By Derek Gionta at ringside: Boxing returned to the War Memorial Arena in Johnstown, Pennsylvania for a special Halloween night attraction tagged “Fright Night Fights,” featuring local fan favorite and WBF Americas Cruiserweight Champion Andres “Taylor Made” Taylor.
Taylor, 11-1-1-(6), of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, won a workmanlike eight round unanimous decision over Leo Bercier, 8-11-1-(4), of Great Falls, Montana. The two squared off for the second time this year, the first in which Bercier won a close six round decision in Youngstown, Ohio this past summer. Taylor was determined to avenge the only blemish on his record.
Taylor walked down, jabbed, and put together a continuous attack to the head and body of Bercier, under the watchful eye of his trainer, Tommy Yankello, who has been training Taylor for his last few fights. Taylor landed a left hook in the sixth round that caused a cut over the right eye of Bercier. To close out the fight Taylor continued jabbing and throwing the left hook to the cut on Bercier’s face. Bercier showed a lot of heart but had no answer for Taylor’s attack. The three judges scored the fight 78-74, 78-74, and 79-73. Taylor showed class in victory towards his opponent and took the liberty of thanking his hometown fans after the fight for their support.
The co-main event featured popular Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Welterweight Jesse “The Future” Lubash (13-0, 8 KO’s) as he defeated James Wayka (16-9-1, 8 KO’s) of Mounds View, Minnesota via a first round knockout. Wayka has been in the ring with Junior Middleweight Contender Harry Joe Yorgey and former Lightweight Champion Jose Luis Castillo, both ending in early knockout losses. Lubash landed a left hook to the body opening up the guard of Wakya enabling him to land a hard straight right hand dropping Wayka and ending the fight at 2:05 of Round 1. Lubash, also trained by Yankello, looks to have a promising future. The fight was scheduled for six rounds.
The third bout of the evening was a scheduled 6 round Welterweight match-up between south paw Habib Allahverdiev (11-0, 6 KO’s) of Moscow, Russia, taking on Francisco Rios Gil (17-12, 12 KO’s) of Phoenix, Arizona. Allahverdiev, who is trained by former two-division World Champion, and southpaw specialist, John David Jackson, wasted no time as he landed a punishing left hand to the body of Rios Gil, which dropped him to the canvas as referee Rick Steigerwald counted him out at 1:29 of Round 1.
The second bout of the evening was a four round Lightweight bout between Terence Crawford, 9-0-(6), of Omaha, Nebraska and Steve Marquez (9-15-1, 6 KO’s) of Fort Morgan, Colorado. Crawford dropped Marquez twice from his conventional stance. The first knockdown was a left hook to the head, the second was a straight right hand to the head before finally finishing off Marquez from his southpaw stance, landing a straight left hand that saw Marquez hit the canvas for a third time prompting referee Ernie Sharif to stop the bout at 2:35 of Round 1.
The opening bout of the evening was a four round Heavyweight bout between Moscow, Russia’s Magomed Abdusalamov, 6-0-( 6), who is also trained by John David Jackson, facing off against Ryan Shay, 5-8-(4), of Fort Mills, South Carolina. The south paw, Abdusalamov, walked down Shay landing brutal power punches and knocking him down three times, all left hands to the body, which caused referee Rick Steigerwald to stop the fight at 2:06 of the opening round.
The five bout card was presented by Chet Koerner’s TKO Boxing Promotions. The Las Vegas based company has a vastly growing stable of fighters, including the recent addition of Junior Welterweight Demetrius Hopkins.
October 31, 2009
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