By Cliff Rold

Glen Burnie, MD - Never think you’ve seen everything in boxing.  At what looked on paper to be the average entertaining club show in the Ballroom Boxing series at Michael’s Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie, MD, a middle of the card pre-fight Heavyweight brawl stopped an actual Heavyweight prizefight from taking place, resulting in an announced double disqualification for both fighters.

Having already entered the ring, Askia Schneider (1-0) of the Virgin Islands watched as his opponent Jonathon Felton (5-9, 5 KO) entered the ring and then crossed it to get in Schneider’s
face in the corner.  Trash talk turned to chest bumping before Schneider’s cornerman stepped between the two in an attempt to back Felton away. 

Felton appeared to half push/half swing at the cornerman, prompting Schneider to jump to his trainer’s defense and resulting in an all-out brawl.  A few punches and lots of grappling followed as the two fighters fought across the ring before tackling each other to the mat.  With the assistance of the various cornermen and some security the two were separated and, with the crowd booing (and cheering), Schneider left the ring.

The commissioner on site had apparently, as the announcer would declare, disqualified both fighters.  Felton continued to pose to the crowd for a few moments before stepping out of the ring and appearing to go after someone in the crowd.  How that situation developed was hard to see but it did not result in anything more than a few hurried seconds of heated chatter.

How the announced result will affect either man’s record was difficult to tell as the verdict was still being debated throughout the evening.  Given the string of events, it appeared likely that the disqualification might ultimately only affect Felton but that remains to be seen. 

Beyond that bizarre if bizzarely amusing turn, the main event for the evening produced a fine six-round Middleweight draw between Ismail Arvin (14-1-4, 6 KO) of Baltimore, MD and Jesse Orta (7-11-1, 4 KO).  Orta’s record was not commensurate to his effort.  While it appeared that Arvin had done more than enough to earn the decision, each man threw and took hard punches throughout the night.  The action was punctuated by the final minute of the bout wherein both men let loose with streams of punches to the delight of the crowd. 

Also in action, local Pasadena, Maryland native Mike Paschall (15-0-1, 3 KO) overcame a head butt induced cut over his left eye to stop journeyman Gary Lavender (5-12, 4 KO) to drop Lavender twice en route to a second round KO.  Paschall was met with enthusiasm by a strong showing of fans from the community.

Other Results

Jr. Middleweights: Spencer Harsley (1-1) WUD4 Stephen Bass (0-1)
Heavyweights: Darrel Madison WUD6 Michael Rhoades

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com