EDITED PRESS RELEASE: Joe DeGuardia's Star Boxing presented the seventh installment of the popular "Punchin At The Paradise" series at The Utopia Paradise Theatre in the Bronx, NY last night and in what has become a tradition of the Paradise shows, those in attendance saw Yuri Foreman defeat Andrey Tsurkan.
Tsurkan (25-3 16KOs) and Foreman (24-0 8 KOs) hooked up in an inter-borough battle which left those in the large crowd debating who won the fight. Officially, Foreman won via split decision.
The pattern of the fight was clear from the opening bell, Tsurkan was the bull and Foreman was the matador. The question was who was more effective at their style. Foreman moved smartly in the opening frame while Tsurkan tried to apply pressure throughout the round. The second round saw Tsurkan get closer to Foreman and start to land effective jabs and hooks to the head of Foreman.
Round three was a big round for Tsurkan as was able to land numerous power shots eventually opening up a cut over the right eye of Foreman. Foreman seemed to gain back some composure in round four. Tsurkan's non-stop pressure continued through seven rounds. Foreman won rounds eight through ten as Tsurkan's aggressive attack finally slowed down. The scores were given, 96-94 on two cards for Yuri Foreman and 96-94 on the third card for Andre Tsurkan, thus making Foreman a split decision winner.
Tsurkan's corner became irate Although Tsurkan's fans were claiming that Foreman did not do enough to take away the regional title awayfrom champion, there is no such rule to that effect.  Nonetheless, the clocked was turned back to the glory days when two New York fighters went at tooth and nail and gave it their all.
Joe DeGuardia of Star Boxing [Tsurakns's promoter] said "It was thrilling to hear the crowd cheering for Tsurkan and Foreman, as both had enthusiastic and supportive fans. I was disappointed with the decision as I felt Tsurkan won the fight. Certainly Tsurkan is a crowd favorite and deserves another big fight. I wish Foreman the best, and he showed that he came to the fight in tremendous shape as Tsurkan's pressure was relentless."
The semi-final saw Argentina's junior middleweight contender Sergio Martinez improve to (41-1-1) with a fourth round TKO over late sub Russell Jordan (14-5). Heavyweight Monte Barrett (32-6 18 KOs) avenged a July loss by knocking out Cliff Couser (26-14-2 14 KOs) in the second round of a scheduled 6 round bout.
Other notable undercard results saw welterweight Ray Robinson remain undefeated (6-0 2 KOs) scoring a 2nd round knockout of Oscar Rodriguez (9-10-1 3 KOs). Heavyweight Andre Purlette (40-2 35 KOs) pounded out a hard fought 6 round decision win over Andrew Greeley (13-19-2 7 KOs). Edgar Santana (22-3 14 KOs) returned to winning form by defeating Mike Gonzalez (10-3-1 9 KOs) via 3rd TKO in a Jr. Welterweight bout scheduled for 6 rounds. Joe Hanks (1-0 1 KO) scored a 2nd round KO of Joe Rabotte (0- 2) in a Heavyweight bout scheduled for 4 rounds.
The show was promoted by Joe DeGuardia's Star Boxing, DiBella Entertainment, and Top Rank and televised live on the Versus network.
