The fight card
presented by Top Rank at the Hard Rock Hotel had three interesting fights. The
televised fight card on Versus Network presented a quick fight between Tye
Fields (39-1, 35 KOs) out of Las Vegas against opponent Chris Koval (24-4, 18
KOs) of Youngstown, Ohio. Fields knocked Koval down twice in the round,
finishing him off with a right punch to the jaw in 1:46 of round one. An
aggressive Fields said he’s working on delivering more combinations in his
fights.
The main
event, a 12-round IBF World
Welterweight title fight, had Joshua Clottey (33-2,
20 KOs) of Bronx, NY, in a decision over Shamone Alvarez (19-1, 11 KOs) of
Atlantic City. It was a touch-and-go fight, where Alvaraez was the busier of the
fighters, but he didn’t take advantage of delivering many connecting shots.
Clottey, on the other hand, was looking for a knockout and didn’t use his jab as
he had in other fights.
A
relatively new fighter Vanes Martirosyan (17-0, 12 KOs) of Glendale, Calif., had
no problems executing combinations to Dan Wallace (9-3, 3 KOs) of Adrian, Mich.,
in a 6-round super welterweight fight. Martirosyan caught Wallace with a right,
knocking him out in 1:34
of round one. Other undercard fights included Las Vegan
Donnie Orr (10-0, 4 KOs) of Las Vegas, taking on Enrique Gallegos (6-3, 1 KO) of
Medford, Oregon, in a six-round middleweight bout. Orr won by unanimous
decision.
Another
Las Vegan, Diego Magdaleno, won by unanimous decision in his first pro fight in
the four-round super featherweight bout against Francisco Palacios (2-3-4, 1 KO)
of Bronx, NY.
The final fight of the night was a six-round junior welterweight fight between Geoffery Spruell (5-5, 1 KO) of Pueblo, Colo., and Angel Flores (9-2, 2 KOs) of Las Vegas. Spruiell won by decision. It was certainly an awkward fight because Flores was much smaller than Spruell who had the reach and height advantage. Flores, however, is a more technical fighter and has a promising career. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said he will continue to promote club fights and looks forward to introducing more fighters in the lower weight classes.
Photos by Mary Ann Owen©
