Brick City Boxing

Espinosa, Gavern and Cusumano win

KEA Boxing Promotions made a successful return after almost a year and a half hiatus. KEA has experienced the regular growing pains expected for up and coming boxing promoters; however, KEA has been able to overcome many of them like losing money, failing to lock up prospects, prospects getting beat, and most of all people not keeping their word. Despite the regular drama that comes along with promoting professional boxing, Andre Kut of KEA boxing always wants to keep his word and as Sinatra said, Kut says he wants to do it “My Way”.

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KEA starting promoting fights back in June of 2004, so they have been around for 5 years now. To date they have featured several former world champs like Agapito Sanchez and Steve Molitor. Contender star Wayne Johnsen, newly crowned WBC Carribean Champion Alex Perez, rising heavyweight Kevin Johnson, Henry Crawford, Pawel Wolak as well as many other exciting rising stars.

The most recent show on Friday brought professional boxing back to Wilkes-Barre, PA for the first time in over twenty years with an entertaining seven bout card at the Woodlands Inn and Resort on Saturday night. This was the 3rd state KEA has promoting a show in, as they have left their home base of Northern New Jersey to go to South Carolina, deep South Jersey and now Pennsylvania.

It was a successful event for the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre fans as former Scranton police officer and heavyweight prospect, Jason Gavern, 17-5-3, 8 KO’s captured one sided, six round unanimous decision victory over Michael “Big Daddy” Rhodes, 3-5-3, 1 KO.

Gavern 228 of Kissimmee, Florida, had to give up over 120 pounds to the 353 pound Michael “Big Daddy” Rhodes. Seeing the power of a few wild misses, Gavern kept his distance in the opening round behind left jabs and hooks. Gavern began to set down on his punches in round two, landing heavy shots, using Rhodes like a heavy bag and then getting out before he could land anything in return. Gavern tried to sit down on his punches as the fight went on, but appeared to hurt his hand midway through the fight. From that point he still dominated, but didn’t throw the injured hand with the same authority. At the final bell, all three judges gave every round to Gavern (60-54 x 3). Gavern will be back in Wilkes- Barre on May 23rd fighting on another KEA show.

In the co-feature of the evening Old Forge, PA’s Anthony Cusumano, 3-2-1, 2 KO’s moved above the five hundred mark with a second round stoppage of hard luck Philadelphian, Emmanuelle Rosas 0-5. The popular local lightweight moved his head and backed Roses into the ropes. He kept a consistent body attack. Cusamano opened up and Roses covered up without firing back for too long according to referee Art Bayliss, who stopped the contest at 2:11 of round number 2.

In a crazy fight that featured 2 female fighters making their professional debuts, Julie “The Irish Fury” Albanese won a close four round majority decision slugfest over April “Hollywood” Richards, in a battle of debuting middleweights.

Both of these fighters did not hold anything back. They went toe to toe all 4 rounds, and what they sometimes appeared to lack in skill, they made up for with will. The fight went to the scorecards with one judge scoring the bout even 38-38, but was overruled as the other two had 40-36 and 39-37 in favor of Albanese.

Undefeated super featherweight prospect Antonio “Tony the Tiger” Espinosa, 10-0, 1 KO stepped up his game and really tried to get his opponent out of there. The normally cautious Espinosa, tried for the knock out,, but his opponent, Baltimore’s Maryland’s Darrell Martin, 4-8, 1 KO was still there at the final bell. Espinosa swept the cards with 3 scores of 60-54.

Undefeated welterweight prospect Issouf Kinda raised his record to 3-0, 1 KO with a one sided four round unanimous decision victory over a game but outgunned Aaron Anderson, 0-5 of Knoxville, TN.

Kinda of Burkina Faso was the more schooled fighter, while Anderson was a gritty banger who came to fight but wasn’t as sharp or busy as Kinda. Kinda won every round (40-36 x3) on all three judge’s scorecards.
Baltimore, Maryland lightweight Raymondo Elliot pulled an upset, capturing the first victory of his professional career with a 2nd round technical knockout of Clinton “Pretty Boy” Douglas in their scheduled four round bout.

Douglas, known for his speed and movement, had a decent 1st round as he kept Elliott on the outside with four and five left jabs and then mixing up some shots to the body as Elliott tried to work his way inside.
Elliott stepped up his attack with shots on the inside, which forced Clinton Douglas to trade with him. Douglas made a big mistake as he stood straight up while backing out of an exchange and was stunned by a left hook. Elliott seized the moment and connected with a right hand on the button, which back him up into the corner and followed with a right hand that sent him falling onto the second rope. Referee Art Baylis stepped in and gave a still stunned Douglas the count as he rose to his feet. Baylis asked Douglass if he was ready to continue and he answered yes, but Baylis looked into his eyes and waved the fight off at 2:26 of the second round. Raymondo Elliott evens his record at 1-1, 1KO. Clinton Douglass of Philadelphia, PA falls to a respectable 2-3-2.

Philadelphia, PA’s Rashawn Scott won a unanimous decision over Nanuet NY light heavyweight Denys Lozada over four very close rounds of action. Both fighters were tentative, and it was a very close fight that could have been a 2-2 draw, but all 3 judges scored the contest 3-1, 39-37 in favor of Scott who improved his record to 2-2.