Amir “Hardcore” Mansour Stops Epifanio Mendoza in 6 By Ken Hissner & David Ruff at ringside, Doghouse Boxing (Dec 5, 2011) Doghouse Boxing - Tweet
Unbeaten southpaw Amir “Hardcore”
Mansour, 16-0 (12), of Wilmington, DE, thrilled the crowd once again
stopping Colombian Epifanio “Diamante” Mendoza, 32-14-2 (28), now
out of Miami, FL, at the Rollins Center at the Dover Downs Casino and
Hotel, in Dover, DE, Friday night at 1:17 of the sixth round!
It’s been rumored Mansour may have
fought his last fight at the Rollins Center where he has established
a reputation of being one of the most dangerous fighters in the
heavyweight division. He has stopped 6 of his 7 opponents in just
over 11 months since coming back in August of 2010. He made his way
to the ring to the cheers of the crowd who have adopted this Penns
Grove, NJ, fighter. “He keeps you on the edge of your seat from
the opening bell,” said one writer. Oh, yes, that was me!
This is the same fighter who several
months ago talked in a quiet voice to the boy’s and girls at the
Fraims Club in Wilmington. When he enters the ring he is a
completely different human being. He is centered on the opponent in
front of him who is attempting to put up a road block to his goal of
a world championship fight.
The shorter Mansour used an effected
body attack with right hooks to the rib cage of Mendoza who scored
with an occasional lead right hand having the longer reach. It was
the same in the second round until the bell sounded and Mendoza
landed a punch a second late that got the attention of Mansour. It
was a bad mistake on the part of Mendoza that he would later pay
dearly for. In the third round while the left was not finding its
target so much the right hook was hurting Mendoza when the bell
sounded and Mansour let go with a pair of combinations.
Out of the corner came Mendoza’s
trainer as referee Benjy Esteves, Jr. cut him off in the middle of
the ring. Tommy Barnes, chief second of Mansour’s jumped in the
ring besides his fighter. It looked like the former professional was
about to make a comeback! In the fourth round after taking some hard
punches Mendoza changed his strategy by clowning in a macho way which
had Mansour looking like “are we going to fight or not?”
The fifth round was starting to take a
toll on Mendoza who knew it would take a knockout to pull this fight
out at the halfway mark of this WBF International championship fight.
Mansour was pitching a shut out! In the sixth round once again
Mansour came out in a fury like he had in several of the previous
rounds and landing some 10 straight punches without a return from
Mendoza who was in obvious trouble. As the towel was thrown in by
the same trainer who had jumped into the ring earlier, referee
Esteves called a halt at 1:17 of the sixth round. Mendoza put up a
little complaint to his trainer but it was all in vain. “Mendoza
has kept his power while moving up in weight,” said Mansour.
Mansour is a heavyweight on a mission
at 39. “I believe Tomasz Adamek in Newark may be next,” said
Mansour. He was referring to the two-division world champion from
Poland who has packed the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, for the
past several years. In his last bout he fell to the much larger
Vitali Klitschko. Mansour would be more his size and it will be a
war! It may take place by May of 2012. One way or another, the
Center will be packed if it happens.
“My trainer (Moses Robinson) knew
what to do and it was just a matter of me listening,” said Mansour.
Manager Keith Stoffer decked out in his red suit to match the trunks
of Mansour has a diamond in the rough. Mansour is a Marvelous Marvin
Hagler at 226 of pure muscle.
38 year-old Dorvin Spivey, 40-6 (26),
of Portsmouth, VA, kept the ball rolling for the “older” winners
this night. An accidental head butt brought about plenty of blood
over the right eye of Angel “The White Tiger” Rios, 9-9 (6), of
the Bronx by way of Puerto Rico. “I got a cramp in my stomach in
the second round,” said Spivey. He was much too busy for Rios
whose heart never allowed him to stop coming forward landing his
share of power punches at the end of most of the rounds. At ringside
was Victor Vasquez, of Philadelphia who defeated Rios in his last
fight by majority decision and would be meeting Spivey in February
for the vacant NABA lightweight title. This was a scheduled 6 in the
lightweight division and the next one will be the first 10 for
Vasquez. Fans should look forward to this one in Atlantic City! The
referee was Jimmy Condon and all three judges had it for Spivey by
60-54, 59-55 and 58-54 scores.
Prior to the main event unbeaten
Anthony “Caputo” Smith, 12-0 (10), of Kennett Square looked like
he was having trouble with the southpaw style of Douglas “Al
Capone” Okola, 23-8 (12), from Kenya. After dropping 3 of the
first 4 rounds of this scheduled light heavyweight 6, and suffering
an accidental head butt cut over his right eye, Smith landed a
straight right dropping Okola in the fifth. He was up in a hurry but
shaken. With the many fans of Smith yelling in support of Smith he
evened the score going into the last round. In dramatic style Smith
landed a picture perfect left hook and down went Okola. He made an
effort to get up but couldn’t beat the count of referee Condon at
0:58 of the final round.
The return of Mike “The Punching
Pizon” Tiberi, 18-1 (7), of Smyrna, DE, after a 7 month lay-off was
welcomed by the crowd as he methodically seemed to shut-down Emil
Gonzalez, 5-6 (3), of Cabana, Puerto Rico by scores of 60-54 and
59-55 twice. Esteves was the referee. “I feel good but it was a
long lay-off,” said Tiberi. It was a super middleweight 6.
“Rockin” Ryan Belasco, 16-5-2 (3),
of New Castle, DE, had an easy time of it defeating 38 year-old
veteran Damon Antoine, 9-33-2 (4), of Akron, OH. Seems the “older”
fighters on the card didn’t win every match. Omar “Super O”
Douglas, 3-0 (2), of Wilmington, never looked better with almost
flawless left hooks to the head of Miguel Antonio Rodriguez, 0-1, of
Philadelphia at 2:46 of the second round when Rodriguez could not
beat the count in this lightweight 4. Esteves was the referee.
Lamont “the Problem Solver”
Singletary, 3-0 (2), of Dover, DE, easily defeated Maurice Amaro, 1-5
(0), of Philadelphia in a cruiserweight 4. Esteves was the refeee.
In the opening bout John “Church Boy” Bowman, 1-0-1 (0), of
Dover, DE, scored 3 knockdowns in winning a 4 round super
middleweight bout. Condon was the referee.
Nick Tiberi did his usual good job of
matchmaking as did ring announcer Larry Tornambe. The next show
promoted by the casino will be February 24th! Make sure you check out the NEW and IMPROVED Doghouse Boxing Forums (Now Mobile, Ipad, Android & YouTube Friendly) DogPound
