By: William Holmes
Dee Lee Promotions put on a card tonight at the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City that featured the NABA Lightweight Championship between “Dangerous” Dorin Spivey and “Lightning” Rod Salka.
Former Women’s boxing champion Christina Kwan was supposed to make her comeback tonight in her first fight in six years, but her bout had to be canceled at the last minute when he opponent, Kendra Lucas, failed to make weight. Lucas weight in under 90 pounds, while Kwan came in at 99 pounds. New Jersey State Athletic Commissioner Aaron Davis stated, “Kwan did nothing wrong. She did everything that was asked of her and came in at 99 pounds. We know she can fight. Kendra Lucas barely made 90 pounds and we have an obligation to protect the safety of the fighters.”
Possibly due to the last minute cancellation of Kwan’s fight, as well as a last minute cancellation of a welterweight bout on the undercard, boxing fans were treated to an unexpected lengthy performance by Philadelphia native Bunny Sigler prior to the start of the card.
The first fight of the night was between Antowyan “Iceman” Aikens (5-0) and Steve “2 Sharp” Tyner (3-6-2) in the super middleweight division.
Aikens controlled the bout throughout the night, and kept Tyner at bay with a sharp jab and solid straight right hand.
Aikens did appear to have trouble gauging the distance on his combinations at times, but he was able to hurt Tyner twice with his right hand in the fourth and fifth rounds. Aikens is still a very raw prospect, but he listened to his corner and did everything they asked of him when they shouted out combinations to throw. Aikens probably should have finished the fight in the fifth round, but he still easily won the majority decision with scores of 59-55 on all three cards.
The second bout of the night was between Dorsett “The Bullet” Barnwell (7-0) and Shun “Elusive” Lewis (5-3-1) in the heavyweight division.
Barnwell was clearly the bigger fighter as they stepped into the ring, and he was clearly the better technical boxer when the fight actually started. Barnwell started off slowly, and used his reach to land his heavy jab several times through the fight. Barnwell clocked Lewis with several hard right hands in the fourth round and scored a knockdown.
When Lewis got back to his feet Barnwell immediately went after him. Lewis quickly complained of an injury to his left arm, and the referee called in the doctor to look at him. The referee ruled that Lewis was unable to continue, and Barnwell scored the TKO victory at 2:12 of round four.
The third fight of the night was between Frankie “The Freight Train” Filippone (9-2-1) and Reggie “Concrete” La Crete (4-1-2) in the super middleweight division.
If this was a body building contest La Crete would have won easily, but fortunately for Filippone, this was a boxing match and he was clearly the better fighter. Filippone would shout out every time he got hit, which was not very often. His orthodox stance may have given La Crete serious problems, as it landed with ease throughout the night.
In rounds four and five Filippone really took the action to La Crete and stunned him several times with his straight left hand-right hook combination.
La Crete tried to press the action in the last round, but it was too little too late. Filippone easily won the decision with scores of 59-55, 59-55, and 59-55.
The main event of the night was between “Dangerous” Dorin Spivey (41-6) and “Lightning” Rod Salka (16-1) for the NABA Lightweight Championship.
Both fighters came out swinging and got the action going right away. Once Spivey started landing his jab, Salka became less willing to move forward and engage. A clash of heads occurred in the second round, but neither fighter was greatly affected.
Spivey was the aggressor in the middle rounds and tagged Salka with several straight right hands in the seventh round that momentarily stunned Salka. Salka, however, came back strong in round eight and landed a huge right hand that had Spivey on very wobbly legs.
The last round featured the most action as both fighters went for the stoppage and Spivey was able to land the harder shots and bloody the nose of his opponent.
In the end the 39-year-old Dorin Spivey continued his remarkable resurgence and won a majority decision with scores of 95-95, 96-94, and 97-93.