Grachev stops Caminero

By Phil Doherty

The Seminole Hard Rock Live witnessed the promotional debut of Panther Promotions, LLC with tonight’s aptly-titled “Change is Coming” card.

Light heavyweight Denis “The Pirate” Grachev (11-0-1, 7 KOs) picked up the WBC Inter-Continental belt via a third-round stoppage victory over Eddie “Thunder” Caminero (7-5, 7 KOs). Picking off his wild-swinging opponent with crisper, stronger shots, Grachev steadily increased his output going into the third round, dazing Caminero along the ropes. Referee Frank Gentile jumped in to stop the action at 1:29 of the round, much to the chagrin of Caminero and the vocal crowd.

In the co-main event, undefeated middleweight Chad Trahan (5-0, 4 KOs) of Lafayette Louisiana outpointed Haitian Elie Augustama (5-3, 3 KOs). Elie, the younger brother of originally-scheduled headliner Azea Augustama, dropped the unanimous decision by virtue of identical 79-73 scorecards for the left-handed Trahan.

Highlights from the lively undercard kicked off with unbeaten light middleweight Frank Gedeon (3-0, 2 KOs) of West Palm Beach FL scoring a rousing first-round knockout of previously undefeated Antonio Infante (6-1, 4 KOs). The easy pick for fight of the night belonged to towering middleweights Lamar Russ (8-0, 5 KOs) from Tallahassee and Marcus Upshaw (13-7-1, 6 KOs) of Jacksonville in their 6-round battle. (Both men stand at well over 6 feet tall). Russ scored a knockdown in the first only to find himself on the canvas in the following round. Judges felt Russ did enough to pull out the victory with scores of 58-54 and 57-55 (twice). Super middleweight Jerrod Caldwell (1-0, 1 KO) of Gainesville FL thwarted Texan Randell Vercher’s (0-3) first career victory by way of a third-round TKO in their 4-round contest. Welterweight Cletus Seldin (1-0, 1 KO) stamped a similar impression during his professional debut with a vicious TKO over Wilson Feliciano (2-2, 2 KOs) at 48 seconds of the third round. Cuban cruiserweight Yuniesky Gonzalez (5-0, 3 KOs) secured a shutout victory over southpaw Grover Young (5-3, 2 KOs) with scores of 60-54.

July 10th, 2011

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