By Francisco Salazar and Rocco Morales at ringside
Making his professional debut at 52 years of age, Dewey Bozella won a four round unanimous decision over Larry Hopkins (0-4). It took Bozella a while to get going, throwing more punches as the bout progressed. After Hopkins took the first round, Bozella was able to land punches to the body, finally connecting more to the head in the third. In an odd sequence, Hopkins’ had difficulties keeping his mouthpiece inside his mouth in the fourth, prompting referee Marcos Rosales to deduct a point after the third time. Hopkins’ mouthpiece came out a total of six times during the fourth. All three judges scored the bout 39-36, 38-36, and 38-37 in favor of Bozella. After the fight, Bozella indicated that he was not sure if he would fight again.
Welterweight Nick Casal stopped previously-unbeaten Michael Anderson in the third round of a scheduled eight round bout. Casal (22-4-1, 16 KO’s) landed the more effective punches of the two in the first two rounds. In the third, Casal dropped Anderson (11-1-1, 9 KO’s) with a right uppercut to the head. Anderson got up, but was dropped again by a barrage of punches to the head. Casal went in for the kill after Anderson got up, although he missed with a lot of punches. Referee Marcos Rosales stepped in at 2:51 to stop the fight, even though it looked as though Anderson was not visibly hurt.
In a crossroads junior middleweight bout, Freddy Hernandez won a tough, workmanlike 10 round unanimous decision over Luis Collazo. Hernandez (30-2, 20 KO’s) was busier in the first two rounds, but Collazo was able to get going in the next two rounds, scoring with combinations to the head and body. Some rounds were very close, but Hernandez took control of the fight again in the later rounds. He dropped Collazo (31-5, 16 KO’s) with a left hook to the stomach in the eighth round and looked the fresher fighter of the two as the bout came to a close. All three judges, including Fightnews.com, scored the bout 96-93 in favor of Hernandez.
In an all-out war between unbeaten middleweights, DonYil Livingston won a hard-fought six round unanimous decision over Kurtis Colvin. Livingston (6-0, 3 KO’s) stunned Colvin with a right-left combination at the end of the first round. As the bout progressed, Colvin (6-1, 5 KO’s) came on aggressively, but Livingston responded with counter right hands to the head. All three judges scored the bout in favor of Livingston, with scores of 58-56, 58-56, and 59-55.
In a battle of unbeaten junior featherweights, Manuel Avila won a four round unanimous decision over Davis Reyes (2-1). The quicker Avila (6-0, 2 KO’s) dropped Reyes in the third round and went on to win by scores of 38-37, 39-35, and 39-36.
