By Cliff Rold
PHILADELPHIA--42-year old Heavyweight Amir Mansour (22-1, 16 KO), 210 ½, of Wilmington, Delaware, came in at his lightest weight since 2001 and scored a unanimous decision in ten rounds over 24-year old Joey Dawejko (14-4-2, 7 KO), 230 ½, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Friday night at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. Mansour made it two in a row since suffering his first career defeat to former Cruiserweight titlist Steve Cunningham in April 2014. Mansour continues a later life fistic career after spending much of the 2000s incarcerated on drug related charges.
The referee was Gary Rosato.
Mansour got off to a quick start and was winning early rounds but it wasn’t easy. A bloody brawl developed as the quicker Mansour found Dawejko to be a better boxer than he likely expected. By the end of the fourth, both men were cut, Dawejko over the left eye and Mansour around the right. In the seventh, Dawejko winked at Mansour after a clinch. It was that sort of night.
Down the stretch, an exhausted Dawejko didn’t have much to offer as his punch output fell. The scores came in fair and clear at 96-94, 98-92, and 97-93 for Mansour.
In the televised opener, 24-year old Middleweight Decarlo Perez (14-3-1, 5 KO), 158 ¾, of Atlantic City, New Jersey, scored a unanimous eight-round decision over 28-year old Jesse Nicklow (24-6-3, 8 KO), 161 ¼, of Baltimore, Maryland.
Nicklow got off to a fun start, rocking Perez in the first. The taller, slicker Perez took over from there, outboxing and ouitlanding Nicklow to shut out the remainder of the rounds. All three judges scored it 79-73.
The card was televised in the US on ESPN2 as part of its “Friday Night Fights” series, promoted by Peltz Boxing, BAM Boxing, and Joe Hand Promotions.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com.
