By Bill Calogero, at ringside

Mashantucket, CT – Jesse Feliciano stopped Delvin Rodriguez at 2:42 of the 8th round to become the new USBA Welterweight Champion in the main event of Star Boxing’s “War At The Woods” from the Foxwoods Casino & Resort, broadcast live on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.

Rodriguez was way ahead on all three of the judge’s scorecards leading into the 8th round by totally out-boxing Feliciano. He was clearly landing the harder punches and was putting together punches in bunches featuring his jab, right-left-right combinations. Also, he superbly mixed in uppercuts from the opening bell until the end of the bout.

The start of round eight was no different than the prior seven rounds. Delvin Rodriguez began the round with back-to-back uppercuts, followed by a left-right combination that momentarily stunned Jesse Feliciano. Instead of fading, Feliciano pressed the action throwing a barrage of punches from all angles finally getting to Rodriguez. Delvin was hurt with a right hook that sent him down. He got up by the count of eight but was still clearly in trouble.

Instead of holding on, Rodriguez tried to fight his way out of trouble. That’s when Jesse put him down again with another barrage of punches, all landing flush. Delvin Rodriguez was clearly in serious trouble when he finally rose to his feet, but the referee allowed the action to continue. Four shots to the head later, Delvin was down for the third and final time giving Jesse Feliciano the 8th round TKO win in their scheduled 12-round battle and becomes the new owner of the USBA Welterweight title.

Jesse Feliciano improves to 15-5-3 (9 KOs) while Delvin Rodriguez, losing for only the second time of his professional career, drops to 20-2-1 (12 KOs).

In the Co-Feature of the night, Said Ouali made quick work of Irving Garcia, winning by TKO in the second round of their scheduled 10-round Welterweight bout. This was the FIRST time in Garcia’s career that he hit the canvas. Ouali improves to 21-2 (13 KOs) while Garcia drops to 14-3-1 (7 KOs).

In one of the most devastating knockouts I have seen in a LONG time, underdog Sameh Elashry put Craig Salamone down and out with a crushing left twenty-one seconds into the third round of their scheduled six-round Cruiserweight bout. Salamone went down and stayed there motionless for several minutes. As a matter of fact, I personally did not see him move at all the entire time the paramedics put him on the stretcher and carried him from the ring to an awaiting ambulance. Sameh Elashry improves to 6-4 (2 KOs) while Salamone drops to 15-4-1 (4 KOs). Hopefully Salamone will be OK.

In other action, Heavyweight Tony Grano stopped the un-talented John Turlington at 2:25 of the first round. I would hope that Grano will be matched with a real opponent soon. Nonetheless, Grano improves to 8-0-1 (7 KOs) while Turlington drops to 5-11-1 (4 KOs).

In a four-round Jr. Welterweight bout, “The New” Ray Robinson won a unanimous four-round decision over the game Daniel Sostre to improve to 2-0, while Sostre dropped his record to 2-2. Neither fighter has yet to score a KO in their careers.

Richard Gingras improved to 2-0 (2 KOs) by stopping Travis Waters, 0-2 with a devastating body shot in the second round of their scheduled four-round Cruiserweight bout.

The final bout of the evening had Simeon Dunwell winning a unanimous four-round decision over James Ventry to keep his undefeated record in tact, now at 5-0 (2 KOs).