Estrada Victorious In Return

Ringside Report by Scott Ploof

2004 United States Olympian and Providence, RI’s own Jason “Big Six” Estrada (17-4, 4 KOs) made his return to the heavyweight division a successful one as he easily outpointed journeyman Joseph Rabotte (11-19-1, 3 KOs) over eight rounds on Friday night at the West Warwick Civic Center in West Warwick, RI. The judges scored the bout a perfect shutout for Estrada, 80-71 twice, and 80-72. The seven bout fight card was promoted by Roland Estrada and Big Six Entertainment. All of the bouts were put together by matchmaker Mark Vaz, and all media relations were handled by Ted Panagiotis.

Estrada, who is known more for his technical boxing skills rather than as a power puncher, was very methodical throughout the fight as he picked his opponent Rabotte apart. “I had expected exactly what he did. The guy has a good chin and can move. I don’t care what you say about him, but this guy moves. Even when I hit him good he was still moving and hard to keep up with. It was amazing to me that he could get hit like that and still can run,” said Estrada after the bout.

“Big Six” kept Rabotte pinned against the ropes in the early rounds, however both traded solid punches on their opponent. Estrada late in the first round hurt Rabotte with a solid right hand that had his opponent hurt however he was able to survive the round. Estrada said afterwards, “I felt good man because I got my surgery on my elbow after in my last fight I had messed it up. It felt like it was brand new again. I have not been able to throw that right hand like that in a very long time, and I caught with it.”

During the middle rounds of the fight, Estrada began to use his trademark jab to control the pace of the fight. He worked to use the jab in order to open up combinations as well as to counter Rabotte. Estrada said, “I wasn’t having a hard time at all I just wanted to get him to throw something soft so I could counter him. I am a good counterpuncher and I haven’t been able to in a while but now that I have my elbow is good. So I wanted him to throw a soft punch so that I could counter him. I never really got that chance tonight because every time I threw a punch, I would land one but he was gone by the time I went for a counter, he was already gone.”

As the rounds progressed, Estrada landed more and more with his jab and his opponent began to slow down. Rabotte was able to get into exchanges with his opponent, but he was ending up on the short end of the stick.

In the seventh round, an Estrada combination led to a solid right hand body shot to the midsection of Rabotte sending him to the canvas. He was able to recover from the shot at the count of eight. Estrada kept working to land at that injured rib throughout the remainder of the fight. In the end with the tensions high between the two combatants, there was no question on who won this fight.

“I feel great to be back in the ring tonight, and I think tonight was a very successful show. All of the fights on the card tonight were outstanding and we hope that this will continue in the future,” said Estrada.

After an almost nine year layoff, Brian “The Bull” Barbosa (30-6, 22 KOs) fighting out of Providence, RI, defeated Woonsocket, RI’s Joey Gardner (7-4-1, 1 KO) with a first round technical knockout in light heavyweight action. Barbosa knocked Gardner down twice in the opening stanza first with a brutal right hook which Gardner was able to recover from. It was the second left right combination about five seconds after the fight continued sealed his fate as Gardner fell to the canvas once again and referee Dick Flaherty called a halt to the action. Time of the referee stoppage was 2:20.

Vermont junior middleweight Chris Gilbert (3-0, 2 KOs) kept his unbeaten streak intact as he won a hard fought four round split decision over Providence, RI’s Dustin Reinhold (4-2, 2 KOs). One judge scored the bout 38-37 for Reinhold, while the other two judges scored the bout 39-36 twice in favor of Gilbert.

This bout was voted on by the media and fans in the arena as the “Fight of the Night” and special kudos to matchmaker Mark Vaz for putting together such an excellent fight. Gilbert who was the taller and faster of the two fighters utilized his height, reach, and speed advantage to slightly outland Reinhold.

The difference in the fight was that Reinhold had to constantly lunge at Gilbert to get close enough to land punches on his opponent. This gave Gilbert the advantage to counter Reinhold which gave him the slight edge not only out landing his opponent, but also being able to control the flow of the fight which led him to his third career victory.

In Other Action:

Junior welterweight Joseph “Chip” Perez (6-1, 2 KOs) defeated Adrian Perez (7-4-1, 1 KO) via six round unanimous decision. Scores of the bout all in favor of “Chip” Perez were 58-56 on all cards.

Undefeated super middleweight Angel Camacho (12-0, 4 KOs) defeated Keith Kozlin (6-3-1, 4 KOs) with a four round unanimous decision victory. Scores in favor of Camacho were 39-37 twice and 40-38.

Hartford, CT junior welterweight, Jair Ramos (1-0) won his professional debut over Robert Brando-Hunt (0-1) who was also battling in the squared circle for the first time. All three judges scored the four round bout a shutout for Ramos with all three cards reading 40-36.

Kali Reis (3-2-1, 2 KOs) knocked down her opponent, female junior middleweight Kate Aversa (0-2) twice in the second round before referee Joey Luppino called a halt to the fight. Time of the second round stoppage was 1:22.

December 10th, 2011

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