8COUNT PRESENTS “REVENGE” EVENT!
LIBERTY
8COUNT PRODUCTIONS
CICERO STADIUM, CICERO, IL
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2008
I might sound redundant, but I have NEVER seen a boring fight card promoted by 8Count. Never. So it is no surprise that on this night, more of the same excellence was presented by Dominic Pesoli’s Chicago-based boxing promotion.
DANNY WILLIAMS TKO RD1 MIKE MALEY
Williams (St. Louis, MO) uses his jab like a real weapon, and it set up Maley (Whiting, IN) beautifully for his straight right hand, which floored Maley. He got to his feet after a count of six, but the look on Maley’s face forced the referee to stop the contest at 1:11 of round one. Williams looks like the real deal, but it’s still way too early to tell. He’s only 4-0 now, and he has all the time in the world.
CEDRIC AGNEW MD6 TERRANCE SMITH
Effective feinting and powerful bodywork punctuated the early rounds for Agnew (Chicago, IL) as he drilled his attack all over the body of the game Smith (Oklahoma City, OK). While Smith’s willingness to stand and trade with Agnew is impressive, Agnew is clearly the more polished of the two. Against a lesser opponent, Smith would definitely be the tougher man in the ring, but tonight, it was Agnew’s show. My only concern with the Chicago native is that he tends to stalk for two minutes per round, then turn it on full blast for the final minute. Against Smith, he was able to get away with it, but against a more formidable opponent, it may give him problems. On this night, however, it was good enough for a majority decision after six. 58-56, 59-55, and 57-57.
JEFFREY OSBORNE SD GERALD TAYLOR
Osborne (Colona, IL) and Taylor (Chicago, IL) will never be confused with Willie Pep, the master of defense, but this fight definitely had it’s excitement factors. Crown to crown, these fighters just went at each other with no feel-out period, no real jabs, just inside punching at it’s finest. Taylor gets sent to the canvas in the first, and Osborne goes down in the second, but neither are really hurt. The exchanges in this fight send the capacity crowd at Cicero Stadium onto their feet. Taylor throws uppercuts like Larry Holmes threw jabs. At least sixty a round, and most of them are landing. Osborne’s pressure has got to look good to the judges, but Taylor’s accuracy is also worthy of points. In the not-so-enviable task of judging this fight, there was just as much variation in opinion. 57-56 Osborne, 57-55 Osborne, and 58-55 Taylor
JEFFREY CURRAN TKO3 MIGUEL ANGEL FIGUEROA
Curran, a popular MMA fighter in the Chicagoland area, floored Figueroa (Chicago, IL) early in the first round with a textbook left hook to the face. Figueroa is very awkward and wide with his shots, leaving big openings for Curran to capitalize. Figueroa goes down three times in the first, twice actually counted as knockdowns.
Figueroa knows which punches he wants to throw, but his long arms get in their own way as he sends them out, only to get tangled and used against him. He looks helpless as Curran tees off on him. Mercifully, the attack of Curran’s forces the referee to stop Figueroa’s nightmare at 1:38 of round 3.
LUCIANO PEREZ TKO2 DEVIN LOPEZ
Just before the fight, Lopez appeared ringside and commented to us, “Perez has more than twice as many fights as I do. Let’s see if he can show it. I always come to fight, and I always try for the knockout.”
Unfortunately for the Merrillville, IN resident, trying for the knockout and actually BEING knocked out are very much different things. Perez (Chicago, IL) landed all the meaningful shots in the four minutes of this fight. Honestly, it didn’t appear that Lopez really felt like engaging at all, the way Perez was manhandling him in the ring. Lopez seemed content to throw out slow jabs and keep from overextending. Early in the second round, Perez started a dominant barrage of shots in the corner, one of which opened up Lopez’s nose. After another second or two of unanswered punishment, the referee stopped the bout at 1:17 of round 2. Perez was able to show that yes, he does have more experience, and yes, he could show it. At least, against Devin Lopez, he could.
RAMON MONTANO MD5 MICHAEL GONZALEZ
Montano (Las Vegas, NV) hit the public eye as David Diaz’s tough opponent before Diaz was dethroned as WBC lightweight champion by Manny Pacquiao. 
The reason he was so challenging for Diaz to beat is because he is such a long fighter, both of arms and legs. He lunges towards Gonzalez (Milwaukee, WI) with his long forward stance and has some early success at landing on his opponent’s chin. Gonzalez had more success at landing his power shots on Montano in the later rounds, and by the end of the fourth is totally outworking and outlanding Montano, who simply doesn’t seem to have many answers for the two-handed attack waged by Gonzalez.
Montano’s timing seems to be a bit off tonight. Everything he tries seems telegraphed, and few punches seem to land cleanly. Gonzalez is filling all the holes with hooks and uppercuts against the ropes and in the corner. Just over the right eye of Montano opens a deep gash from an apparent clash of heads.
Between rounds, on the advice of the ringside physician, the referee stops the fight due to the cut on the eye of Montano. Since the fight was stopped after the completion of the fourth round, the scorecards will be utilized after five complete rounds.
48-47 (twice) for Montano and 48-47 for Gonzalez.
***Special thanks goes out to Dominic Pesoli and Bernie Bahrmasel of 8Count Productions for inviting Bolo Punch out for another solid boxing event at Cicero Stadium.
Ringside photography by Emil “Soda Popinski” Kegebein (smugmug.com account “legupphotos” or LegUpPhotos.com)
This exclusive ringside report was written by Chris Guzman, the host of The Bolo Punch Boxing Hour since 2002.
