Brick City Boxing

By: Jeff Miller, Ringside

Professional boxing hit the Commerce Bank Art Center in Sewell, NJ last night as Big Box Promotions along with Fighting City Productions put together a five bout card.

The main event was altered a little bit as Derek Ennis was sidelined due to a weight issue. So it was Philadelphia’s Eric “Murder” Mitchell, 21 – 4 (10 KOs), who took the fight with 24 hours notice, mixing it up with Edwin Vazquez, 22- 12 (8 KOs) in a 10 round Jr. Middleweight War. The early rounds were pretty even with Mitchell trying to establish his jab. Vazquez was trying to punish Mitchell downstairs, before getting a point deducted for low blows in round three. As the fight wound down, there was plenty of back and forth action with Mitchell’s hard counter right hands being the difference in the end. Official scores were 95 – 94 x 2, and 97 – 92 all in favor of Mitchell.

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In the co-feature of the night, Philly fan-favorite, Chazz “The Gentleman” Witherspoon, 22 – 0 (15 KOs) took on South Carolina’s Jonathan Haggler, 18 – 2 (13 KOs) in a scheduled 8 round heavyweight match-up. In the first two rounds Haggler seemed to land the cleaner shots, getting Chazz’s attention a couple of times. Things changed in round three, as Chazz started picking apart Haggler with nasty overhand rights. The “Gentleman” then sent Haggler to the canvas in round four with a clean five punch combo to the head. After smelling blood, Chazz stalked Haggler around the ring, landing more crushing blows upstairs, which forced the ref to step in and stop the action. Official time was 2:44 of round number four.

In other action…

Philly’s Jesus Barbosa, 2 – 0 – 1 (2 KOs) scored an impressive TKO over Melvin McGuire (pro debut), dropping him three times in the first round. Official time was 2:10.

Kareemah Thomas took a hard-earned unanimous decision over a tough Jennifer Mollister. Official scores were 40 – 36 and 39 – 37 twice. Both women were making their pro debut.

Victor Valensuela (pro debut) of Passaic, NJ, won an impressive unanimous decision over Felix Arroyo, 1 – 2. Official scores were 40 – 35, 39 – 35 twice.