Israel’s cruiserweight Ran Nakash, 25-0 (18), stayed unbeaten Wednesday night in a bloody battle beating Victor Barragan, 11-6 (3), of Oxnard, CA, over 10 rounds. Nakash won for the eleventh time in Philly entering the ring with a Philadelphia Phillies shirt and cap along with the flag of Israel. The Philly fans have adopted him. It was his first fight at the Arena in south Philly now the Blue Horizon is closed.
No Limits Promotions in Association with Joey Eye Boxing Promotions along with Comcast Boxing had seven bouts with matchmaker Don Elbaum bringing in boxers from around the world. Besides Nakash 2008 Olympic Gold medalist Felix Diaz of Dominican Republic also remained unbeaten stopping Broderick Antoine in the Co-Feature 8 rounder.
Nakash was given a change of opponents two weeks ago. ”I was training for a southpaw in Lou DelValle when I was told an orthodox boxer would be coming in. He was tough,” said Nakash. “I only had two weeks to prepare but he can really punch,’ said Barragan.
In the first round Nakash landed a right hand that may have caught Barragan off balance because he went from the center of the ring to halfway through the ropes. Give Barragan credit for he comes from a rough boxing area in Oxnard, CA, and he was game the whole way. In the second round Nakash set the pattern digging in with border line left hooks with a couple going south. In the third and fourth rounds both boxers mixed it up well with Barragan suffering a broken nose per the ringside physician. In the fifth Barragan seemed to get the edge winning his first round even though the blood was flying from his nose. Nakash never loses his composure with his best round in the eighth rocking Barragan on two occasions. Barragan fought back taking the ninth and tenth rounds with Nakash satisfied to go ten rounds for the second time in his career.
Referee Benjy Esteves, Jr. had an easy time of it for there were few clinches in this one. All three judges gave it to Nakash with Alan Rubenstein calling it 96-94, George Hill 97-93 agreeing with this writer and Bernard Bruni at 99-91.
Title challenger Bobby Gun’s name came up. A year ago in Newark, NJ, he failed to take Tomasz Adamek’s IBF cruiserweight title but gave a good account of himself. On the undercard Nakash scored a knockout. This would be a good pairing. “Whatever Don Elbaum has planned for us we will do,” said Rannie, Nakash spokesman. IBF champion Steve Cunningham was at ringside along with his wife Livvy cheering Nakash on.
Felix Diaz, 6-0 (3), of the Dominican Republic showed why he was a top amateur as he rocked Broderick Antoine, 10-11-1 (5), of Troy, NY, in the first round in this battle of southpaw welterweights in a scheduled eight rounder. Antoine came back to take the second round but every time he threw his left he was countered by Diaz’s left especially in an exchange when he had Antoine on the ropes.
In the fourth round Antoine received a nasty cut over his right eye. The blood flowed from the cut the rest of the way. He showed slick boxing skills to last through seven rounds. The ring physician informed the referee Shawn Clark if it get’s any worse to stop it in the eighth and final round. It didn’t take long as the referee stopped it at 0:35 of the round. Diaz should slim down to 140 to be more effective.
Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Glazkov, 6-0 (4), had his hands full in the first round with Mark “Oak Tree” Brown, 15-4 (7), of Salem, NJ, in a six round battle of heavyweights. In the second round Glazkov rocked Brown but did not follow up. Brown a former high school wrestler seemed more content in bullying Glazkov to the ropes than throwing punches and by the third round when a cut opened along the side of his left eye Brown was finished. Glazkov landed six unanswered punches causing referee Esteves to call a halt at 2:41 of the third round.
In a good six round super middleweight match southpaw Maks Limonov, 13-0 (8), of Russia knew he was in a fight especially in the first half against Julius Fogle, 15-6 (10), of Cary, NC, winning a split decision. Fogle, once a very good amateur lost for the fifth straight time. His corner tried to get Fogle to box more for when he did his skills confused Limonov who was too strong for Fogle. Limonov landed his share of punches behind the head with hardly a warning from referee Clark. Limonov would turn to orthodox occasionally but he lacked defense either way.
The scoring went to Fogle by judge Bruni 58-56 and to Limonov 59-55 by both judges Rubenstein and Hill. This writer had it 58-56 for Limonov by taking the last two rounds.
In a super flyweight four rounder Russia’s Rustam Nabeev, 5-1 (0), had Alejandro Solorio, 4-2 (3), of Huntington park, CA, cut in the first round only to find himself on the canvas. The rest of the way was a good fight with Solorio proving to be the stronger and more aggressive. All three judges gave it to Solorio with Rubenstein and Hill agreeing at 39-36 and Bruni 40-35. The referee was Clark.
In a heavyweight four rounder former Penn State footballer Imani Bell, 1-0 (0), of Philadelphia came off the floor in the first round to bounce back and bloody the nose of Lee Thomas, 1-4 (0), of Saginaw, MI, who stayed in his corner at the end of the second round. Both fighters near three hundred pounds should spend some more time in the gym.
In a close opening bout southpaw Oz Goldenberg, 2-0 (0), of Israel, seemed fortunate to earn a majority decision over Marcos Garcia, 0-3 (0), of Camden, NJ. Judges Rubenstein and Bruni had it 39-37 while Hill agreed with this writer at 38-38.
Handling the color for Comcast was former IBF and current NABO light welterweight champion Paul “Majic Man” Malignaggi. Besides Cunningham the heavyweight title challenger “Fast” Eddie Chambers was in the audience. Hopefully the promoters will be back on a monthly basis.
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