Wiggins wiggles past Bryant!

June 27, 2004

www.fightnews.com

Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing Promotions was in action Saturday night at the Silverton Hotel & Casino in fabulous Las Vegas Nevada, showcasing heavyweight Robert Wiggins, 19-3-1, 11KOS, squaring off with Derek Bryant, 17-3, 14KOS, in a rematch of their June 2002 bout, in which Bryant walked away with the victory after the fight was called to a halt due to severe swelling over the left eye of Wiggins.

Unfortunately for Bryant, this time around there would be no swelling and Wiggins would over come a slow first two rounds en route to the unanimous eight round decision win.

Bryant started the opening round boxing with his jab and moving in an awkward manner, almost jumping around the ring. The unusual movement coming from Bryant seemed to do the trick, as Wiggins was very hesitant to let his hands go.

The lack of offensive production from Wiggins would continue in the second round, and Bryant’s jab was just enough activity to secure him the round.

Both fighters were lackadaisical through the first six minutes of the bout, only offering up the bare minimal amount of offense.

In the third frame of the fight, Wiggins finally let his hands go and began to concentrate on the midsection of Bryant. He raked his rival over and over again with crisp, clean, shots that forced him to hold.

From this point on, Wiggins continued to work the body of Bryant, buckling the Philadelphia fighter in the fourth round with a vicious shot to the liver.

Things would not get any better for Bryant in the fifth frame, when he would hit the canvas for the first and only time in the fight. Wiggins landed a power shot to the chest/ arm area and Bryant fell to the floor holding his left shoulder indicating that he had somehow injured his arm.

Referee Toby Gibson correctly administered the count and Bryant reached his feet, indicating he wanted to continue.

After the unusual knockdown, Wiggins took control of the action until the final bell sounded to end the night. He invoked a solid body attack that kept Bryant defensive, destroying any chance that he might have had to pull out the fight.

Even after the slow start by Wiggins, there was little doubt as to the victor of the fight, with all three ringside judges scoring the match in favor of Wiggins by scores of 78-73, 78-73 and 77-74.

In other heavyweight action, UFC competitor Marvin Eastman, 1-0, 1KO, made his professional boxing debut, scoring a fourth round technical knockout victory over his more experienced opponent, Willie Broadie, 2-8.

Eastman started the opening round a bit tentatively, but that quickly changed when his opponent began launching wild haymakers at him. Eastman kept his cool under fire, and introduced his own power shots to the gut of Broadie.

Eastman let his hands go much more in the second round of the bout, forcing Broadie to cover up, as he lay against the ropes absorbing wicked shots downstairs. The assault coming from Eastman was far from technically sound, but he was letting his hands go and Broadie had no answer for his novice opponent’s attack.

Broadie continued his strategy of retreating and covering up in the third round and through most of the fourth, until Eastman took advantage of the lack of offense coming back at him, putting together a flurry to the head of Broadie that once again forced him to go defensive.

Having witnessed Broadie go three previous rounds without offering up any solid power shots, referee Toby Gibson decided that he had seen enough; calling a halt to the bout at 1:21 seconds of round number four.

Also on the card were female fighters, Vaia Zaganas and Elena Reid, who treated the fight fans in attendance to an entertaining four round exhibition bout.

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Bronx jr middleweight, Andre Tsurkan overcame hard hitting Joshua Smith from Nashville to score a third round TKO.

The bout began with both combatants feeling each other out, although Smith seemed the more gun-shy of the two as he was on his bike for most of the round. Tsurkan for his part pressed forward but couldn't cut the ring off, although he did land an impressive right hand midway through the round. In the second round Tsurkan ratcheted up the pressure and began to close the distance and was successful landing one-two combinations.

By this stage Smith had begun to look a little discouraged and was content to be on the back foot and was doing little offensively. By the round's end it looked as if Smith was ready to be taken out as he was getting tagged repeatedly by straight lefts and rights. The third stanza had barely begun when Tsurkan landed a very low blow which sent Smith down on one knee in obvious discomfort.

Referee Toby Gibson called time and allowed Smith time to recover. However, his respite was short-lived as Tsurkan jumped straight back on him as soon as the action was allowed to resume, strafing him with straight lefts and hard rights. This continued throughout the round when finally it was apparent that Smith was out on his feet and unable to defend himself, at which point the referee jumped between the two warriors and stopped the action at 2:25. Smith did not protest the stoppage as he clearly had nothing left to offer. With this win Tsurkan improves to 21-2, 13 ko's while Smiths slips to 16-13, 15 ko's.

In the middleweight division Shelly Burton and Monica Nunez fought over six very entertaining rounds. From the opening rounds it was clear that neither fighter possessed an awful lot of skill but they both displayed a ton of heart as they slugged it out non stop for the duration.

Nunez won the first stanza backing up Burton with some wicked shots to the head. Burton came back well in the second and was successful with the right hand rocking Nunez several times. Nunez fought more intelligently in the third, fourth and fifth stanzas using her superior reach to keep things on the outside and by refusing to be drawn into a brawl. That's not to say that Burton didn't catch her occasionally but these were definitely the New Yorker's rounds. Burton closed the show the stronger of the two as she launched an all out assault on her fatigued opponent. And cheered on by her home crowd she went for the knockout and nearly got it as she wobbled Nunez a couple of times in the latter half of the round. But Nunez managed to hang on although she nearly had a point deducted by referee Robert Byrd for excessive holding.

At the end of six spirited rounds the judges scored 57-57, 59-55, and 58-55 in favour of Nunez. Fightnews had it four rounds to two for Nunez. With this impressive win Nunez moves to 9-1, 4 ko's while Burton loses her undefeated record falling to 4-1, 1 ko.

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