Allentown fight recap!

By Larry Tornambe

08/05/2005

Allentown fight recap!

Two Rivera's win, Serrano earns his shot!

John Karoly’s Four Corner Promotions entertained downtown Allentown with its first pro card in nearly 70 years Saturday night.  The main event brought back Olando Rivera in an 8-roung light-heavyweight match against Hector Sanjurjio.   The card was shown live on Service Electric TV2 and will be replayed Sunday at 5pm in central and northeastern Pennsylvania.

Rivera and Sanjurjio met in ring center after the opening bell and didn’t move much thereafter.  An accidental headbutt in the first round bothered Sanjurjio, but it didn’t deter either fighter from staying in close.  Rivera won the first round and Sanjurjio evened it after two rounds.  Neither fighter was knocked down or even stunned, however there was plenty of action on the inside and Rivera was just a bit sharper and quicker with higher volumes of punches in his flurries.  Both boxers sported small cuts and
Sanjurjio’s (14-9-5) cheeks were getting puffy over the last half of the fight.  Cuts and swelling were not factors in the bout which went to the cards.  George Hill, Alan Rubenstein and Bernard Bruni agreed with scores of 78-74 for Olando Rivera (14-3-2; 178 lbs).

Wilfredo Rivera opened the night against Jeff Carpenter.  Rivera, who has fought, Fernado Vargas, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosely and twice faced Pernell Whitaker was clearly given a tune-up fight with Carpenter coming in this week from St. Louis.  Carpenter’s face was reddening by the end of round 1 and he folded after a left hook to the body in the second.  When Rivera decided to shake loose and land a few flurries, Carpenter (11-12)
retreated to the ropes when ref, Art Baylis jumped in for the stoppage. Rivera (34-7-1) gets the TKO win at 1:21 of the 2nd.

Cindy Serrano (127 lbs) was in the lead all the way in her bout against Cori Raw (1-2; 131½ lbs).  Serrano puts her solid punches together well and Raw was not able to get loose or deter “Checkmate” Serrano.  The end came at 1:13 of the second round after a couple of thumping right hands from Cindy. Serrano (9-0; 6 KO’s) tells Boxingtalk her next bout is slated for July 9th
in Allentown for a vacant Featherweight championship.

Crowd favorite Rose Morales had too easy of a fight in December when her opponent quit after half a minute.  Morales foe on Saturday, Veronica Rucker, was just the opposite.  Rucker (0-1-1) came to beat the undefeated Morales (5-0).  The 6-round middleweight bout was arguably the most entertaining of the night and Rucker is easily Morales toughest test so far.  Morales and Rucker went head to head until Morales started going to the
body, although she ended the bout wiping blood from her nose, Rose earns the unanimous 58-56 score from all three judges.

Kevin Carmody and Derrick Samuels went six rounds.  Samuels used his southpaw stance effectively and mixed punches to the head and body in besting Carmody in a lightweight bout.  The decision was unanimous, boosting Samuels to 4-1-1 and evening Carmody at 3-3-1.

Four Corner Promotions CEO, John Karoly, says the next show will be part of the three day annual Sports Fest Celebration at Cedar Beach Park in Allentown in July.  One night will be an amateur show and another night will be the pro card featuring Serrano’s title fight.  Sports Fest is July 8-10 this summer.