Live Report & Photos: Collazo and Salita both win in Brighton Beach

Photos and Report by Taylor Hallman

Wednesday evening at Oceana Hall in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn Luis Collazo won against a determined Franklin Gonzalez to take a step further on his Light Middleweight comeback trail. Gonzalez was knocked down in the second round and twice in the third, but finished the fight on his feet. This was Collazo’s second match back after the controversial 12 round decision loss to Andre Berto. In June of 2009 the Brooklyn boxer scored a sixth round TKO over David Gogichaishvili.

In the Co-feature match Dmitriy Salita defeated Ronnie Warrior in their eight round Welterweight contest. Surviving a unintentional head butt in the first round, Salita fought a steady, but unexciting match. Warrior never truly challenged the 28 year old Brooklyn fighter, nor did Salita ever have the Oklahoma based fighter in any serious trouble. This is the third fight back for Salita (now 33-1 with 17 KO’s). In September of 2010 Salita scored a unanimous decision over Franklin Gonzalez again at the same Brighton Beach catering hall and in December he scored a fairly impressive third round technical knockout over James Wayka at the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan.

Other fights on the five match card included Rafael Vazquez, billed as a Junior Lightweight, who easily defeated Juan Luis Melendez of Rio Piedras, PR. in 1:48 seconds of the third round. The referee stopped the contest at the Melendez corner’s request.

In the opening bout Hamid Abdul-Mateen, Cruiserweight, won over one-name fighter, Bakari, who hails from Bridgeport, CT. This lack luster contest saw Referee Gonzalez encouraging the boxers to fight instead of staring at each other. Abdul-Mateen moves to 2 – 1 with 0 KO’s

The third match saw Mike Ruiz earn a fairly easy UD over Greg Hotshot Hackett of Philadelphia. Ruiz scored a knock down in the sixth and final round. The judges had the contest 60-53, 59-54 and 58-55.

The night was centered around Autism Awareness with a 50-50 raffle going to support the cause. New Legend’s Felipe Gomez donated a huge $500.00 check to the cause.