Results from Motown

Photos and report by Bob Ryder

Carlisle Boxing, promoter John Carlisle, presented a seven bout card of professional boxing at DeCarlo’s Convention Center in the suburban Detroit city of Warren on Friday night. It was a show filled with early endings. Five boxers were making their pro debuts and as so often happens in the case of first timers, one is never quite sure of what you will get. In the only contest that went the distance and was far and away the best fight of the night, Detroit’s Larry Ventus won a unanimous six round decision over Toledo’s Gabriel Morris in their welterweight scrap. Scores were 59-56, 58-56, 59-55. Ventus started strong in dominating the first round and for a moment it looked like this one would end early as all the other bouts had. Morris however, began to hit his stride and kept engaging Ventus in spirited exchanges. Ventus bloodied Morris’ nose in the third and Morris would fight with the handicap the rest of the way. Morris had an excellent fifth round and it started to feel that an upset was in the making but Ventus boxed smoothly in the final round stunning Morris right before the bell to secure the victory in upping his record to (5-1, 4 KO’s). Morris came to fight but declines to (4-16-2, 0 KO’s).

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The main event saw former National Golden Glove champ Lonnie Zaid Redmond of Detroit KO debuting Ricky Welch, also of Detroit, at 2:04 of the first to raise his mark to (5-0, 3 KO’s). Redmond looked slightly embarrassed as Welch went down twice from light probing body shots. Shrugging his shoulders with a “oh well” sort of look, Redmond tore into Welch with an assortment of hard blows that dropped Ricky for the full count. Heavyweights.

Featherweight Jafar Kirtley of Detroit had too much skill for his game and overmatched visitor from Newark, Anthony Fraguada. Fraguada was willing to swap blows but Kirtley had the fire power to knockdown Anthony three times for a first round TKO at 2:30. Kirtley improves to (3-0, 3 KO’s) while Fraguada goes to (1-6, 1 KO).

Juan Goode scored a first round KO at 2:30 over fellow pro debuter Tyler Perrault in a match up of heavyweights. A huge right hand did the trick for Goode after Perrault had been down once in the round. It was still a few days from Halloween but it was Robert Taylor dressed impersonating a pro boxer that entered the ring against Rahim Muhammad. Hapless Taylor was making his pro debut and looked visibly shaky climbing through the ropes. Muhammad quickly realized what he was in with and eased out a few body shots that put his opponent in trouble. Taylor seemed unsure of how to defend himself let alone mount any kind of offense. After going down twice Taylor told referee Pat Schmidt that he was done for the night. Muhammad hails from Detroit and goes to (3-0, 2 KO’s).

Christopher Finley of Detroit landed an uppercut just as referee Dale Grable was calling for a break that dropped debuting James Thomas of Grand Rapids for the count at 1:20 of the first. Grable ruled that the punch was already on the way when break was ordered. Lightweight Finley moves to (2-3, 2 KO’s). In the opening heavyweight match Phillip Jewell of Detroit sufficiently discouraged Todd Welcome of Britton, MI to have Todd quit in his corner prior to the bell for the third round. Jewell improves to (5-7-1, 4 KO’s) while Welcome goes down to (2-7-1. 2 KO’s).

October 29th, 2011

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