadcast of “Wednesday Night Fights” featured an action packed main event with Ali Oubaali from Brooklyn, New York against Chris Fernandez of Salt Lake City .
In the main event, Oubaali threw nearly 100 punches per round against the game Fernandez, who gave as good as he got. Both fighters rarely clinched or held and preferred to exchange heavy shots throughout the bout.
Oubaali clearly got the better of the exchanges landing an incredible amount of shots to the body. On at least three occasions, it seemed as if Fernandez was about to drop to a knee or go down from the shots to the body but he would take a deep breathe and come back swinging.
The Brooklyn native appeared tireless as he continued to work the body and head of Fernandez. In the beginning of the eighth round, Fernandez was cut badly over the left eye and after a look from the ringside physician was cleared to continue. After the action continued it didn’t take long for the referee to step in to stop the bout at 1:39 of the round.
Oubaali landed 186 of 274 body shots and a total of 315 of 766 punches while Fernandez landed 191 of 517 punches. With this victory,Oubaali improves to 22-3 (18) while Fernandez drops to 15-5-1 (9).
In the co-feature, Zuri Lawrence who was a replacement opponent for Warsaw, Poland’s Albert Sosnowski, took the fight on only two days notice, scoring a surprise upset.
Lawrence from Wappinger Falls, New York, went into the fight coming off consecutive loses in his last two fights to Hasim Rahman and most recently, New York State Heavyweight Champion Darrel Madison.
Lawrence seemed tailor made for Sosnowski being a late replacement, appearing to be a step up in competition and a nice name to add to his resume, not to mention that Lawrence has never knocked out an opponent in his professional career.
Sosnowski came out in the first round looking for a knockout, swinging wildly. The two fighters clinched and held as Lawrence returned fire. The first half of the fight was much of the same with bombs being thrown by both fighters. Lawrence seemed to get hit with huge power shots but was never wobbled by the punches.
Sosnowski seemed to punch himself out after the first few rounds and his punch output clearly declined. His face began to show the wear and tear of the shots that Lawrence had been landing. I couldn’t help but think to myself what must be going through the head of Sosnowski, perhaps thinking to himself “What is going on here, this guy took the fight on two days notice and is not suppose to be a hard puncher?â€
The last two rounds were dominated by Lawrence . Sosnowski was holding now as often as he could. If the fight had been ten rounds there is a good possibility Lawrence could have scored his first knock out.
Although Lawrence, 24-14-4, won a unanimous decision with scores of 80-72 on all three judges scorecards watching from ringside I feel Sosnowski deserved at least one or two rounds scored in his favor who now drops to 43-2 (26).
In undercard action, Tarvis Simms improved his undefeated record to 22-0-1 (11) with a unanimous decision over journeyman Carl Daniels, 50-14-1 (32). Scores were 60-53 from all three judges with Simms getting the better of the brief exchanges and dropping Daniels to the canvas once in the fourth round.
Also feature on the undercard was local favorite Derric Rossy from Medford, NY, who defeated Jermell Barnes, 18-17-2 (4), of Rochester, NY.
All three judges scored the bout 80-72 for Rossy, 19-2 (10), who controlled most of the action and looked to be the stronger fighter throughout the match.