Ruann Visser Passes Test, KOs Quincey Palmer In Houston
By Peter Lim
Everyone came to fight, including a guy who got knocked out in just 15 seconds of the first round, at the Bayou City Events Center in Houston. Even fighters with zero wins on their ledgers fought like their lives depended on getting their first victories in the ring.
South African heavyweight Ruann Visser (4-0, 4 KOs) knocked out Quincey Palmer (6-5, 6 KOs) cold, but not before encountering a few shaky moments. Despite standing at an imposing six-foot-ten, Visser, 24, was unable to keep Palmer from closing the distance and rocking him on the inside with jolting left hooks and right uppercuts.
Palmer went down in the third round from a tussle but as soon as he got up, Visser landed a right hand bomb to the jaw that crumpled him. He remained unconscious on the canvas for a minute and a half before the ringside physicians could revive him.
"It was not a tough fight but I made it hard on myself," Visser said, alluding to his inability to keep Palmer on the outside.
In the main event featherweights Pablo Cruz (11-0, 3 KOs) and Manuel Rubalcava (2-11) engaged in a fast-paced phone-booth war for six rounds. Both fighters threw punches in bunches but, as their knockout percentages suggests, neither had fight ending power. Cruz won a shutout decision but was forced to fight for every second of every round. Given his brawling style, Cruz, 26, and his trainer Aaron Navarro need to work on putting some pop in his punch before he steps up to the world stage.
Featherweight Omar Villazana (0-3) answered the opening bell winging overhand rights designed to decapitate but got countered with bone-shattering left hook to the ribs by Armando Frausto (3-0, 3 KOs) that left him writhing in agony on the canvass for the full count just 15 seconds into the fight.
Southpaw Willie Miller (0-11-1) dropped Cristobal Morales (2-0, 1 KO) with a straight left in the first round, forcing Morales to dig deep, turn up the heat and win the next three rounds to scrape out a 58-57 X 3 decision in a featherweight bout.
Short, compact and built like a tank, David Limerick (2-0, 2 KOs) looked like a miniature version of Rocky Marciano in taking out a game but outgunned Raymond Johnson (0-1) in the first round. Limerick rattled Johnson with every shot he landed and dropped him face first with a right uppercut. Johnson bravely struggled to his feet but wobbled on spaghetti legs prompting referee Gary Simon to call a halt to the bout.
Switch-hitting welterweight Rogelio de la Torre (14-3, 7 KOs) won a majority six-round decision over Adam Ealoms (3-8-3, 1 KO).
Featherweight Luis Guevare (3-0-1, 2 KOs) outpointed Marco Alcaraz (0-3) over four rounds.
Heavyweight Justin Ledet (3-0, 2 KOs) won a four round decision over a blubbery, 302-pound Michael Lane (0-4).
