By Luis Sandoval

Staples Center, Los Angeles - Undefeated prospects Manuel Avila (6-0, 2KOs) and David Reyes (2-0) put on an exciting and fast paced Junior Featherweight battle. They traded vigorously at lighting fast speed. You may not have seen the punches, but you saw where they landed. In the 3rd, Avila landed a hard left hook that dropped Reyes in one of their many exchanges. The continued their war in the 4th and final round but it was Avila who walked away with his undefeated record intact. A split decision victory was awarded to him with scores of 38-37 Reyes and 39-35 and 39-36 for Avila.

The wrongfully imprisoned Dewey Bozella, who was making his pro debut, lived out his dream of fighting in a professional boxing match as he took on winless Larry Hopkins (0-4) in front of a supportive crowd. Dewey started slow as he absorbed some hard shots from Hopkins, but he slowly began getting into the fight by working behind his jab.

Almost every punch Dewey threw was cheered by the fans and Dewey finally let his hands go in the 4th round. If his opponent Hopkins isn’t remembered for being the opponent that lost to Dewey, he will be remembered for spitting out his mouth piece 6 times in the last round which caused the referee to take a point away.

In the end, Dewey was victorious with the judges scoring the fight 38-37 and 39-36 twice. If winning wasn’t enough, Dewey's win was made official as he was interviewed by Max Kellerman. He took the opportunity to thank both Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins for making all of this possible for him.

In 1983, he was convicted in the brutal killing of a 92-year-old Poughkeepsie woman. There was no physical evidence tying him to the killing; he said he had been bicycling far from the scene. But two convicts fingered Bozella in return for their own freedom. He received a sentence of 20 years to life.

Bozella, 52-years-old, spent 26 years in New York's Sing Sing prison for a murder he did not commit. In October 2009, Bozella was formally cleared. He was finally released from prison and this past summer, he was honored by ESPN as its 2011 Arthur Ashe Award winner for his courage.

Nick Casal (22-4-1,16KOs) delivered an impressive performance as he beat undefeated New Jersey native Michael Anderson (11-1-1, 9KOs) via 3rd round stoppage. The fight started slow but Casal began working on the inside where Anderson was the most vulnerable. A right hand left uppercut combination put Anderson down hard the first time in the middle of the 3rd stanza. He would beat the count only to be dropped a second time by a right hand. Casal unloaded on Anderson as he was against the ropes forcing the referee to step in and stop the bout as the bell rang.

Fight fans that showed up early got a nice treat as New York native Luis Collazo (31-5, 16KOs) and Freddy Hernandez (30-2, 20KOs) went to war in a 10 round Junior Middleweight affair. Both guys started fast and the leather flew early as both took turns landing flush bombs. Defense was not on the agenda and both fighters traded with conviction making for an exciting fight.

In the 8th round however, Hernandez landed a left hook to the body that put Collazo down. Collazo would beat the count and they continued to trade leather albeit at a much slower pace. In the end it was Hernandez who walked away with a unanimous decision victory with all 3 judges scoring it 96-93.

Middleweight prospect DonYil Livingston (6-0, 3KOs) won a six round unanimous decision over Kurtis Colvin (6-1, 5 KOs). The scores were 58-56, 58-56, and 59-55. A very active fight with Livingston getting the edge with a slightly better workrate in some of the close rounds. 

Tags: Luis Collazo