by Johnny Walker
The Boxcino 2015 tournament continued tonight, broadcast on ESPN-2’s Friday Night Fights from the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, PA.
In the heavyweight semi-finals, stoppages were the order of the evening as Andrey Fedosov (27-3-0, 22 KOs) defeated Lenroy Thomas (19-4-0, 9 KOs) by knockout at 1:01 of round three–after suffering a flash knockdown himself in the opening round–setting up a meeting in the finals on May 22 with Donovan Dennis (12-1-0, 10 KOs).
Dennis dealt the same fate to his opponent, stopping 6′ 7 1/2″ tall Romanian Razvan Cojanu (13-2-0, 7 KOs) via a highlight reel, left hand power shot KO at 0:59 of the second round.
In the Junior Middleweight semis at 154 pounds, things were a bit less straightforward.
In a scrappy, aesthetically ugly affair, Ukrainian Stanyslav Skorokhod (9-1, 7 KOs) dropped a split decision to John Thompson (16-1, 5 KOs), who got the nod from two judges 77-75 and 78-74, with another judge seeing it the Ukrainian’s way, 78-74.
To further add to the air of scoring uncertainty, ringside commentator Teddy Atlas also had Thompson winning on his scorecard, while those scoring at home on Facebook gave Skorokhod the nod, 77-75.
In the evening’s final bout, an ugly injury to the ear of Vito Gasparyan (15-4-5, 8 KOs) gave Brandon Adams (17-1, 12 KOs) a TKO victory at 0:35 of round seven. The fight was fought in the proverbial phone booth, with both men content to trade shots at close range, and Adams definitely getting the better of most of the fistic exchanges.
Adams and Thompson will also meet for the Boxcino Jr. Middleweight crown on May 22.