Full report from Staten Island

By Matt Richardson

Local residents warmly embraced the return of professional boxing to Staten Island, NY on Thursday night at the Hilton Garden Inn, packing the ballroom there to standing room only capacity for a five bout card headlined by unbeaten junior welterweight Mike Faragon.

Faragon (17-0, 7 KO’s) made easy work out of opponent Andres Ledesma; stopping him with a left to the body in the third round. Faragon had dominated the fight to that point by out boxing and simply being quicker to the punch than Ledesma. Ledesma (18-20-1, 13 KO’s) was game but still wound up losing his second fight in a row. Perhaps best known to local boxing fans for his violent upset knockout victory over Gary Stark in the spring of 2007, Ledesma has now only won two of his last 17 fights and should probably start considering another line of work.

Local lightweight Nicky DeMarco won an entertaining four-round unanimous decision against Cesar Gonzalez in the penultimate fight of the night. Coming off a year and half layoff, DeMarco (4-2, 2 KO’s) looked relatively sharp. He stunned Gonzalez with a left in the first and dropped him in the second with the same punch. DeMarco paced himself well, however, and easily won the encounter by scores of 40-35 and 39-36 (twice). Gonzalez is still winless at 0-2-2.

Diana Prazak won a hard-fought six-round unanimous decision against Lucia Larcinese in a female lightweight bout. Despite a 4-8 record going into the contest, Larcinese frequently scored well with her shots and even appeared to have momentarily stunned Prazak in the second. But Prazak, the WIBA junior lightweight champ, bounced back to hear scores of 59-55 and 58-56 (twice) read in her favor. She is now 10-1 with 7 KO’s.

In a clash of southpaws, junior middleweight Tommy Rainone won a workman-like but effective four-round unanimous decision against Josh Williams. All three judges scored the bout the same at 40-36. Rainone is now 17-4 with four wins inside the distance; Williams is 5-4 with four.

In a brief welterweight bout, unbeaten Anthony Young won his third professional fight with a second round knockout of Cliff McPherson. Young (3-0, 2 KO’s) dominated the first by outworking his opponent. McPherson absorbed a body combination followed by a left uppercut in the second that dropped him for a full a count. Time of the stoppage was 1:33. McPherson is now 3-7-1 (1 KO).

A respectable crowd of boxers and boxing personalities attended the card. ESPN 2 Friday Night Fights commentator and trainer Teddy Atlas, HBO judge Harold Lederman, former light heavyweight champion Virgil Hill, former cruiserweight champion Al Cole, perennial heavyweight contender Monte Barrett and WBA junior middleweight title-holder Austin Trout were among those spotted ringside.

The card was promoted by Greg Cohen Promotions. An exact attendance figure was not announced.

E-mail the author at boxingwriter@AOL.com or follow him on Twitter @MRichardson713

January 20th, 2012

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