By: William Holmes
Joey Eye Boxing Promotions presented a five fight boxing card from Harrah’s Casino in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania tonight and featured a USBA Featherweight Title bout between Eric Hunter and Yenifel Vicente.
The first bout of the night was between Anthony Prescott (2-3-1) and Anthony Miller (1-0) in the junior middleweight division. Miller was a southpaw and he looked to be in incredible shape, but he was overly aggressive and was caught by crisp counters from Prescott in the early rounds. Miller controlled the center of the ring in the first round, but caught several straight right hands and went down near the end of the first from a counter left hook.
Miller was able to regain his senses and come back out for the second round, but he continued to reach for his punches and was not quite able to find his range. Prescott was body slammed by Miller in the second round, but you don’t get points for takedowns in boxing. The final round was action packed and Miller was able to land a few crisp straight left hands, but it wasn’t enough to win him the fight and he still walked into the counter punches of Anthony Prescott.
The final scores were 37-37, 39-35, and 39-35 for Anthony Prescott.
The second bout of the night was in the heavyweight division between Tony Ferrante (12-5) and Pedro Martinez (6-7) in the heavyweight division. There was a lot of clinching in the first round, but it was Ferrante who appeared to be winning due to his jab landing more often than the punches of Martinez.
Martinez came out aggressive in the second round and attacked the body of Ferrante who did little but hold on, but Ferrante did a better job in the third round at keeping Martinez at a safe distance and landing his punches from an optimal range. The fourth round also belonged to Ferrante who kept was able to land crisp shots from the outside, but Martinez had a solid fifth round and appeared to have hurt Ferrante in the middle of the round.
The last round was close, with both boxers landing good shots, but Martinez still appeared to outwork Ferrante. The final scores were 58-56, 59-55, and 60-54 for Pedro Martinez in a mild upset.
The third bout of the night was between Philadelphia native Victor Vasquez (16-8-1) and Atlantic City native Osnel Charles (9-8-1) in the lightweight division. Both boxers came out swinging and made the first round a slug fest. Vasquez was putting his combinations better together early on in the first round, but Charles closed the round out strong by landing combinations of his own.
The second round was also a fierce round, but Charles was able to score a knockdown from a combination to the body that sent Vasquez falling through the ropes face first after he failed to try to hold on. He recovered well in the third round and mixed up his attacks to the body and head. Inexplicably, Charles seemingly stopped attacking in middle rounds and allowed to Vasquez to dictate the fight.
Charles did have a very strong seventh round and landed several hard hooks, but was not able to seriously hurt Vasquez. The last two rounds were close and could have gone either way, but Charles seemed to have more pop in his punches and pep in his step than Vasquez.
Press row was split on what the outcome should have been, but the judges scored it 78-74 Vasquez, 77-74 Charles, and 77-74 for Charles.
The co-main event of the night was between undefeated prospect Miguel Cartagena (11-0) and Miguel Robles (12-3-2) in the flyweight division. Cartagena had the support of the crowd as he walked into the ring and he had a successful amateur career.
The first round started off slowly, but Cartagena was crisp with his jab and Robles was able to land a few shots near the end of the first. In the second round both fighters were deducted a point after Cartagena was hit by Robles with several shots to the back of the head even while the referee was trying to break them up. Cartagena may have head butted Robles, but it was questionable if he deserved to be deducted a point. After the point deduction Cartagena blitzed Robles and forced Robles to take a knee after landing several solid body shots. Robles was able to get back up, but was later knocked back down after Cartagena assaulted Robles by the corner and sent him down again.
The referee rightly waived off the fight at 2:31 of the second round and gave Cartagena the TKO victory.
The main event of the night was between Eric Hunter (17-3) and Yenifel Vicente (25-2-2) for the USBA Featherweight Title. Hunter came out in his normal orthodox stance in the first round but a crisp jab from Vicente sent Hunter stumbling backwards. Hunter was able to compose himself, but the first round clearly belonged to Vicente.
Hunter switched to a southpaw stance in the second round and was able to capitalize on the move by landing several clean right hooks while in close with Vicente. They fought the second round in a phone booth, and it was a good round for Hunter.
The third round was also fought in close quarters and it was an even round, but Vicente had a strong fourth round by landing several solid uppercuts on Hunter. Hunter switched back to an orthodox stance in the sixth round and had a dominating round. He ripped hooks to the body of Vicente early on in the sixth, and he brought those hooks upstairs and landed them cleanly.
Vicente pressed the pace in the seventh round and Hunter switched back to a southpaw stance. Hunter was able to stay out of the range of Vicente and slip most of his punches. Hunter counter punched well in the seventh round.
Hunter began to run away with the fight in the eighth round when he hurt Vicente with a right hook upstairs that forced Vicente to hold on to stop from being knocked own. Hunter had the crowd cheering again near the end of the round when he nearly knocked Vicente down with a straight right hand.
It was clear that Vicente needed a knockout in the final two rounds to win the bout, but Hunter fought wisely and kept Vicente at bay with body punches and combos from the outside. .
The final scores were 97-93, 97-93, and 99-91 for Eric Hunter.
