A Night To Remember: Throwback Videos & Ringside Report

Posted on | September 13, 2009 | No Comments

By: Rich Bergeron

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It was certainly an event that lived up to its billing as a bunch of local fighters dominated the action at Plymouth Memorial Hall this past Saturday night and provided fans with plenty to remember. Cheering sections belted out instructions, encouragement, and catch phrases from the stadium seating in support of their favorite fighters. Right off the bat the crowd saw Lawrence Cruiserweight Alexis Santos (2-0) demolish Dino Weingarten (2-5) with a smashing right hook that put Weingarten on the canvas for the third time in the round. The official time of the win was 1:19 of the first. Santos is clearly ready for some stiffer competition. His crisp punches and great timing made Weingarten wither quickly under the pressure.

Pembroke’s own Paul Gonzalves (2-0, 2KOs) took only 20 seconds longer than Santos to get his knockout over Robert Graves (0-2). Both fighters traded sloppy blows at the outset, but Gonzalves had the better movement. He winged a few of his best shots early, but he later regrouped with a snapping jab and a wicked right hook that floored Graves for a good count. Graves gamely rose to his feet and went as long as he could before another flurry from Gonzalves dropped him once again, forcing the referee to call a stop to the fight. The official time was 1:39 of the first.

The undercard fights really stole the show in this one considering the main event contained a bit more holding than hitting for much of the first half of the fight. The camera angle we had for these videos made them almost impossible to salvage unless we gave them an old-school black and white look. We apologize for the low quality. So, here is round one of one of the best fights of the night as Lynn, Massachusetts Bantamweight Isander Beauchamp (6-0-1, 2 KOs) squeaked out a win over a hard-charging Elton Dharry (2-5-1) of Brooklyn, New York:

Dharry exhibited great heart and a fabulous chin as he took Isanders best shots and kept coming forward in the second round. At one point he had Beachamp stunned with a well-placed uppercut. His killer instinct kicked in, and he unloaded with all his best punches to no avail. Beauchamp weathered the worst of Dharry’s fury with a tight 1-2 combo, wild combos, flurries, and flush hooks. Every time Beauchamp would land a crushing blow on Dharry’s skull, the kid from Brooklyn would just keep coming forward. Beachamp had the look of a guy who dropped plenty of previous opponents with what he threw at Dharry. He had to go into deep water with Dharry even though it was only a four round fight. Beauchamp battled back against Dharry’s attack with crushing body shots and pure slugging.

Round three began with a cut visible under Beauchamp’s eye, giving the undefeated local fighter an excuse to dance out of range a while. Dharry spent the better part of the round chasing the running Beauchamp, landing just a few shots at a time. Beauchamp fought smart. He dominated the round from long distance. Trying to emulate Roy Jones Jr., he swayed his hips and danced all over the ring with a stiff or quick jab always in Dharry’s face. He mixed in a few nice left hooks and hard rights as well. Beachamp fought flashy and with just enough fire to take the round easily and really frustrate Dharry.

The final round saw both fighters start slow, Beachamp landing a few sloppy shots early. Again he kept out of range, though Dharry landed some good body shots and another stellar uppercut. Beauchamp found his range again, landing a beautiful left uppercut and a right hook. Dharry continued to stalk his opponent, but all his earlier energy seemed to be sapped. Beauchamp was able to cruise through the round by barely engaging and fighting a better defensive fight. He threw in more Roy Jones Jr. outbursts and landed a few good shots to boot in order to put an exclamation point on his unanimous decision. Dharry landed a left hook late in the round, and both fighters really slugged it out in the final seconds, right to the bell.

Frankie Reed (0-3) came all the way from Williston, South Carolina to battle Stoughton, Massachusetts Boxer Mical Weisberg. This Super Middleweight contest was really the best slugfest of the night. The entire fight is below, and we apologize in advance for the grainy quality. Weisberg wades in with heavy handed blows early and often to get the victory after a hard fought battle:

Artie Lopes made an emotional professional debut dedicated to his grandfather (Manuel Antonio Lopes), a fallen friend of the local fight community and lover of any good fight. Lopes was eager to get the bout underway, and he had a confident look on his face as he prepared to go toe to toe with an experienced Chris Cook (3-17-2) at welterweight. Cook traded jabs early with Lopes only to get caught with a left hook and another winging left later on. Lopes bulled him into a corner and knocked him down, but Cook bounced back up quick. Lopes spent the rest of the round sizing up his left hook and stalking Cook. Cook resorted to hugging and holding toward the end of the round, not using his reach advantage at all. He did land a nice left hook near the bell, though.

Cook kept up the clinching in the second round, and Lopes started off a bit sloppy again. He threw whatever he could, but nothing seemed to land crisply. Finally he started landing some left hooks to the body and a booming left hook to the head of Cook. Cook only managed a few nice right hooks in the clinch.

Cook’s energy and stamina seemed shot by the start of the third, and Lopes knew it. He went on a relentless campaign of lead left hooks, sending Cook to the canvas early for a long count. Cook went back to work only to get clobbered with more left hooks and then a vicious uppercut to the stomach that left him unable to continue.

The Main Event featured Castulo Gonzalez (9-9, 3 KOs) and Mike Oliver (22-2, 7 KOs) in a fight that featured too much holding and not enough engaging in the early rounds. Gonzalez had a tough time adjusting to Oliver’s hand speed, but while able to get away with cupping the back of Oliver’s head early on, Gonzalez looked fairly decent. At other times both fighters took advantage of various holding techniques. For a while in the first few rounds the fight resembled more of a grappling match than a boxing bout. Gonzalez stalked Oliver through the first, picking his shots and landing his right consistently. He also landed a really nice left hook to the body and the head. Oliver landed some sparing flurries and a few uppercuts to the body. His jab began working early and landed often.

Oliver’s inside game passed the test in round two as Gonzalez had some of his best moments in a corner slugfest weathered by Oliver with some artful holding and clinching and tremendous in tight contact. Oliver landed a crunching right hook to the body at one point that backed Gonzalez up for a moment. Gonzalez had the left hook working, pushing Oliver up against the ropes whenever he could, but Oliver’s movement and use of the whole ring would begin to tire Gonzalez out in the later rounds.

Oliver had one of his worst rounds in the third as he had to slug out of the corner and had the ref take points from him and Gonzalez for excessive holding. Gonzalez got himself up on his toes and waited for his openings. He began fighting in close and landing some great inside shots that seemed to make Oliver struggle.

Gonzalez continued to go ballistic in the fourth, though Oliver managed to land a few nice combos and a nice right hook and straight left. Gonalez looked a bit ugly at times slugging wildly as Oliver bounced off the ropes. He backed Oliver into a corner again and went off in the last seconds of the round.

Castulo couldn’t win a round by the time the fifth ended, burning himself out in the opening seconds with another corner attack that Oliver took the best of and kept right on ticking. Oliver fought his way out, re-established his jab, and went to work. He suddenly seemed to have a huge advantage as his superior hand-speed, ring generalship, and a consistent straight left and right hook turned the tide.

Though it seemed Oliver couldn’t hear him, another fighter’s trainer was grumbling instructions in a Jamaican drawl from the back of the arena through most of the fight, begging Oliver to establish that straight left and start using the right hook. Finally Oliver seemed to pick up on the instructions, and the Jamaican seemed to take credit for it, saying, “Yessss, that’s it, Oliver!” Oliver finally looked in control in the fifth, landing left hooks as well as some fancy combos that made Gonzalez look spent.

Oliver left no doubt in the remaining rounds. He overwhelmed Gonzalez with his hand speed and relentless attack. Gonzalez developed a bad cut over his right eye, and it was all downhill from there. He began a slow and deliberate plodding attack that Oliver picked apart. He kept Gonzalez at bay with a steady diet of jabs and blinding combos. Gonzalez stepped it up a bit in the seventh, but so did Oliver. Gonzalez slugged it out in the corner, landing some bombs here and there, but Oliver landed his 1-2 flawlessly and seemed to be making more of a dent with his punches than Gonzalez could. Oliver had all his combos working wonderfully toward the round’s end with a nice right hook to the head and uppercuts and hooks to the body landing at will.

The final round featured more of the same with Gonzalez content hanging all over Oliver in close quarters. Oliver’s hand speed won the day as his flurries skipped all over Castulo’s face in the final frame. He had his right hook working and his body shots were smacking home hard throughout the last round. Oliver adapted well and took the Unanimous Decision by scores of 77-74 and 77-73.

A couple local South Shore Massachusetts fighters closed the show with Barnstable’s Jesse Barboza (2-0, 2 KOs) providing the most crowd-pleasing performance in his heavyweight showdown with Lewis Cotuna (0-2). Cotuna, from Winston Salem, North Carolina, looked a bit out of shape and out of place in the first round as Barboza schooled him all over the ring as his cheering session accented each attack with the chant of “Baaad Neewws!” Barboza’s nickname seemed all the more appropriate as he took Cotuna to Hell and back with one bomb after another to the chin. Here’s almost the entire fight in two videos:

Quincy’s Ryan Kielczewski (5-0, 2 KOs) made quick work of Norman Allen (0-4-1) in the super featherweight finisher. Allen seemed to be holding on for dear life from the beginning. Kielczewski used a quick and power jab and a nice right hand to take control in the first round. Fighting furiously for the hometown crowd, the Quincy favorite landed some really amazing combos. The second round didn’t last very long as Kielczewski came out with some vicious hooks and uppercuts against Allen, who backed into a corner and fought off the ropes briefly. Finally, Kielczewski connected with a brutal left hook to the head that dropped llen to a knee where the ref called the fight.

The night was a testament to the ability of the local talent coming through the pipeline and a tribute to some great fighters of old in attendance. Peter Marciano, younger brother of Rocky Marciano, sat ringside and presented Mike Oliver with his title belts after the featherweight main event. It was a perfect night of pure boxing, and fittingly the videos came out in black and white to emphasize that boxing is just as healthy as it was in those days with some great young prospects ready for the limelight.

Like the days when Rocky attracted a mod of Brockton residents yelling “Timber” when his opponents fell, the locals came out in fierce support of the hometown kids. Their encouraging and motivational outbursts seemed to fuel the men inside the ropes fighting to get the win and the crowd’s approval as well. At one point a Mical Weisberg supporter bellowed, “He’s scared of you, Mike.” It really seemed to help as Weisberg punched with pure abandon and wild fury, forcing his opponent to fold under the pressure. The fans who braved the driving rain saw a fantastic line up of great bouts. The right hand knockouts were in full effect as well, hearkening back to that great “Suzy Q” right that Rocky took many of his KO victims out with.

Boxing is alive and well in Massachusetts and New England, and Jimmy Burchfield’s show had an air of professionalism second to none. Burchfield made his way into the ring before and after every bout, buzzing about with a quaint smile and a fast handshake for each fighter along with some words of encouragement. The crowd saw all the local folks make good with career-advancing wins, though the out of towners left with no shame after some hard-fought battles.

We’ll have some photos a bit later in the week. I’m pretty sure those will be in color.

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