ATLANTIC CITY, NJ-It was a bittersweet night for welterweight contender Thomas LaManna as he won a 10-round unanimous decision over George Sosa in an entertaining bout in front of a capacity crowd at The Claridge Hotel In Atlantic City.

The 11-bout card was promoted by Rising Promotions.

LaManna won the WBC Silver Latino Welterweight title and shortly after, the fighter known as "Cornflake" promptly announced his retirement in the ring.

The two traded big blows throughout the bout as Sosa came out very aggressively and was able to land some good right hands.  LaManna was giving better of the two-way action, which had the sold-out crowd very enthused throughout the contest.

In round two, Sosa started to swell under his left eye. In round six, He started bleeding badly from his nose as the result of pinpoint shots from LaManna.

In round six, LaManna was dominant by scoring two knockdowns from body shots. LaManna was relentless in battering Sosa all over the ring with Sosa lucky to hear the bell to culminate the round.  Both guys traded hard shots down the stretch with LaManna getting the better of the action.  Every so often, Sosa was able to score with hard shots, but they were few and far between.

LaManna sat down on his punches and landed thudding blows as he tried to get the stoppage against the tough Sosa.

LaManna, 147 lbs of Millville, NJ won by scores of 98-90 twice and 99-88 to raise his record to 24-2. Sosa of Reading, PA falls to 15-10.

"The body work, the distance and the jab was working for me. He was long and tall so we worked on the distance and I started to put my punches together. The body work is what put him down,"said LaManna. "I took some shots from him, but that is not what I go in wanting to do. I wore him down, worked the body, touched his arms and touched his body."

"It feels so great to win a championship and to get that hardware."

Then LaManna announced that this would be his last fight.

"It's Over. It's Over. I put a lot of years into this. This is it. I want to thank my parents, Vinny Ponte my promoter, my trainer and everybody who have helped me along the way."


Former world champion Imamu Mayfield and Lamont Capers slugged it out to an eight-round split draw in their cruiserweight bout.

In round six, Mayfield was cut over his left eye from a punch, and Capers had bad swelling over his left eye from a headbutt.Each fighter took a card by a 77-75, tally while 3rd card read even at 76-76.

Mayfield, 200 lbs of Freehold, NJ is now 26-10-3. Capers, 196 lbs of Hawley, PA is 7-10-3.