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.
