Brick City Boxing

By: Danny Serratelli, ringside

Miguel Cotto, 33-1, 27 KO’s returned to the ring for the first time since his war with Antonio Margarito in July. Cotto stopped Brit, Michael Jennings, 34-2, 16 KO’s at 2:38 of round number 5. Jennings moved well for the first few rounds, but was caught with a devastating left hook in the 4th round and never seemed to fully recover from it.

At the end of the 4th, top notch referee, Benjio Estevez was on top of the action and was close to stopping the contest at that point, but Jennings showed some grit in surviving the round. Jennings ring entrance was interesting, which featured the Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK, but it was down hill from there. He was quick and initially appeared to be relatively durable, but once Miguel hurt him the big left hook, and followed up with some good body work it quickly became clear who the stronger fighter was. Jennings to his credit had some fight in him early, but it was amazing how men in the same weight class can look so different. Cotto was clearly the bigger stronger fighter, much the way it appeared that Margarito was the bigger stronger fighter against Cotto in his last outing. Jennings had never been stopped prior to this fight.

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Cotto is a consummate professional and he is now back on top of the division. With all the controversy surrounding Margarito, many questions will arise regarding the Cotto Margarito fight. A rematch was very attractive regardless, and if Margarito had even the slightest advantage in the fight that will be remedied in a rematch, I would surely favor Cotto in a rematch.

The co-feature of the evening had all the makings of an entertaining war on paper. The John Duddy vs. Matt Vanda fight broke out in the 10th round and was a great fight in the 10th round. The 10th round was the fight I expected to see. Unfortunately, the 9 proceeding rounds seemed for the most part like a controlled sparring session, with both men often working on defense and Duddy doing a little more in most rounds.

In the exciting 10th round the judges favored Vanda, unfortunately for Vanda 2 judges only gave him that round, while the 3rd judge gave him 3 of the 10 rounds. Both of these fighters are great guys and solid fighters who are usually always entertaining. They are also good sportsmen as after the exciting 10th round Vanda was congratulating and hugging Duddy when there was still a good 10 seconds or so on the clock, it was a little odd.

Pawel Wolak, 23-1, 16 KO’s stopped the Contender’s Norberto Bravo, 27-17-3, 15 KO’s at 1:33 of round number 1. Hometown favorite Maureen Shea, 13-1, 7 KO’s was upset when she was stopped at 1:35 of the 10th round by Kina Malpartida, 9-3, 2 KO’s.