Witherspoon Out-duals Corpus in Philly

By Marc Abrams (ringside)

Heavyweight prospect, Chazz Witherspoon battered visiting Augustin Corpus over six rounds to win a unanimous decision at The First District Plaza in Philadelphia on Thursday night.

Witherspoon, 229 lbs of Philadelphia, came out throwing compact hooks to the head of the squatty Corpus. Witherspoon kept his hands moving and settled in to a nice pattern of boxing and using a nice jab. Corpus was swinging wildly and hoping to land that one big punch that may turn things to his advantage.

Witherspoon landed three big right hands to start round three that backed Corpus to the corner. Corpus, 224 lbs of Laredo, Texas stemmed the tide some as he landed a big uppercut that was followed by a right hand that saved him from further danger.

In round four, Witherspoon landed a blistering combination in which both hands were used equally during the six punch barrage. Corpus was firing and occasionally landing shots with decent steam behind them. Towards the middle of the round, Witherspoon wobbled Corpus with a left hook. Corpus was determined in landing a right uppercut.

Witherspoon just continued to fight three minutes of every round using his height and athletic advantage to be in control of the tough fight. Witherspoon closed the fight landing some terrific combinations including a six punch flurry against the ropes. Corpus continued to occasionally land a wild left from time to time. Again Witherspoon used landed a nice combination against the ropes as this time he landed a nice four punch combo to the body. Witherspoon started to batter Corpus in the corner. The fight ended with both fighters trading shots for the final twenty seconds that brought the crowd to their feet.

Judges Rose Vargas and Ron Greenly scored it 60-54 and Rich Hopkins had it 60-53 all for Witherspoon who stays undefeated at 12-0. Corpus fought hard but goes back to texas with a record of 11-19.

The opener was a scheduled four round Heavyweight between Lavon Warner, 224 lbs of Philadelphia and Kevin Hood, 225 lbs of Columbus, Ohio.

This was a bout that showed the taller Warner successfully use his jab to keep Hood at bay. Hood countered successfully countered from time to time, but was to infrequent with his activity. All three judges scored the bout 40-36 for Warner who is now evened up at 3-3-2. Hood falls to 1-4.

Heavyweights Zakeem Graham, 233 lbs of Cincinnati, Ohio took on Maurice Wheeler, 237 lbs of Philadelphia in a scheduled six rounder.

Graham came out firing a hard straight right hand that had Wheeler on the retreat. Graham continued with the hard straight with Wheeler starting to get inside and land the uppercut.

In round five, Graham tagged Wheeler that sent him along the ropes. He followed that with a nice short left on the inside. Graham landed a right that backed Wheeler up once more. Graham controlled the last half of the fight and got the split decision nod. Vargas had it 59-55, Greenly 58-56 for Graham. Hopkins had it 58-56 for Wheeler. Graham now has a record of 10-1-1. Wheeler is 10-6-1.

Jamal Reed, 160 lbs of Philadelphia took on John Terry of Portsmouth , Virginia in a scheduled six round Middleweight bout

Davis came out swinging and landing with some solid punches off a hard jab. Davis worked Terry with a double left hook to the body.

Davis landed a big left hook that drove Terry back with a left to start round two. A second left stunned Terry. At the end of round two Terry and Davis exchanged hard shoves. That seemed to light a fire under Davis as he landed a huge counter left hand that sent Terry to one knee that led to him subsequently rolling over on his back. Terry miraculously rose to his feet but wobbled and referee Ron Aurit stopped the fight at 28 seconds of round three.

Davis is 7-1 with six knockouts. Terry is now 2-3.

James Lubwama, 182 lbs of Philadelphia scored a third round stoppage over Edward Hemphill, 175 lbs of Virginia. The end came at 2:52 of the third of a scheduled six round bout.

Lubwama is 17-3-2 with ten stoppages. Hemphill is 4-4.

The card was attended by some luminaries in the boxing game such as Yusef Mack, Buster Drayton, Steve "USS" Cunningham, Kassim Ouma and Willie Gibbs to name a few of the many Philly based fighters in the crows.

The card was promoted by James Shuler Gym