Results From The District Sports Promotions Card In Baltimore, MD!

It was a great first night of boxing for both District Sports Promotions and the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore, MD on July 24. Here are the results.


The main-event of the night featured "The Baby-Faced Assassin" Yurii Polischuk of Alexandria, VA taking on  Anthony Prescott of Cherry Hill, NJ in a six round welterweight bout. Both fighters could not find the distance they needed to establish a solid performance during the entire bout. They had short moments when they landed one or two shots, but never the moment to show they won any round convincingly. The only thing that stood out was the fact that Prescott looked a little stronger physically than Polischuk. The size advantage that Prescott had showed power when he was able to land shots on his opponent. Polischuk was the craftier fighter with the quicker foot movement and that might have been the reason two of the judges scored the bout in Polischuk's favor. Polischuk gets the split decision win with the judges scoring it 58-56 twice for Polischuk and one judge had it 58-56 for Prescott.

Yurii Polischuc is now 7-2-1, (2KO's) while Anthony Prescott falls to 5-6-2, (2KO's).


In a four round heavyweight co-feature on the card Mike Balogun of Upper Marlboro, MD took on Lonnie Kornegay of Baltimore, MD. Balogun started his career off by knocking out all four of his opponents in the first or second round. In this contest with Kornegay it was different story. Kornegay is an opponent that is very hard to knockout. For the first time Balogun was forced to fight all four rounds, but he did it with ease. Balogun showed excellent foot movement along with boxing skills to showcased his power. He dominated every round and won the bout by unanimous decision on all three judges score cards 40-36.

Balogun remains undefeated at 5-0, (4KO's) as Kornegay falls to 1-12-3.


Glenarden, MD's Drayvantay Speed-Rawls put on a dominating performance when he took on Jorge Martin Soto of Las Vegas in a four round contest. Rawls took charge of the bout from the sound of the bell. Rawls was the faster of the two fighters and he used that speed to land a right hook followed by a hard left hand to drop Soto to the canvas for an eight count. Rawls never let up and continued to pressure Soto for the rest of the contest. Rawls won the contest by unanimous decision with scores of 40-35 on all three score cards.

Drayvantay Speed-Rawls is now 2-0 while Soto falls to 0-3.



In a scheduled four round contest it was Jacey Thompson of Washington, D.C. taking on Gledwin Ortiz of the Bronz, NY. Thompson had a long layoff  before coming into the bout and this was Ortiz second bout of his career. Ortiz won his first bout by knockout. This bout started off fast paced with both fighters coming out swinging with a purpose. The contest was about which fighter would land the knockout blow first. This time it was Ortiz. He was able to avoid a hard punch fromThompson and counter with his own solid right hand to send Thompson down for the dramatic finish. It was no need for the referee to start a ten count. Ortiz won by knockout at 50 seconds of round one.

Ortiz is now 2-0, (2KO's) while Thompson falls to 1-1.



Laurel, MD lightweight Edwin "El Matador" Reyes won a four-round unanimous decision over Albert "The Spider Monkey" Mendoza of Fayetteville, AR.  This bout was thought be a grudge match because of the heated face-off at the weigh-ins the day before the contest. Both fighters didn't show signs of having any tension towards each other when the bout started. The first round neither fighter showed too much. It was Reyes that stepped it up and landed the blows that made the difference throughout the rest of the bout.  Reyes won the bout by unanimous decision with scores of 40-36 twice and 39-37.

Reyes remains undefeated at 7-0, (5KO's) while Mendoza drops to 1-1, (1KO).



Tahir "The Beast Killer" Thomas of Salisbury, MD scored a second-round TKO over Washington, D.C.'s Marcellus "Super Pug" Yates. This was a super middleweight contest that started off with Yates going to the canvas twice in the first round. Thomas was able to land right hands from close range both times causing the knock downs. The shorter Thomas didn't have any problems at all getting in close to continue round two by landing hard shots on Yates. During the round Thomas landed another hard right to finish off Yates at 2:25 of round two.

 Thomas is now 4-0, (3KO's) while Yates is 0-4.



Arlington, VA super welterweight Zarifbek "Uzbek Warrior" Nishanbaev took on the debuting Vance Nwakpuda of Philadelphia, PA in the opening bout of the card. Nishanbaev was not able to find the distance he needed to establish the control he normally has in his bouts. Nwakpuda did not give up his defense and continued to fight off the aggressiveness of Nishanbaev. That same defense allowed Nwakpuda to land a straight right hand through the open guard of Nishanbaev to send him down. That punch did a lot of damage to Nishanbaev because he was on wobbly legs to close out round three. Nishanbaev tried to finish the final round strong, but wasn't able to get the knockout he was looking for.  Judge John Gradowski scored the bout for Nishanbaev, 38-37, but judges Brent Bovell and David Braslow saw the bout for Nwakpuda 38-37 and 39-36 giving him the split decision win.

Nishanbaev gets the first loss of his pro career and is now 2-1, (2KO's) while Nwakpuda starts at 1-0.

Here Are The Weights From Baltimore, Maryland!

Scale watch for the District Sports Promotions card at the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore, MD.

Main Event

6 round Bout

Yurii Polischuck 146 lbs vs Anthony Prescott 148.5 lbs

Co-Main Event

4 round Bout

Mike Balogun 236,5 lbs vs Lonnie Kornegay 244 lbs

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Undercard bouts are all 4 rounders

Bout 5

Dravontay Rawls 138.5 lbs vs Jorge Soto 140 lbs

Bout 4

Jacey Thompson 148 lbs vs Glenwin Ortiz 147 lbs

Bout 3

Edwin Reyes 133 lbs vs Albert Mendoza 134.5 lbs

(Photo not available)

Bout 2

Tahir Thomas 164 lbs vs Marcellus Yates 168 lbs

Bout 1

Zarifbek Nishanbaev 155.5 lbs vs Vance Nwakpuda 153 lbs

The entire card will broadcast live on Friday night July 24th on the Boxing Along The Beltway Google App For Android beginning at 7:55 PM ET.  IOS users can go to the Boxing Along The Beltway pages on

Spreaker.com click link below

http://www.spreaker.com/show/boxing_along_the_beltway

Also on 

Iheartradio.com click link below

http://www.iheart.com/show/22903291/

The Reason You Should Be A Beltway Boxing Fan!

The Reason You Should Be A Beltway Boxing Fan!

Boxing is one of the hardest sports that one individual can dedicate his or herself to. The physical development that a fighter goes through doesn't happen overnight. It starts when the fighter was a young kid. They were sent to a gym because they were having problems at school or home, and they needed a place to burn off some unused energy. The kid gets inside the gym and starts hitting a heavy bag with their bare fist. A trainer walks up to the kid and says "hey kid what's you name". The trainer tells the kid that they should always wrap their hands to protect them from being injured. The trainer continues to show the kid more techniques and the kid falls in love with the sport. That's one of the ways a relationship starts between boxer and trainer.  That is one of the many types of stories that happen here in the DMV area.

By: Juan Marshall

    Everyone not associated with boxing in this area recognizes Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia as the DMV. The boxing fans recognizes this area not only as the DMV, but also as the Beltway Boxing area. The Beltway Boxing area has a history that your average DMV native doesn't know about. It's a history that nearly every resident in this area should be proud of. This history is the sport of boxing. They already know about the history of the Washington Redskins, Capitals, Nationals, Wizzards, and now the not so old DC United.  The professional teams that are talked about all have players that never lived or visited the DMV area until they were asked to join the teams they play for. The local media has put boxing in the shadows of all these other sports and there isn't a clear cut reason why. Hockey is one of the most brutal sports that they televise the moments when the players fight each other. So why not televise local boxing?

   The DMV as a whole should also know the history of boxing. This area has kids that were born and raised in this area and decided themselves to become boxers. They trained so hard just to have that one moment to shine. From that point on they kept training harder and harder to become some of the best amateurs and professionsls in this country and some became the best boxers in the entire world. This is what we have here in the DMV, but only the average Beltway Boxing fans recognizes this. It's moments like this that should be acknowledged by the entire DMV area.

   The history of this area is very rich when it comes to boxing.  Did you know this area has two people in the International Boxing Hall Of Fame? This is the highest honor any boxer can get, and we have two that received that honor. They are "Sugar" Ray Leonard and Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson. Did you know this area had more boxing world title holders than any other area in the world? Did you know this area has many boxers that won Golden Gloves National Championships? Did you know we have the current WCB Featherweight Champion, who is the best featherweight fighter in the entire world living right here in our area? His name is "Mr." Gary Russell Jr. Did you know that the Russell family won multiple Golden Gloves National championship titles? Did you know this area has eight men and three women fighters currently ranked in the top 15 in the world? They are heavyweight Tony Thompson, light heavyweight Thomas Williams, three middleweights Dominic Wade, Antoine Douglas, and Tony Jeter, welterweight Dusty Hernandez Harrison, Jr. welterweight Lamont Peterson,and of course the WBC champion of the world Gary Russell Jr. On the womens side it's super welterweight Tori Nelson, super featherweight Jennifer Salinas, and flyweight Tyrieshia Douglas , who is the sister of top ranked Antoine Douglas. Did you know that this area has had Olympic Medal winners? Did you know that this area has had many boxers that fought on national television in the past and are still being televised currently? Did you know this area has young kids that have won Junior Olympic titles, and Silver Gloves titles in 2015? Did you know that we have amateur fighters that have a great chance of being part of the 2016 USA Olympic Boxing Team? This is the type of information our local media isn't telling the DMV area about. This is the information only the Beltway Boxing fans know about.

   These professional and amateur boxers put their lives on the line to perform for fans across the country and across the world. It's a shame their own area doesn't know anything about it. Boxing is a local, national, and world wide sport that our local media should cover and let it be known to our own public, and also the to the boxing fans outside of this area. That will be good for the boxers, this area, and the sport of boxing as a whole.

   If it wasn't for local bloggers that covered the local boxing shows in this area boxing would be just like having a night at the movies. In this area we have one of the top if not the top blog sites in the world. Gary "Digital" Williams has been covering local boxing in this area for more than thirty years now. His blog site has been actively going strong since July of 2005. If it wasn't for boxingalongthebeltway.blogspot.com there wouldn't be any news about boxing in the DMV area at all.

   The DMV area is large enough to sale out each and every venue when fight cards are put together. The promoters in the area put together cards based on what they've noticed in the past when it comes down to boxing and that is Beltway Boxing isn't as large as it could be. This is a business and it also is an enjoyable sport to watch. The lack of boxing knowledge comes from the lack of the DMV residents not knowing that boxing exist in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Only our average Beltway Boxing fans know about what's going on. That goes back to lack of local media coverage.

   The Beltway Boxing fans can pack the house at a good local fight card. Every promoter brings their own type of crowd to their shows. That's the best part of coming to live shows. There is one fan that stands out the most. Her name is Cat Taylor! She has been coming to 95% of the cards since 2014. She cheers for the Beltway Boxers when they fight at home and she even travels away to see them fight on the road. She has become the most popular fan in the area, and that gave her the recognition of earning the 2014 Beltway Boxing Fan Of The Year Award. It is the first time that this award has been handed out because until she came along there was never one to give away.

This is "The Reason Why You Should Be A Beltway Boxing Fan"!



   

Weigh-In Location For District Sports Promotions Card!

District Sports Promotions Weigh-Ins will be held on Thursday July 23rd at the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore, MD. The weigh-ins will be open to the public, but you must be 21 years of age to enter the casino. 

Address: 

1525 Russell Street

Baltimore, MD 21230

Time: 6:00 pm

For tickets call (702) 351-7699

GH3 Promotion Issues Statement On Odoms Upset Loss!

GH3 Promotions takes nothing away from Clarkson's win over the Bowie, MD super middleweight "The King's Son" Jerry Odom's. The third-round knockout loss to Samuel Clarkson was in front of a nationally-televised (Showtime) audience on July 17 at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, PA. They issued a statement after the loss. 


GH3 Promotions President Vito Mielnicki:

"I should have cut the fight at the weigh in but I let my fighter make the final decision and Jerry wanted to fight.  I thought about it but wanted to give Jerry the opportunity to showcase that he is one of the best Super Middleweights out there," said Mielnicki.

"I still believe in Jerry as much if not more then I did before the fight, Mielnicki continued.  He showed that he won't back down from anybody.  He was in there with a cruiserweight and against my better judgement, I let the fight happen.  I signed options with Clarkson and I am looking to do the rematch on television at the proper weight of 168 pounds. If he knew that he would be coming in so over the weight limit, being professional he could have come to us and we could have worked it out so Jerry did not have sweat off the final pounds for the last two days before the weigh in. That was his way of giving himself a better chance to win the fight.  Look at some the pre fight pictures and interviews, Jerry was as dried out and drained as he could have got, yet Clarkson looked fresh as a daisy.  We will look to have a rematch on television in the next four months."  

First Professional Boxing Card At The Horseshoe Casino In Baltimore, MD!

The newest of the Beltway Boxing promoters will make their debut on Friday July 24th. 



District Sports Promotions will be hosting their first professional boxing card at the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore, MD. This will also be the debut for professional boxing at Maryland's newest casino that opened on August 26, 2014.

Main-Event

Alexandria, VA welterweight "The Baby-Faced Assassin" Yurii Polischuk 6-1-1, (2 KO's) will take on Anthony Prescott 5-5-2, (2 KO's)of Cherry Hill, NJ.  Polischuk has been out of the ring for nine months. In his last bout he defeated Benjamin Olinga by unanimous decision in a six round contest to win the Virginia State Lightweight title.

Co-Main Event

This bout will feature two hometown heavyweights. The undefeated Mike "Silverback" Balogun 4-0, (4 KO's) of Upper Marlboro, MD. He will battle Baltimore, MD's Lonnie Kornegay. The fifteen fight veteran Kornegay will try to pull Balogun into deeper waters. Balogun has never been past the second round. He has KO'd all his opponents in either the first or second rounds. 

Featured Undercard

In a scheduled four round super welterweight contest Zarifbek "Uzbek Warrior" Nishanbaev 2-0, (2KO's) of Arlington, VA will take on Vance Nwakpuda of Philadelphia, PA. This will be a tough fight for the debuting Nwakpuda.

Washington D.C.'s welterweight Jacey Thompson will be returning to the ring for the first time since 2011. The 1-0, (1 KO) Thompson will be taking on Gledwin Ortiz, who is also 1-0, (1 KO) of the Bronx, NY in a four-round bout. 

Drayvontay Speed-Rawls of Glenarden, MD will battle Jorge Soto of Las Vegas, NV in a four-round bout. Rawls will be going into his second professional bout after coming off a successful split decision win over Joel Young on April 23 in Parkville, MD . Soto 0-2 hasn't fought since 2012 and will be looking for his first win. 

In a four round cruiserweight bout Marcellus Yates 0-3 of Washington, D.C. will take on Tahir Thomas 3-0, (2 KO's) of Salisbury, MD. 

The undefeated Edwin Reyes 6-0, (5 KO's) will take on Marko Szalai of Niagara Falls, Ontario, CA in a scheduled four round lightweight bout. Szalai will coming to Baltimore, MD looking for the first win of his career. 

The weighin will be held on July 23rd at the Horseshoe Casino starting at 4pm.  The fights will start at 8pm. 

For tickets call (702) 351-7699

Results From The SPHINX Club In Washington, DC!

It was a great night of boxing for the Beltway Boxing area. Keystone Boxing presented their 59th show to the fans in the DMV area. The card was held at the SPHINX Clud in N.W Washington, D.C. Keystone had a nine bout card that was matched pretty well. It started with a couple of early knockouts that ended with a unexpected loss for one of the area fights. 

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The main-event of the card featured Marq Johns of Fort Washington, MD taking on Karl Garcia-Rios of Bayamon, Puerto Rico in a six round contest.

This was a tough fought bout. Both fighters came out in the first round trying to establish their jabs and find their distance. It was an even exchange until Marq Johns landed a solid right hand to send Rios to the canvas for the eight count.  After that knockdown Rios was able to gather himself to even up the early rounds before taking the slight advantage. Johns was able to bounce back a little, but Rios was able to gain back the momentum. Rios seemed to hurt Johns at the end of some of the rounds which caused Rios to be more aggressive going into each and every round after. It was Rios that had the slight edge in the bout even after being knocked down in the first round. Going into the fifth round is when Rios pretty much solidified this bout. He was able to land a right hand to send Johns down for an eight count. Both fighters came out in the final round trying to close the bout with a solid performance, but the bout was in the hands of the judges. Judges scored the contest 57-55, and 58-54 twice giving Rios the unanimous decision win.

Marq Johns gets the first loss of his career and falls to 6-1-1, (5 KO's) as Rios is now 5-5-1, (1 KO).

Patrick Harris of Hyattsville, MD was in a sixth round contest against Rafael Vazquez of Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Harris had to spend most of the time trying to cutoff the ring during this bout. Vazquez was using the entire ring to avoid the shots that Harris landed in the earlier part of round one. Harris was able to get close enough to land more solid shots on Vazquez as the contest entered the late rounds. Harris used left and right handed body punches to open up the opportunity to land heads shots. Harris was able to slow down the movement of Vazquez with those shots to the body and head. This entire bout was controlled by Harris from the start. Judges gave the unanimous decision to Harris with scores of 59-55, 60-54 twice. 

Patrick Harris remains undefeated at 6-0, (4 KO's) while Vazquez falls to 1-3.

Forestville, MD's Alantez Fox faced Guilermo Valdez in a scheduled six rounder. Fox opened up the bout by landing an early solid left jab that move Valdez backwards from the start of the contest. Fox was just too much for Valdez, and he put an end to this bout by landing a number of left hands to the body and head sending Valdez to the canvas. Valdez wasn't able to make it to his feet before the ten count. Fox gets his sixth knockout victory at the time of 1:28 of round one.

Alantez Fox improve to 16-0-1, (6 KO's) and Valdez is now 12-7, (3 KO's).

Renaldo Gaines of District Heights, MD faced Stephon McIntyre of Atlanta, GA. This was a six round contest that went the distance. Both fighters spent a lot of time exchanging blows from a toe to toe distance. At times McIntyer had a very tight defense that stopped Gaines from landing the solid shots he wanted to land. Later in the rounds Gaines was able to get through the guard of McIntye and land some looping shots to the side of the head of McIntyre. Those looping shots opened up the guard for Gaines to throw the uppercut. McIntyre used the opportunity to do the same thing to Gaines. The bout was very close until Gaines took a step back and found the distance he needed to use his jab to end the contest with a strong finish. The judges scored the bout 57-57, and 58-56 twice for Gaines giving him the majority decision win.

Renaldo Gaines improves to 7-2, (1KO) while the always tough Stephon McIntyre falls to 2-9-2.

Eric Hernandez is coming off his pro debut just under a one month ago to face Fernando Serrano of Garden City, Kansas. This was a scheduled four round contest that started off with both fighters never using a jab. They were landing hard shots on each other. Things changed in the second round with Hernandez landing a right hand that staggered Serrono. Hernandez tried to use the jab but went away from it again. It was only when Hernandez landed a shot to the head then to the body followed by one more to the head to send Serrano down. The body shot looked to be low, but it was the final shot to the head that made the referee call it a clear knockdown. Sarrano wasn't able to recover from the body shot. The corner of Sarrano was contesting that it was a low blow. Hernandez gets the knockout victory at 3:00 at the end of round two.

Eric Hernandez is now 2-0, (1 KO) and Sarrano is 1-5, (1 KO).

Albi Sadikaj of Fort Washington, MD defeated Santos Martinez of  Detroit, Michigan in a four round cruiserweight contest. Sadikaj took his time to wait for the perfect moment to land a hard right handed body shot on Martinez. The shot sent Martinez to the canvas and he was unable to recover. Albi Sadikaj gets his fourth consecutive knockout win. 

Albi Sadikaj has a perfect record of 4-0, (4 KO's) while Martinez is now 2-9-1, (2 KO's).

Forestville, MD's Mykal Fox puts on a very solid, technical performance to complete the six round contest against Juan Carlos Castillo of Caguas, Puerto Rico. For the entire bout Fox showed great use of his jab and footwork to land continuous punches on Castillo. The performance of Fox was so solid that he was able to drop Castillo twice in the bout to win by the scores of 60-52 (twice) and 60-53. 

 Fox is now 7-0, two KO's while Castillo drops to 4-3, three KO's.

Super middleweight Devar "The Warrior" Ferhadi of Frederick, MD. He also spends most of his time in Kurdistan where he attends medical school. Ferhadi faced Julio Garcia of Rincon, Puerto Rico. Ferhadi is known for his solid body work. Garcia landed a few body shots of his own but doesn't have the power on them that Ferhadi has. Ferhadi finished off Garcia by landing a short hook to the head followed with a devastating right handed body shot to make short work of Garcia. Garcia dropped to the canvas and wasn't able to recover when the contest was stopped at 54 seconds of the opening round. 

Ferhadi's record improves to 5-0, (4 KO's) and Garcia is now 6-10, (3 KO's).

Shynggyskhan Tazhibay is a junior middleweight from Rockville, MD that moved from Kazakhstan. This was his pro debut where he faced Brad Sustad of Courtland, NY in a four round contest. Tazhibay used the first round to end the fight by sending Sustad down three times. The first two knockdowns came from the right hand, but it was the left hand to the body that finished the bout at 1:36. 

Shynggyskhan Tazhibay is now 2-0, (1 KO) while Brad Sustad is still looking for his first win.

(Photos / Flyers created by Ross Molovinsky / Keystone Boxing)

For more information on upcoming event from Keystone Boxing

go to their website. www.keystonebox.com