Brick City Boxing

By: Danny Serratelli, ringside
Photos by: Richard Roffman

Simon vs. Garcia in the main event

Rising Star Promotions became the third new boxing promoter to put on a show in New Jersey in two weeks time when they teamed up with The Showboat Hotel & Casino to deliver a quality night of professional boxing from the “House of Blues”. The show consisted of 7 bouts all of which turned out to be well matched and competitive. The attendance was good but the action was better and the venue was impressive.

Energy drink, Liquid Lightning sponsored the show and the girls from www.Roundcardmodels.com as well as a live musical act right before the main event added some interesting flavor to a great night of boxing. The show opened with a good match up with Rondu Campbell, 2-0 winning a hard fought split decision over Dwayne Davis, 0-1 and the action continued up until USBA middleweight champion Lajuan “Simply Marvelous” Simon, 18-0 9 KO’s won a unanimous decision over Elco “The Animal” Garcia, 19-7, 9 KO’s.

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Simon, a Philadelphia fighter and local favorite was originally scheduled to defend his USBA title against a dangerous opponent in Kofi Jantuah, however when that fight fell out the capable Elco Garcia stepped in. Despite the fact that the USBA title was not at stake, Garcia came to fight and was gallant in a loss that was competitive throughout. (Judges scores, 97-93 John Riley, 98-92 Alan Rubinstein and 98-92 John Stewart)

In the co feature of the evening, light welterweight, Patrick Lopez, 12-1, 10 KO’s, who was coming off of his lone defeat as a professional stopped the crafty southpaw from Rochester, Johnathon Tubbs, 10-5, 3 KO’s when referee Sam Viruet halted the action at 2:04 of round number 4. Tubbs, who has good tools could not find his rhythm and was hurt several times by Lopez before the stoppage in round number 4.

Mussachio vs. Albino

In the upset of the evening, local favorite, and all around good guy, Chucky Mussachio was upset as opponent Albino Zefferino pulled out a draw in a disputed decision where ringside observers were all over the place with their opinions. Mussachio was not happy with the decision, he felt he dictated the tempo of the fight and would love to fight Albino again to set the record straight. Chucky seemed to control the tempo with the jab; however Albino may have won some rounds as the aggressor, although often it did not appear to be effective aggression. At the final bell the judge’s scorecards read, (Rubinstein) 59-55 Mussachio, (Stewart) 59-55 Albino and 57-57 (Riley).

Undercard:

In yet another impressive performance as a professional, undefeated middleweight, and Atlantic City’s own, Patrick Majewski, 7-0, 5 KO’s stopped the inconsistent, but capable Victor Paz, 9-5-1 fighting out of the Bronx, New York. Majewski has opened some eyes in his last couple fights. He blew out a decent opponent in the hard hitting Nick Collins in his last fight a few months ago on KEA Boxing’s “Wildwood War’s. The easy win over Paz was even more impressive considering that Paz was coming off of a very solid performance against Chuck Mussachio on that same “Wildwood War’s” show in which he dropped a controversial split decision to Mussachio. Mussachio, to his credit has been trying to stay busy, despite being a full time teacher and taking fights with solid opposition despite the fact that he is dealing with several lingering injuries.

Philadelphia fan favorite Ivan “Mighty” Robinson, who won the upset and fight of the year back in 1998 against the all time blood and guts warrior, Arturo “Thunder Gatti” was at the show working his brother, Kareem Robinson’s corner. Unfortunately for the Robinson’s, opponent Manuel Guzman, 4-5, 2 KO’s came to bring the fight to the younger Robinson brother. Kareem is a tall rangy fighter, but he often does not utilize his obvious reach advantage and he lets shorter fighters get inside and bang. Guzman swept the 4 rounder on all 3 judges’ scorecards, 40-36 in the welterweight bout.

Light heavyweight, Lavarn Harvell, 1-0 was victorious in his professional debut over Rafael Jastrzebski who fell to 0-6-1. Harvell swept on all 3 judges scorecards, but Jastrzebski came to fight and appeared to give his all in the losing effort.

The New Jersey boxing scene is starting to blossom after hitting some rough times where club shows in the state were all but non existent. After Gabe LaConte stopped doing shows in The Brick City, Newark New Jersey, there have been a hand full of promoters who have done a show or two, but could not persevere rough times.

Over the last few years, Main Events has done club shows on and off, but nothing recently. With several shows in the last few months in New Jersey, including John Lynch’s Pound for Pound Promotions debut last week and this Rising Star Promotions show, the future of New Jersey boxing is looking bright.

Acting commissioner Sylvester Cuyler must be commended for overseeing the most recent events and making sure business is conducted properly yet preventing any postponements or cancellations. Over these last few years, KEA Boxing Promotions has almost single handedly kept the New Jersey club scene alive as the only promotional company to consistently promote high quality club shows in the New Jersey. It will be interesting to see if Rising Star and the other newcomers come back and help KEA boxing keep up the momentum in the Garden State.