By Derek Bonnett at ringside: Joey "KO Kid" Spina and Lou "Honey Boy" Del Valle showed up for their main event on Halloween night at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, USA wearing the same costume.
Both men decided to dress up like boxers, but neither was able to give a convincing performance or impress the Connecticut crowd after a stirring undercard replete with Halloween treats. Del Valle’s shortcomings were due mostly to the former world champion’s age; Spina’s failure to impress could be attributed to his utter confusion by Lou’s southpaw stance.
The bout began at a zombie’s pace, which saw Spina, 25-1-1 (17), landing arm punches and wasting energy posturing and shadow boxing, as he would most of the night. Del Valle’s jab was slow, but Spina couldn’t avoid it whenever the aged practitioner threw it. Through four rounds, it was evenly contested, with neither man able to assert himself over the other. Spina found some meaningful left hooks that wobbled "Honey Boy" along the way, but Del Valle also began placing a straight left behind his southpaw jab.
Spina, a Providence, RI native, started the fifth round with a little more spirit. He tried to jump on Del Valle, 36-6-1 (22), as he pushed his faded foe toward the ropes, but a sturdy left hand from Del Valle backed Spina on his heels and it sucked the life out of his attack. Both were reduced to throwing less punches through seven rounds, but Del Valle’s actually appeared stronger as Spina began flicking and chopping with his shots.
Lou’s jab appeared to get stronger as the fight progressed and Spina began pressuring the body of his opponent, but both adjustments were something each man should have applied from the opening bell on. Both men missed a lot over the last three frames and the crowd at Mohegan began to boo, but it was not a reflection of their Halloween spirit. Del Valle finished the bout with a hard left hook that left Spina smiling while spitting out a mouthful of blood. All night long the anticipation grew for Del Valle to land the kind of punch he did to drop a prime Roy Jones Jr. back in 1998, but this version of the Long Island, NY native could not muster up the strength.
After the judges’ cards were tallied neither man advanced his career and the bout was declared a draw by two counts of 95-95 and one of 97-93 for Del Valle.
The favored fighters on the undercard showed some promise for their futures and helped keep the audience entertained with some excellent knock out finishes.
In the co-feature, Henry Lundy, better known as "Hammerin’ Hank", made a strong statement in moving his record to 16-0-1 (10) with first round annihilation of the usually durable Aldo Valtierra. The twenty-five year old from Philadelphia, PA hurt his opponent with a left hook from an early combination, but Valtierra scurried away to the corner where a leaping Lundy leveled him with a second left hook to the chin. Valtierra, who was only stopped once before in the eleven defeats, barely made it off his knees before collapsing to all fours. The referee ended the contest at the 2:41 mark.
Afterward a jubilant Lundy explained his feelings about the early night.
"The hard part is in the gym," Lundy explained. "I had a lot of sparring and they put in some hard work. I did what my corner told me to do and put it all to good use by sitting down on my punches. When you’re in there with Hammerin’ Hank, the speed, the punching power, that’s enough alone. Once he got hit by me, it was a wrap. I had the fight won."
Lundy certainly made an impact upon the crowd with this performance and was supposedly taking a step up in opposition, but one wouldn’t have known it by how easy he made it look. Lundy’s future seems bright and his personality along with his inside the ring demeanor should be able to land him some valuable face time in the near future.
"I know I’m ready for everyone and anyone out there from 135 to 140," Lundy said confidently. "I been calling you guys out; you know who you are. Give me Timothy Bradley, anyone of the Peterson brothers, Randall Bailey; whoever’s in my way, I’m going to punch you out. If you think you’re man enough, if you think you’re tough enough, then call the Hammer up."
Other action saw Hartford, CT’s promising young David Bauza win his third professional bout since September. The junior middleweight hopeful didn’t get to show off his variety of punches to the body and head this time because he dropped Vaughn Anderson with a crunching right hook in the opening seconds and followed it up with an aggressive barrage of punches from all angles to prompt the referee to call a halt to the bout at 1:09 of the first round. All three of the Puerto Rican Bauza’s bout have ended by stoppage.
2008 Olympian Sadam Ali, 21, looked a little flat as he won his fourth bout of a career that also started in 2009. Ali controlled his taller opponent with speed and accuracy. His jab set up the big right hand very frequently in the first round and he rocked Osvaldo Rivera near the bell.
Rivera grew in confidence between rounds and he started the second by landing several power shots that put Ali on the defensive. Ali, 4-0 (2), reclaimed control in the third and jabbed his way to victory. Although Ali was the clear winner, he appeared to fade in the fourth round as his jab lost a lot of its earlier steam.
The official card awarded Ali the victory by scores of 40-36 and 39-37 twice.
"I don’t think it was ring rust," Ali said, in explanation of his performance. "He was tall and he didn’t want to get in there. I know I can do way better. I was not happy with my performance. I was trying to look for other punches and stopped using my jab."
Other results from Uncasville, CT:
Edwin Soto of Hartford, CT improved to 2-0 (1) with a split decision over Deroy Benton, 1-1 (1), of Toms River, New Jersey. The judges’ scores were 39-37, 37-39, 39-37.
Joe Smith Jr., of Long Island, NY, made his professional debut and scored the knockout of the night at 2:35 of the first round. His opponent, David Brown, of Newark, NJ, fell to 0-1 in his own debut.
Ryan Kielczewski remained unbeaten with a unanimous decision over Israel Suarez. The Quincy, MA lightweight moved to 6-0 (2), while the game Suarez of Luquillo, PR dropped to 2-3 (0). The judges’ cards were 39-37 (twice) and 40-36.
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