The WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden is the site for the latest installment of Top Rank's Latin Fury series. Tonight's card is subtitled Island Warriors because the headliners are Puerto Rico's Juan Manuel Lopez and Cuba's Yuriorkis Gamboa. Al Bernstein, Steve Farhood and Raul Marquez are on hand to discuss the rising stars of Juanma and Gamboa.
The first televised fight is a junior middleweight scrap between Pawel Wolak and Carlos Nasciemento. Michael Buffer is handling the introductions, which is a slight surprise. Both men are 24-1, so at least on paper this should be fairly even. Wolak shares the "Raging Bull" nickname with Vic Darchinyan while Carlos is known as "The Butcher."
Not much subtlety to this one as Wolak comes straight forward, getting in close and throwing tons of body shots. Nasciemento also looks like he may have suffered a cut during Round 1.
Nasciemento is staying busy but Wolak is right in his face and is just relentless. Wolak keeps thudding away to the body and mixing in the occasional shot upstairs. He pours it on toward the end of Round 4, but Nasciemento is showing a good chin and lots of heart.
Wolak lands a vicious right hand in the opening minute of Round 5, though it's still not enough to send Nasciemento down. A hook does put him on the canvas a few minutes later, and his right eye is a bloody mess as well.
There's a little bit of confusion before Round 6, but Nasciemento isn't coming back out for more. Wolak wins by TKO at the end of Round 5.
Next up is a heavyweight fight between Odlanier Solis and Monte Barrett, who was a last minute replacement for Fres Oquendo, who himself was a replacement for Kevin Johnson. Cuban defector Solis is undefeated as a pro but there are questions about his work ethic, and he tipped the scales at a career high 271 pounds.
Barrett comes out jabbing and moving well. Solis stalks and looks to load up a right hand. It's not a thrilling first three minutes, to be sure.
Both men are more active in the second round, but that's to Monte's detriment as Solis lands a huge left hook a minute in and goes down hard. He beats the count and has to try to hold on. Solis keeps up the pressure and the referee is forced to stop the fight. Solis wins by KO at 1:54 of Round 2.
Solis tells Farhood that a 40-second clip of Barrett fighting David Haye was enough to let him know he could catch Monte with a left hook. He plays down the weight issue, and his promoter mentions that he's like to see him in against one of the Klitschkos.
A video package hypes up the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight. I like how they are promoting it as the "Fight of the Year" ahead of time! Maybe, but we'll have to see.
Posted by The Franchise
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