Fight Night at Roseland

Jerry Glick reporting: Of the six fights held at New York City’s famous Roseland Ballroom in Midtown three, yes I said three, ended in draws including the first two. And three was the number of titles fights as well.

Promoters Cedric Kushner and his Gotham Boxing and Steve Bash, Bash Boxing, had a good crowd of about 1500 on hand on this very chilly February night for their show called “The Russians are Coming.”

In the main event diminutive Dimitry Kirilov made the first defense of his IBF Jr Bantamweight title against Cecilio Santos of Mexico City, Mexico.

Kirilov, 113 ½, appeared to get the better of it by using his faster hands to deliver combinations to his foe’s head and body. Santos, 115, started fast in the opening stanza landing hard shots to the head and body and it almost looked like we would see the title change hands, but Kirilov charged back in the next three rounds with quick combinations that landed to Santos’ head and body. It was Kirilov’s faster hands that made the difference.

Regardless, Santos, 22-8-3 (12), came alive again in the seventh and eighth with solid power shots that began to redden the Russian’s face. Kirilov, 29-3-1 (10), began to show puffiness on his face as early as the fifth round. Santos snapped Kirilov’s head back in that round as well with a right hand.

In the ninth Santos sustained bad cuts over his eyes that prompted referee Steve Willis to call time out to show the doctors the damage, but they allowed the fight to continue.

Judge Gilson tallied 116-112 for Kirilov while Judges Epstein and Morgan agreed at 114-114, a draw.

After an eleven month layoff, Dmitriy Salita returned to action looking sharp as he powered through mediocre, late sub Fabian Luque, 19-9-4 (11), to score a fifth round TKO at :45 into the round.

Salita, 28-0-1 (16), appeared to realize that he had little to be concerned about from his opponent and started to relax and go after him with a two handed attack.

After coming out aggressively in the first round throwing bombs to the head and body he finally put El Lobo, as Luque is called, down near the end of the round.

Salita, from the Ukraine but now living in Brooklyn, NY, broke his foe down dropping him again in the fourth, the same round that Salita lost a point for a low blow. Salita sustained a bloody cut over the left eye that seemed to fire him up to end it as soon as he could.

In the fifth Salita, 144, pounded a tired, battered, Luque, landing at will prompting the doctor to call it off. Benji Esteves refereed.

Luque, 145 ¾, from Los Mochis, Mexico, wasn’t finished, or so he said.

“The referee stopped it,” said Luque. “But I wanted to continue. I could have finished that round. Salita was cut and the doctor should have checked his cut. My cut was caused by a butt whereas his was caused by my fist. I didn’t feel his punches except the low blows.”

“I was rusty but after I knocked him down I started to relax,” said Salita. “It felt good to be back.”

“When I started to relax I started dropping my hands. I did what I had to do. I needed the fight to get the rust off.”

Eileen Olszewski annexed the WIBA World Flyweight strap taking a majority ten round decision from defending Champ Elena Reid.

Olszewski, 110 ½, took the first round with a two fisted attack that had Reid, from Phoenix, AZ, covering up. Olszewski landed a clean right and appeared to dominate the round.

Reid, 111 ¾, won the second when she backed Olszewski, from New York, NY, up taking control as Olszewski had a mild case of nerves. But as soon as she shook off her nerves, Olszewski out fought Reid for the rest of the fight.

Olszewski, 5-0-1 (0), threw the harder punches, while Reid, 19-4-5 (5), threw mostly arm punches that had very little steam on them. Two of the Judges voted for the new title holder, Olszewski, by a score of 98-92, but the third Judge had it even at 95-95, giving her the “W” by a majority decision. Sparkle Lee refereed.

Tall Lightweight prospect, Jorge Teron, 135, continues to impress and improve. This time just having too much skill and punch for shopworn veteran Sandro Marcos, from Oaxaca, Mexico, was enough to dominate him.

“The Truth” Teron, 20-0-1 (13), started out boxing at long range and mostly kept it there but Marcos, also 135, tried hard to rush in and negate Teron’s reach advantage but Teron, from the Bronx, NY, did well inside too. He put Marcos, 28-17-2 (23), down at end of the fourth and again in the fateful fifth prompting referee Esteves to end the fight at 2:41 of the round.

Teron just kept jabbing and tossing combinations at Marcos’ flattened face. Throughout the fight Teron was too fast, too tall, and too many skills for Marcos.

Jon Schneider, 7-1-1 (5), Bronx, NY, 195, started out doing all the work in the six round cruiserweight bout, but once his opponent Tyrone Smith, 5-5-2 (2), Boston, MA, 197, started to hit back taking the second half of the fight he evened things up. It was mostly a brawl as they rushed each other swinging wide shots. The majority draw went as follows: 59-55 Schneider and 57-57 twice. Esteves officiated.

Garri Bagdasarov, 0-0-1, Bellevue, WA, 138 ½, bled from his nose from the first of four rounds on against Osvaldo Rivera, 0-0-1, Bronx, NY, 138 ¾. It seemed that Rivera got the better of the awkward slugging match. Rivera kept up a steady amount of pressure in every round even hurting Bagdasarov in the third. The Judges called it a split draw with scores; 40-36 for Rivera, 39-37 for Bagdasarov, and 38-38 each. Sparkle Lee refereed.

PUNCHLINE

On hand at Roseland were Lou Savarese, Emile Griffith, Mark Breland, Yuri Forman, Olympic ice skater Oksana Baiul, and The Magic Man, Paul Malignaggi who talked to this reporter about Ricky Hatton.

“If all goes well,” said The Will-O-The Wisp Award winner from the AAIB. “I’ll fight him in the Garden in the Fall, if they don’t try to strong arm us on negotiations; on going negotiations, on the up and up.”