Before I get into talking about the Prograis vs Zorrilla card, I got to talk about New Orleans for a little. I had only been to New Orleans before on a layover, so it was my first time out in the city. King P and I enjoyed all the food and sights it had to offer. The food especially because we were saying to ourselves, if we lived here, we would be obese. Bourbon St, Canal St, Frenchmen St, etc. were great sources of entertainment. The things that we saw and experienced on that street. I only wished we stayed a couple more days more.
Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom
Now onto the boxing experience. This was the first time 2 Ring Gang members were in the house covering the event. The weigh in was an interesting event and we got a glimpse on how many family members and friends that Regis Prograis had. Prograis had the pure patience of a champion to take pictures with anyone. The next day King P and I had to exhibit the same level of patience once we arrived at Smoothie King. The process for getting our credentials and finding the media entrance was a trying process to say the least. The before the bell segment opened with Criztec Bazaldus winning a spirited four round decision over Elroy Fruto. The second fight with Aaron Aponte and Xavier Madrid was a dogfight to say the least. A costly point deduction for Aponte resulted in him losing a split decision. 76-75 x2 for Madrid and 78-73 for Aponte. The third and last fight on the before the bell segment is a special attraction fight between Ginny Fuchs and Indeya Rodriguez. Another hard scrap in which the scrappy Indeya gives Ginny plenty to think about. At the end of eight rounds, Ginny Fuchs won the UD with scores of 80-72 x 2 and 79-73 over Indeya Rodriguez.
Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom
In the opening fight of the main card, Jeremy Hill stopped Mark “Too Sharp” Davis in four rounds. At the weigh in both guys were animated and predicting knockouts. Well one of them got their prediction right. A right hook over the left hand from Hill caught Davis on the temple. A follow up combination deposited him on the canvas. Davis got up on groggy legs and the ref decided to wave it off. The crowd erupted as Hill celebrated and then knelt in prayer. Next fight is the increasingly popular Ramla Ali facing the tough Julissa Guzman. Guzman was landing the heavier shots, but Ali is the one that drew first blood. After a knockdown in round five, Guzman ended things in round eight with a brutal left hook. To her credit, Ali got up before the count but clearly was in no condition to continue. From there the quality of the card took an unexpecting decline in terms of entertainment.
Credit: Bad Left Hook
The co-main between Shakram Giyasov and Harold Calderon started off a chess match. Then it dissolved into a negative affair of posturing and showboating of which neither pleased the crowd. Twelve rounds of non-action with Giyasov getting the unimpressive decision over Calderon among boos in the crowd. The fight was sleep inducing and disappointing because both fighters had the power to make the fight interesting. If it weren’t like such a maze to get to the refreshment stand, I would have gotten a Redbull. King P and I were thinking that that fight was an aberration. We were wrong!!! The main event everybody has been waiting for with Regis Prograis and Danielito Zorrilla. Liam Paro was Prograis In the first round it looked like Prograis got dropped but ref called it a slip. On replay it looked clear that it was. That was a KD, a blown call and Prograis got shook up. In round three, Prograis did return the KD. The only impressive moment of the fight to me. The rest of the fight was characterized by wild swings by Prograis and getting on the bike by Zorrilla. If Zorrilla had a plan, the plan should have been activated. You must take the belt from the champion. Zorrilla did clearly win the final two rounds of the fight. The judges gave the fight to Prograis by a split decision 118-109 and 117-110 for Prograis with 114-113 for Zorrilla. What a wide range of scores!!! King P and I felt like the scores were close. The fight to me was 115-112. It was closer than to 114-113 for sure. Zorrilla though had no right to be pouting in the ring like he did. He came to spoil and will spoil his future chances to be put on TV. Prograis was clearly disgusted and apologetic about the fight and performance. CompuBox announced they set the record for the least number of punches landed in a twelve round fight. 4-5 punches landed less than Casimero vs Rigondeaux, which is one of the worst fights I ever watched. Hopefully Prograis can rebound and make the rest of the fights on his deal worth it. Always Ring Gang Radio will be there to cover it and be in the mix.
