Results From The Sphinx Club!

Here are the results from the Keystone Boxing card held Saturday at the Sphinx Club in Washington, DC:

The main event provided an upset as Fort Washington, MD super featherweight "Monster" Marq Johns lost a six-round unanimous decision to Karl Garcia-Rios of Bayamon, Puerto Rico.  Johns got off to a good start dropping Garcia-Rios with a sneaky close right hand in the first round.  However, Garcia-Rios recovered quickly and took control of the contest in rounds two and three by increasing the pressure on Johns.

By the fifth round, Garcia-Rios was in complete control of the bout and dropped Johns with a left hand in the fifth round.  Garcia-Rios went on to the win via scores of 58-54 (twice) and 57-55.  The loss was Johns's first in his pro career and his record is now 6-1-1, five KO's.  Garcia-Rios's record evens at 5-5-1, one KO.

In the co-feature, super lightweight Patrick Harris of Hyattsville, MD won his first six-round contest by unanimous decision over Rafael Vasquez of Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Harris handled six rounds with relative ease as he controlled the action throughout the contest.  Harris used his southpaw jab to the head and body to keep Vasquez at bay.  Vasquez tried to use movement to bother Harris but Harris effectively cut off the ring to limit the movement.  Harris won by scores of 60-54 (twice) and 59-55.  Harris is now 6-0, four KO's while Vasquez, who also went six rounds for the first time, is now 1-3.

Undefeated Forestville, MD super welterweight Alantez "SlyAza" Fox wasted no time in scoring a first-round knockout over Guillermo "Bald" Valdes of Miami, FL.  Fox landed a wicked left hand to Valdes's body to drop him to the canvas for the 10-count.  The bout was stopped at 1:28.  Fox is now 16-0-1, six KO's.  Valdes drops to 12-7, three KO's.

Fox's younger brother, Mykal "The Professor" Fox, put on a masterful performance of ring generalship as he won a six-round unanimous decision over Juan Carlos Castillo of Caguas, Puerto Rico.  Fox's side-to-side movement kept Castillo off-balance and allowed Fox to land his long right jab from all angles.  Fox dropped Castillo twice and went on to win by scores of 60-52 (twice) and 60-53.  Fox is now 7-0, two KO's while Castillo drops to 4-3, three KO's.

District Heights, MD super featherweight Renaldo "Misunderstood" Gaines captured a six-round majority decision over a very game Stephon McIntyre of Atlanta, GA.    The two boxers battled evenly throughout the contest.  Gaines managed to land the crisper blows and get the decision.  Judge Wayne Smith saw the bout as a draw, 57-57 while judges Lloyd Scaife and Manuel Vicens saw the bout 58-56 for Gaines, who raised his record to 7-2, one KO while McIntyre is 2-9-2.

Also on the card, Leesburg, VA lightweight Eric "El Torito" Hernandez got his first pro knockout in his second pro contest as he stopped Fernando Serrano, Jr. of Garden City, KS at the end of the second round.

The knockout came with controversy as Hernandez landed a right hand to the head, a left to the body and a right to the head in succession.  The body shot was the punch in question as it looked like (and the Serrano camp complained that) the punch landed below the belt.  As Serrano was reeling from the body blow, Hernandez landed the third punch.  Referee Malik Waleed called the knockdown and started his count.  Serrano could not get up before the count of 10 and the bout ended at the three-minute mark of the contest.

Hernandez, fighting for the second time in less than a month, is now 2-0, one KO while Serrano, Jr. is 1-5, one KO.

Undefeated Fort Washington, MD cruiserweight "The Golden Goat" Albi Sadikaj scored a first-round knockout of Santos Martinez of Adrian, MI.  Sadikaj, a native of Albania, used a crushing right hand to the body to put Martinez down for the count at 2:30.  Sadikaj is 4-0, four KO's while Martinez is 2-9-1, two KO's.

The body shot was also the weapon of choice for super middleweight Devar "The Warrior" Ferhadi of Frederick, MD by way of Kurdistan.  Ferhadi crushed Julio Garcia of Rincon, Puerto Rico with his body shot at 54 seconds of the first round.  Garcia tried to make the contest a battle of body shots but Ferhadi's right to the body sent Garcia crumpling to the canvas and almost out of the ring.  Ferhadi's record rises to 5-0, four KO's.  Garcia is now 6-10, three KO's.

The opening contest saw junior middleweight Shynggyskhan Tazhibay of Rockville, MD by way of Kazakhstan win his pro debut with a first-round TKO over Brad Sustad of Courtland, NY.  Tazhibay used his defense to set up his very accurate offense as he dropped Courtland three times before the bout was stopped at 1:36.  Sustad's record is now 0-3.


Here is the Post-Fight Wrap-Up of the card.  We had issues with the WiFi throughout the evening so there may be some gaps in the podcast.