RESULTS: World of Champions Fight Night in Charlotte, NC – October 26, 2013

Four of the seven originally scheduled bouts set for World of Champions Fight Night at CenterStage at Noda in Charlotte, NC took place on Saturday night. According to spectators in attendance, two of the bouts, including the main event, had a packed venue at CenterStage cheering loudly and on their feet.

Prior to the main event, undefeated super middleweight Pablo Velez Jr., who recently relocated from North Carolina and now fights out of Atlanta, met in the ring with former gym and sparring partner Nasser Abdul Malik of Cary, North Carolina. According to author Christian Giudice, who provided a full report for this blog, and was on hand interviewing fighters and commentating on the event, he said that both Velez Jr. and Abdul Malik—yes both!—were hurt in the first round. Velez Jr. later took an eight-count in the second round, but hung on to win a 4 round majority decision. Scores were 39-37, 38-38, and 38-37. Velez Jr. is now 3-0. Abdul Malik falls to 1-2.

On Pablo Velez Jr.’s Facebook, he commented: “It was a fight I made harder for myself than I needed to, partly because I fought against my ex-teammate, who I sparred with hundreds of times and against my ex-coach. However, I out-worked him and got the win.”

The main event may have been an even greater war. Defending his WBC Continental Americas cruiserweight title for the first time, Olanrewaju Durodola of Nigeria, but now making his home in Kansas, is now 17-1 after scoring a KO in Round 6 over Mitch “King Kamm” Williams of Michigan. Christian Giudice referred to the bout as “a vicious fight” and Coach Mike Kane of the Mid-South Boxing Academy, who was in the corner for two of his athletes competing in preliminary amateur boxing exhibitions and remained to watch the pros, stated, “The main event was exciting! Those two guys were really pounding each other hard!” Mitch Williams record falls to 8-4 with two draws as a professional.

In other bouts that evening, the Greek heavyweight fighter Thanasis Michaloudis, now residing in Florida, improves to 4-0 after achieving an easy victory with a 1st round KO over Joseph Harper, of Union, South Carolina. Also, Deandre Smith (now 3-0) of Georgia ended his fight promptly with a 20-second KO over winless Martique Holland of Virginia. Holland is now 0-3.

The following bouts: Jamikey Lamar Woods vs. Julius Stroud, Lavisas Williams vs. Rokeem Shorter, and Jazzy Kirkley vs. James Gooding were cancelled. Jazzy Kirkley, age 51, and who last fought professionally during the 1990s, was scheduled to make his comeback.

Six exhibition amateur bouts took place prior to the professionals. Athletes competing were as follows:

1) Dallas Andrada vs. Alex Evans
2) Steve Massey vs. Jabari Gregory
3) Thomas Ladden vs Alex Finger
4) Jonathan Stamey vs. Reggie Miller
5) Christian Rodriguez vs. Corey Wellons
6) Chris Gladden vs. Andre Mendez

Special thanks to Christian Giudice of Charlotte, North Carolina for his collaboration on this report. Chris is author of The Rise and Fall of Alexis Argüello and also Hands of Stone: The Life and Legend of Roberto Duran. You can visit his website at: http://christiangiudice.com/

Paco Rivera, GAR1680 North Carolina Boxing Talk Radio & Blog
Twitter: @GAR1680

Charlotte Observer Newspaper Article on Mid-South Boxing Academy in N.C.

Here’s a great story on Mid-South Boxing Academy & Fitness, the only certified boxing gym in Concord, North Carolina, with a feature on Coach Mike Kane, Dwight Hunter, and some of the fighters training there: Jamaal Gregory, Alex Finger, Kwame Benson.

Special thanks to Charlotte Observer correspondent, Joe Habina.

CLICK HERE  to see the article