Glendale Glory Debuts With A Bang
Posted by Igor Frank on 06.13.2009
Fedesov, Hovanisyan and Skayzer are victorious.
Glendale Glory, a first ever professional boxing show in over sixty years premiered on Friday night, in Glendale Civic Auditorium in front of a sell out, raucous crowd of eleven hundred. Despite extra added security enforced by city authorities, the show that featured six thrilling bouts was a huge success with the local fans.
In the main event of the evening, all the way from St. Petersburg, heavyweight Andrey the Russian Bear Fedosov (20-1,16KO) dominated a veteran Galen Bad Boy Brown (32-12-1,19KO) from Missouri. Fedosov was simply too powerful and too skilled for his opponent. He ended the day with the body shot at 1:36 of the second stanza.
Glendale's own, Armenian born light welterweight Art Hovhannisyan (8-0-1,3KO'S) had the best performance of the night in a six round bout against tough as nails veteran Daniel Gonzalez (9-23-2,3KO'S) . Art dominated first and second round with beautiful movement and crisp combinations, scored a knockdown in the third stanza with a body and head combination and continued to dominate forcing the referee to stop the fight at 1;36 of the 6th round. Art put together a dynamic performance displaying all of his skills for his fans.
In the opening bout Russian knock out artist, light heavyweight Anatoly Dragon Dudchenko (6-2,5KO'S) had to settle for a six round decision over an awkward and jerky Terrence T-Rex Smith (6-11-2,3KO'S) from Oklahoma City. In the first round Smith landed a right hand to the ear and dropped Dudchenko to his knee, but the referee called it a slip. Since that moment, the Russian controlled the action and dominated the fight and got a well deserved unanimous decision with three judges scoring it 60-54, 60-54, 59-55. Dudchenko was more aggressive and more accurate.
Local favorite, super featherweight, Gabriel Tolmajyan (6-1,1KO) out boxed his rugged and determined opponent from Palm Springs, California Hugo Ramos (2-1-1,1KO) over four rounds. Tolmajyan displayed great movement and accurate punches in combinations to the delight of the fans that came to support him. In the second stanza Hugo Ramos upped the pressure and walked into a right hand that almost dropped him, but he kept coming forward anyway. Coach Steve urged Ramos to go to the 6th street, a code for a strategy he would not reveal, but Hugo never got there. Judges awarded the Armenia fighter a split decision 38-38, 39-37, 39-37, which was a little surprising, considering his domination in the ring.
Undefeated Russian welterweight Max Skayzer (7-0-1,1KO) who resides and trains in San Fernando Valley, brought his own cheering section and delighted his fans with a dominating six round performance over a tough veteran Anthony Martinez (21-31). All the judges scored the bout the same 60-54. Max is a crafty boxer that could go far if he learned to sit down on his punches.
African heavyweight currently training at the famed Wild card Gym in Hollywood, Lateef Kayode (7-0,6KO'S) only needed 101 seconds to demolish his out of shape opponent Francisco Mireles (8-4) who outweighed his adversary by over fifty pounds of fat. Lateef dropped the Mexican fighter with a body shot for the first knock down and then finished the job with the right hand upstairs.
Kudos to the local promoters Steve Bash and Kahren Harutyunyan who had to face a lot of additional challenges to be able to put this event on for the fans. Great show! Great venue! Let's do it again real soon!
