PHILADELPHIA — In front of his Israeli supporters, the WBC’s 13th ranked Cruiserweight, Ran Nakash, successfully navigated by Oxnard, California’s Victor Barragan to stay undefeated.
With the win, Nakash — who hails from Haifa, Israel, but has fought eleven bouts in Philadelphia — improved to 25-0 with 18 KO, while Barragan fell to 11-6 with 3 KO.
The bout was slow to develop as neither fighter was able to establish themselves as the superior fighter in the ring. After spending the first round feeling one another out, Nakash began to land lead left hooks, which was a trend that continued throughout the fight. By round 3, Nakash had Barragan bleeding from what looked to be the bridge of the nose. While Nakash found success with left hooks, Barragan did most of his damage in the early rounds with combinations and counterpunches. By the mid-rounds, both fighters looked exhausted, lacking in lateral movement, thus making themselves an easy target for one another. Both fighters took advantage of the fact that their opponent was easy to find, but it was Nakash with his barrage of left hooks and straight rights that left their impressions on the judges.
The late rounds saw Barragan eating more and more of Nakash’s punches, but to his Barragan’s credit, he never failed to fire back.
In the end, it was Nakash whose hand was raised by the referee after all three judges scored the bout in the Israeli’s favor. All three judges scored the bout differently: 96-94, 97-93, and 99-91.
The fight was a gut check for both Nakash and Barragan — and both passed. It was a tough fight, and at times a sloppy fight, but Nakash outworked Barragan to stay undefeated.
The co-feature on tonight’s card was between Dominican gold-medalist, Felix Diaz, square off against Troy, New York’s Broderick Antoine. In the first two rounds of the fight, the shorter Diaz, was able to impose his will Antoine, getting within range and firing strong left hands at the face of his opponent.
It wasn’t until round 3 that Antoine started to use his reach to his advantage and stop fighting with Diaz and start boxing. However, just when Antoine had a taste of success in round 3, a nasty cut was opened above his right eye the very next round. When the bell rang for round 5, Antoine’s corner had failed to fully stop the bleeding, and Diaz was able to have even more success with his left hand.
By the time the round 7 came around, blood was flowing freely from the gash above Antoine’s right eye, along with a new stream of blood spewing from the fighter’s mouth. When the bell rang to signal the 8th round, Antoine was inexplicably allowed by the ringside physician to get up off his stool and continue to box. Luckily the referee saw that there was no sense in risking any further damage to Antoine and stopped the bout just :35 seconds into round number 8. Diaz improved his record to 5-0 with 3 KO and Antoine fell to 10-11-1 with 5 KO.
In an entertaining heavyweight bout, Ukrainian bronze medalist, Vyacheslav Glazkov, defeated fan-favorite, Mark “Oak Tree” Brown of Salem, NJ, by TKO in the third round.
Glazkov looked impressive in his win against “Oak Tree,” showing both impressive technical ability and maturity. In the first round, Brown came out unloaded wide, heavy-handed, punches at the Ukrainian, who calmly avoided his opponent’s punches. Glazkov took a very calculated approach to this fight and waiting until Brown fired wide punches before countering with straight rights and lefts.
In round 2, Glazkov troubled Brown by throwing lead left hooks that continued to connect. Finally, in round 3, after stunning Brown, the Ukrainian was able to pin his opponent up against the ropes and finish him with an onslaught of lefts and rights that forced the referee to stop the fight.
Glazkov improved his record to 6-0 with 3 KO, while “Oak Tree” Brown fell to 15-4 with 7 KO.
In perhaps the most entertaining fight of the night, Russian Maks Liminov outpointed North Carolina’s Julius Fogle to stay undefeated. The fight was 6 rounds full of action — both fighters dishing out some punishment, as well as receiving some. In this end, this fight came down to who wanted it more, and by split decision, the judges awarded the victory to Liminov. In the early goings, Liminov was the aggressor, hunting Fogle down, cutting off the ring. Eventually when his back neared the ropes, Fogle would settle in and fire at his opponent. Both fighters landed good, clean punches that undoubtedly got the attention of their opposition. In round 3, Fogle decided to try and push the action, and instead of being the hunted, he started to move forward. Once again both fighters found success, landing straight punches, as well as hooks, seemingly at will.
The later rounds featured an extremely fatigued Julius Fogle, who was able to hit Liminov, but not do any damage. Fogle’s punches had little on them and Liminov was able to walk through them and inflict his own damage on his opponent. In the end, Liminov maintained his perfect record, and improved it to 13-0 with 8 KO, while Fogle’s dropped to 15-6, 10 KO. The judges who scored the bout for Liminov both had the fight 59-55 and the judge who scored the bout in favor of Fogle saw the fight 58-56.
In his professional debut, former Penn State football player, Imani Bell stopped Michigan’s Lee Thomas after two rounds of action in the heavyweight division. The first round saw both fighter’s come out swinging wildly at one another seemingly trying to go for the knockout. Thomas struck first by sending his 282 pound opponent crashing to the canvas after a devastating blow.
However, when Bell returned to his feet, there was little follow up by an exhausted and out-of-shape Thomas to try and stop the fight in the first round.
In the second round, Bell caught a second wind and delivered crushing blows to Thomas. As the result of Bell’s punches, Thomas was sent back to his stool after round 2 with blood streaming from his nose. It was on his stool where Thomas declined to continue the fight. Bell won his professional debut, moving to 1-0 with 1 KO, while Thomas fell to 1-4.
In a fight that took place after the Nakash-Barragan main event, Russia’s Rustam Nabeev squared off against California’s Alejandro Solorio in a super flyweight bout. In the first round, Solorio came out swinging wildly trying to shock and overwhelm Nabeev. Nabeev was able to initially ward of the attack, but midway through the round was caught with a punch that sent him to the canvas. Nabeev would never fully recover and Solorio easily decisioned his opponent. All three judges scored the bout in favor of Solorio. They saw the bout: 39-36, 39-36, and 40-35.
In the night’s first fight, Israeli Oz Goldenberg faced off against Camden, New Jersey’s Marcos Garcia. Both fighters were successfully able to touch up their opposition, but it was Goldenberg who did the more convincing damage. This fight feature a ton of inside work as all four rounds were flooded with tie-ups and holding. To the referee’s credit, he allowed the fighters to work on the inside until they worked their way out of it. In the end, Goldenberg was awarded a majority decision victory. Two judges scored the bout 39-37 for Goldenberg, while the other judge saw the fight a 38-38 draw. Goldenberg improved to 2-0, while Garcia fell to 0-3.
