After a year-long absence, professional boxing returned to the Bronx Friday night. The venue was the recently restored Paradise Theater (formerly Loews Paradise Theater), which originally opened its doors in 1929. In the main event, light heavyweight Elvir Muriqi, of the Bronx, destroyed Derrick Reed - who was on a seven-fight win streak - in less time than it took to make his walk to the ring. Muriqi wobbled Reed, of Topeka, Kansas, with the first punch he landed - a left hook - mere seconds after the opening bell. Reed, to his credit, tried his best. He let loose with punches in bunches when he got Muriqi near the ropes. However, his fans in the crowd - far outnumbered by fans of "The Kosovo Kid" - would soon be disappointed.

Muriqi, not looking to be a punching bag with feet, got off the ropes and began marching forward, looking to test Reed’s ability to take a punch. The test didn’t last long.
Reed crashed to the canvas after taking a left to the body and left hook to the head. Reed got to his feet but referee John Callas, feeling Reed was in no shape to take continue, called a halt to the bout. The time was 55 seconds. Muriqi raised his record to 34-3 (21) while Reed saw his ledger dip to 13-7 (11).

In the co-feature, undefeated heavyweight Kevin Johnson utilized his superior hand speed to cruise to a one-sided 10-round decision over Charles Davis, of Tuscon, Arizona. Johnson showed amazingly fast fists for a 238-pounder but favors throwing his jab from his hip, which could get him in trouble when he fights better opposition in the future.

Former world title challenger Raul Frank - whose August 2000 fight with Vernon Forrest for the IBF welterweight title was ruled a no-contest after a clash of heads in the third caused Frank’s forehead to bleed and the fight to be stopped - saw another non-contest added to his record Friday night. Frank, a former USBA welterweight and junior middleweight title holder, was dominating Thomas Davis, of Knoxville, Tennessee, for two rounds when a ringside doctor stopped the fight between the second and third stanza due to a cut Frank suffered from an accidental head butt.

Frank is now 27-5-2 (13) with two no-contests. Davis, 10-3-1 (6), also has two no-contests. The other no-contest occurred in May, against then undefeated Richard Gutierrez.
In other action, Suszannah Warner, of New York, New York, won the NABF Atomweight championship with an eight-round decision over Yvonne Caples, of Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s right. This title fight was not scheduled for 12 rounds or even 10 rounds (as some minor title bouts are scheduled for) but rather, eight rounds. This "championship" fight went the full distance yet there was only 16 minutes of action (since rounds for women’s bouts are two minutes long rather than three minutes long).

However, Warner is not to be blamed for the NABF making a fight for a national belt an eight-rounder. She did what she had to do in the ring and fought better in the later rounds than Caples to win by scores of 79-73 and 78-74 (twice).

There were a total of eight bouts on the card, which did not attract a sellout crowd. However, promoter Joe DeGuardia must be given credit for trying to revive boxing in the Bronx. There was a promoter who put on a card this time last year in the Bronx (he shall remain nameless) and promised a number of bouts would take place over the next year. That never happened.
DeGuardia has also promised more boxing shows at the Paradise Theater. When told another promoter said the same thing 12 months ago, DeGuardia responded by saying he’s already got another show lined up for next month. DeGuardia, it appears, will make good on his promise.

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