Boxino 2014 Tournament: Laughing in Laughlin as Fighters of 14-0 and 21-0 Get Smoked!
By Robert Brizel,Head RCM Boxing Correspondent
The eight man ESPN lightweight Boxino tournament began on Friday evening, June 21, 2014, at Edgewater Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. The quarterfinals featured four bouts scheduled for six rounds. Four fighters made it to the semifinal round, but it wasn’t pretty to watch. Two fighters with records of 14-0 and 21-0 had their unbeaten records go up in smoke.
12-1 light welterweight Chris Rudd of Covington, Tennessee, fighting at lightweight for the first time in 14 pro bouts going back to 2007, weighed in at 135 ½ pounds, and needed a tiebreaker round to score a seven round decision over 21-5-2 YakubuAmidu, the ‘Black Mamba’ of Accra, Ghana, fighting out of Los Angeles, California. Rudd advanced in the Boxino tournament.
33-4-2 Petr Petrov, a Russian fighting out of Madrid, Spain, exposed 14-0 FedorPapazov or Tuapse, Russia, winning a six round decision to advance in the Boxino tournament.
23-3 southpaw Miguel ‘Silky Smooth’ Gonzalez of Cleveland, Ohio, pulled out a six round split decision over 21-3 with 21 knockouts Miguel Angel Mendoza on Aguascalientes, Mexico, to advance in the Boxino tournament.
Finally, 15-5 southpaw Fernando Carcamo of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, exposed 21-0 Samuel Kotey ‘Unbelievable’ Neequaye of Accra, Ghana, knocking him out in the second round. You may remember Neequaye competing for Ghana at the 2008 Summer Olympics as a light welterweight in Beijing, where Bradley Saunders of the United Kingdom knocked out Neequaye in the first round at the Olympic Games.