By Larry Tornambe, Ringside in Philadelphia, PA-
Peltz Boxing and Joe Hand Promotions recovered nicely from the main event fall out of Elvin Alaya. Alaya decided he wanted time off and that moved the Chad Brisson vs. Russell Jones Junior Middleweight 10-round bout to the main event. The new main event on Friday was the fight of the night and it started early as Jones was stunned a bit from a right slightly after the bell to end the 1st round and got hurt by a left hook to the body in the 2nd. Jones (138¾ lbs) had a delayed reaction as he sagged to the canvas after that left hook. After rising his answer was a right to Brisson’s body that almost equaled the knockdown count.
Brisson, 138 lbs, had the better combinations during the bout, while Jones loaded up on the lead right hand too much. Toward the end of the 10 rounder, Brisson was backing off of Jones so Russell moved forward and did well for himself. However it was too little too late. Although Brisson’s left eye was swollen and showed two minor cuts he got the unanimous decision to improve to 21-2. The official count was 99-91, 97-92 and 96-93. Boxingscene tallied a total of 97-92 for Brisson.
Brisson, from Winnipeg, has positioned himself in Philadelphia for his training and fighting base, so we’ll watch if the better quality sparring will improve his finishing power and help maintain pressure on opponents for an entire fight. Jones (19-15) took some heavy shots but would be better served with an elusive defense so he can set himself better for the large lead right he so coveted on Friday night at the New Alhambra in South Philadelphia.
A light heavyweight 6-rounder between Ron Boddie and Richard Stewart was the co-feature. Boddie fought too much like a sparring partner, while Stewart chased, moved inside and landed the sharper punches. Boddie was incensed at the near shutout unanimous decision in favor of Stewart, but he appeared to be the only one in the building who thought he won. The official scores were 60-54 twice and 59-54. BoxingScene ringside scorecard was also 59-54.
Omar Pittman easily defeated Derrick Graham in a 6-round super middleweight walk through. Unanimous decision for Pittman came without contest. He is now 12-3 and Graham slips to 12-9-1.
William Bailey upset Glenn Turner by a surprisingly wide score total. Bailey got the unanimous decision, after 6 ugly cruiserweight rounds, 60-54, 59-54 and 58-56.
Kaseem Wilson remained undefeated, now 5-0-1, with a 59-55 decision from all three judges. Wilson got past the previously 2-0 Hector Rosario in the welterweight clash.
John Terry and Joe Christy got to know each other early in their 4-round super middleweight fight. And I mean Fight, not much polish, politeness or classic skills from either. Even the ref, Blair Talmadge had to put his weight into separating a clinch and an attempt by Terry to rush at Christy during the break. Christy wound up a right hand in the 4th to stagger Terry to the ropes and then let out all the stops. Talmadge jumped in for the stoppage at 1:20 of the 4th and final round for a Joe Christy TKO win, much to the delight of the staying late crowd.
Next Peltz/Hand Boxing Promotion is scheduled for Nov. 17th at the New Alhambra.
There are many Philadelphia fight arena seats to be filled in the upcoming weeks. The Legendary Blue Horizon has reserved a main event slot for new knockout king, Joey Abell (9-0; 9 KOs) on October 13th (215-763-0500 or legendarybluehorizon.com) The next night Fingerspoon Promotions begins their promotion with undefeated Simon Carr (4-0 with 3 1st rounds KOs), Max Alexander (11-0) and Chazz “the Gentleman” Witherspoon (14-0).
Fingerspoon Promotion will have Tommy Morrison in attendance and will be working with him during his comeback since Morrison has tested negative, repeatedly, for the HIV virus, which ended his career than 10 years ago. Fingerspoon has a fresh approach to their promotion with plenty of radio coverage on 920am ESPN Radio and are not looking to just put on fights, they are designing their promotion company to secure the best young fighters and take them to the top, rather than promoting just locally and losing the fighters when they reach national prominence. See Fingerspoon.com or call for tickets (tickets.com or 215 688-1690) to the Oct. 14th fight at the National Guard Armory in NE Philadelphia.