The semi-final round of the Boxcino 2015 Junior middleweight and heavyweight tournament took place this past Friday at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, PA. The spotlight was on the Junior middleweight division where Brandon Adams, Vito Gasparyan, Stanyslav Skorokhod , and John Thompson fought for the rights to move to the final round and a chance to win the Boxcino belt. But it was the big boys who made a lot of noise this past Friday, scoring two brutal knockouts in front of a packed house.
In the first bout of the night, heavyweight Andrey Fedesov blasted Lenroy Thomas in three rounds but not before tasting the canvas during the first minute of the fight. Fedesov, a native of Russia, is now 27-3 with 22 knockouts and is the favorite to win the heavyweight Boxcino belt. Fedesov will face the American Donovan Dennis (12-1, 10 KO) who also scored a highlight reel 2nd round stoppage over Razvan Cojnau. With a combined record of 39 fights and 32 knockouts between both fighters, the Heavyweight final promises a lot of fireworks and will probably end before the scheduled 10 rounds.
In the first Junior middleweight bout of the night, late comer John “Apollo Kidd” Thompson pulled an upset defeating heavy favorite Stanyslav Skorokhod via a split decision with scores of 77-75 Thompson, 78-74 Shorokhod, 78-74 Thompson. Thompson boxed well throughout the 8 rounds and never allowed hard hitting Skorokhod to land anything of significance. Regardless of what the cards read, Thompson’s defensive skills allowed him to cruise to what should have been an easy decision win.
In the main event, Brandon Adams scored a 7th round TKO after his opponent Vito Gasparyan said “No Mas” forcing the Referee to stop the fight at 35 seconds of the aforementioned 7th round. Gasparyan was the heavy underdog going into the fight and often gave Adams a lot of problems throughout the bout. However, Adams’ power began to take effect and was debilitating Gasparyan as the fight progressed. Gasparyan’s left ear was badly swollen and Adams continued targeting it in order to force the stoppage.
Adams will face the always slick Thompson in the final fight of the 2015 Junior middleweight tournament. With contrasting styles, the match promises to be a pick ‘em fight. Adams has been the favorite to win the tournament from day one, but if we learned anything from watching Thompson is that you can never count the Newark native out.
Undercard Results:
Curtis Morton (3-4-2) def. Greg Jackson (5-2-1, 2 KO) by Unanimous Decision
Jon Bolden (7-10-1, 5 KO) def. Ed Fountain (10-2, 4 KO) by Unanimous Decision
Eric Newell (8-3-2, 5 KO) def. Brandon Spencer (2-9-1, 2 KO) by Unanimous Decision
Ricky Nuno (1-0) def. Pat Kehoe (1-2) by Unanimous Decision
Mike Liberto (1-0) def. Darnell Hayes (0-2) by TKO
The 2015 Boxcino Finals will take place on May 22, from Corona, CA and will air live on ESPN2 at 9pm ET
The tournament is promoted exclusively by Banner Promotions and shown on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.
