Brick City Boxing

By: Ken Hisner

Guyanan southpaw Troy Ross, 21-1 (15) out of Toronto won “The Contender” title Wednesday night by stopping Nigeria’s Ehinomen “Hino” Ehikhamenor, 15-4 (7), out of Queens at 2:00 of the 4th round with a little help from referee Steve Smoger. The fight was scheduled for 10 and was at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Mashantucket, Connecticut and broadcasted over the VERSUS station.

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The climax of this tournament could have been seen for the last time with another controversial finish. In the 2005 tourney when Peter Manfredo, Jr. got robbed by two of the judges after a good fight we fans felt cheated. On this occasion with Ehikhamenor’s arm entangled outside the rope as he turned to avoid the wild swings of Ross, Smoger prematurely made a bad decision in stopping the contest. The losing fighter had taken little punishment and even though defenseless with one hand unable to fight back he still avoided most of Ross’ wild swings. Ehikhamenor protested the stoppage. Picking the cruiserweight division was the first mistake. Picking Tony Danza was their second mistake. The usually funny actor seemed to go back in time when he was a club fighter and came across with a macho image on the show. “Sugar” Ray Leonard he is not!

I don’t want to take anything away from Ross who represented Canada in the Olympics, because he was the best fighter in the tourney but once the division gets over light heavyweight things do tend to slow down. To have an hour show and not even show the full 15 minutes of a 5 round fight if it goes that far is not a good idea.

Getting back to the rest of the card, Detroit’s Rico Hoye, 23-3 (15) was forced to be in a wrestling match due to Nigerian Akinyemi Laleye’s, 12-3 (6) holding tactics but easily won over 8 rounds. All scores were 79-72.

Galveston’s Felix Cora, Jr., 20-3-2 (10) easily dispatched 40 year old Tim Flamos, 20-6-1 (8), of Brockton, Mass, at 1:15 of the 3rd round. Upon rising from a knockdown Flamos was in no condition to continue but referee Johnny Callas started counting before realizing how hurt Flamos was. Cora is a skilled boxer and Flamos who has the heart of a lion and a pretty good punch simply has no balance.

Ryan “The Irish Outlaw” Coyne, 11-0 (3), of St. Louis, easily won a 6 round decision over Richard Gingras, 8-2 (4) of Concord, Mass, by scores of 59-55 twice and 60-54. Coyne had to drop out of the show due to a second cut near the eye. Since the earlier fights were fought in the fall he had time for healing.

Alfredo Escalera, Jr., 17-2-1 (12), of Puerto Rico stopped Erick Vega, 8-4 (6) at 2:50 of the 6th and final round when referee Callas stopped the bout.