Results from Woodlawn, MD!

Three of the Baltimore area’s finest prospects continued making positive strides in their young careers by notching victories in front of a raucous Baltimore Boxing crowd at Martin’s West in Woodlawn, MD.

In the main event, super featherweight Mike “Little Rock” Ricasa of Ellicott City, MD rebounded from a tough majority decision loss in his last bout to earn a tough six-round majority decision victory over a game Dean “Pit Bull” White of Fredrick, MD. The bout was Ricasa’s first six-round contest.

Both men showed themselves to be effective counter punchers but it was Ricasa who seem to land more of the scoring blows when it counted most. White, who was making his return after a five-year layoff, showed a very strong chin and took Ricasa’s best. By the end of the bout, both men started forsaking their jabs in favor of landing power shots.

Judge John Gradowski saw the bout even at 57-57 while judges Bill Holmes and Malik Waleed scored the bout 58-56 for Ricasa. My unofficial scorecard had Ricasa winning 59-55.

After the bout, Ricasa told me he knew what he was getting himself into by facing White.

“He’s just what his name says,” Ricasa said. “He’s a pit bull. I had a feeling he would hesitate coming in and when he did come in, I knew exactly what he was going to do. I’m a good counter puncher and I felt good going into the fight.”

Ricasa raises his record to 6-1, two KO’s with the victory. White falls to 11-3, six KO’s with the loss.

In the co-feature, undefeated super middleweight Tony “Cyclone” Cygan of Middle River, MD scored an explosive second-round technical knockout over Larry “The Gladiator” Brothers of DC.

Cygan started the damage early by dropping Brothers with a left hand to the head in the first round. Then Cygan finished Brothers off midway through the second round with a short, brutal, audience-gasping left cross that made Brothers crumple. Referee Malik Waleed didn’t bother to count to one, much less 10 and immediately stopped the bout at 1:50 of the second.

“My left was landing and I thought it was pretty strong,” Cygan said after the bout. “I tried to throw it a couple of times and was unsuccessful but then I caught him with those two good shots and that was it.”

Cygan is now 8-0 with six KO’s. Brothers is now 6-16-3, four KO’s.

Cygan is the truth, folks. Each bout he has shown me something different. First, it was the power shots. Then it was the body shots. In this contest, Cygan put the two together because it was the body shots that set up the head shots that put the normally durable Brothers on the canvas. This was a knockout of the year candidate for the Beltway.

Undefeated Mike “The Persecutor” Paschall of Baltimore had the toughest bout winning a four-round unanimous decision over Carlos “The Headbanger” Jones. This bout had Paschall moving up from super middleweight to light heavyweight while Jones dropped from his normal cruiserweight to light heavyweight.

The weight dynamic helped make an interesting bout as both men tried to land shots. Midway through the bout, Jones charged after Paschall, trying to bull rush Paschall. While Paschall was landing the more telling blows, referee Bill Holmes deducted one point in the second and third rounds for holding and use of your head.

However, Paschall finished the final round very strongly, landing power punches and keeping Jones at bay for the victory.

All three judges (Don Risher, Malik Waleed and Kenny Chevalier) scored the bout 38-36, the same as me.

Paschall’s record climbs to 6-0, two KO’s while Jones falls to 3-7, two KO’s. Paschall definitely is a crowd-pleasing fighter, but I would like to see more power from him.

In other bouts on the card, junior middleweight Derrick Willmore of Capitol Heights, MD registered a fairly easy four-round unanimous decision over “Diamond” Matt Hill of Reistertown, MD. Willmore, originally from Hollywood, FL, was in control throughout as he made his first in-ring appearance in almost two years. All three judges (Chevalier, Holmes and Risher) saw the bout the same as I did, 40-36.

Willmore is 7-3, one KO while Hill falls to 6-27-2, four KO’s.

Parkville, MD heavyweight Adam “Boom Boom” Bloom had an easy time scoring a second round TKO over the debuting Robert “The Man” Monroe of Front Royal, VA.

After knocking down Monroe twice in the first round, Bloom finished off his opponent 19 seconds into the second round. Bloom is now 2-0, two KO’s.

The final bout of the evening was a minor upset as Westbury, NY heavyweight “The People’s Champion” Jonathan Felton scored the first victory of his young career by stopping Wayne “Hammerhead” Hampton of Capitol Heights in the first round. Felton is now 1-2, one KO while Hampton falls to 1-1, one KO.

Boxing notables in attendance include USBA Super Featherweight champ Lamont “Bay” Pearson, former WBO Cruiserweight champ Boone Pultz, Darnell “The Ding-A-Ling Man” Wilson, and local prospects Tony Jeter, Jed Phipps, Russ Shifflett and Mike Dietrich.

Also in attendance was pro football hall of famer Lenny Moore. The legendary running back for the Baltimore Colts has been a frequent attendee at Baltimore area boxing matches for years and now he will have the title of Commission Member to go along with his attendance. Moore was recently appointed to the Maryland State Athletic Commission by Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich.

The promoter of the Baltimore Boxing card was Jake Smith. The matchmaker was Josh Hall. This was a solid show from top to bottom.

The next Baltimore Boxing show will be on Wednesday, December 7. Jake Smith told the crowd that Tony Cygan, Jed Phipps and Mike Dietrich will be on that card. Smith added that Cygan will be in the main event and he will participate in his first scheduled eight-round bout.