By: Sean Crose
Undefeated 18-0 heavyweight Stephan Shaw headlined an ESPN televised card from the Turning Stone Resort and Casino on Saturday night. His opponent was the hard hitting 16-1 Efe Ajagba. The match was scheduled for ten rounds. First, however, former Italian Olympian Guido Vianello tried adding another win to his 11-0-1 record by battling the 16-6-1 Jonnie Rice in a scheduled ten round heavyweight affair.
The first round was something of a feeling out process for each man, with neither doing anything memorable. Vianello was able to connect a bit in the second, though Rice was able to employ impressive head movement in order to keep some of Vianello’s punches from landing with impact. Vianello put his jab to good use in the third.
Vianello continued to control the fight in the fourth and fifth. In the sixth, however, Vianello was cut severely above his left eye. The cut appeared to come from an overhand right, yet when the ring doctor was called in early in the seventh, the referee said the cut was caused by a head clash. The fight was then stopped and the judges were called in to rule a winner. Referee Benji Esteves , however, agreed to look at a replay of the punch in question before a decision was read. Esteves subsequently declared Rice the winner.