Perez grinds out a decision; Judah dominates in his return at the Rock!

by Dylon Silversey

The ESPN Friday Night Fights card featured pretty much every aspect you could think of in the boxing world. From heavyweight slugfests to tactical battles, former Olympians, future champions, and a former undisputed champion on the comeback trail, there wasn’t much missing. The eight fight card from the Prudential Center in Newark featured plenty of local talent from New Jersey and New York alike.

The local flavor started early, with Angel Concepcion, from Newark defeating Shannon Anderson, hailing from Coatesville, PA. Dominating from the opening bell, Concepcion used a stiff jab and good defense to win his second career fight. Scores were 40-36 twice, and 40-35 due to the dominating third round, where he nearly dropped Anderson.

Conception improves to 2-0 with the victory and Anderson falls to 4-2 (2).

In the second matchup of the night, local favorite Patrick Farrell from Jersey City stepped into the ring against Newton Kidd in a six round cruiserweight fight. Coming off of a disappointing first loss in June, both the Prudential Center crowd and Farrell looked forward to a victory.

Early in the matchup, Kidd seemed to get the better of Farrell, landing cleaner shots during the few exchanges that they had. Kidd imposed an Emanuel Augustus style of defense, almost dancing than weaving in between Farrell’s punches. However, this all seemed to stop in the third round, with both fighters trading bombs for the better half of the round and Farrell landing some huge shots. The fourth round was more of the same, as the two warriors stood toe to toe trading shots.

Farrell seemed to start to get a bit frustrated that his clean combinations weren’t hurting Kidd, and the fact that he seemed to be lacking that finishing power may have hurt him ultimately in the end. The fifth round was more of the same; both boxers’ conditioning came into play as the heavy shots continued. Looping punches from both fighters brought the crowd to their feet as Kidd landed some big shots, including a massive hook that staggered Farrell and nearly sent him to the canvas.

A determined Farrell came out in the sixth, with a second wind and Kidd looking gassed, he handily won the round, although at this point, most of his punches had not much behind them so there would be no stoppage in this fight. The scores were announced Ron McNair scored the bout 58-56 for Kidd as the other two scores read 57-57 for a majority decision draw.

Farrell moves to 5-1-1 (3) and Kidd‘s record stands at 7-7-2 (4).

Next up for the Newark crowd was a heavyweight matchup between Adam Kownacki of Brooklyn, NY and Damien Clement of Dayton, OH. These two brawlers got after it early as Kownacki was knocked down rather quickly. He regained his composure rather quickly as he dominated the remainder of the first and it was Clement’s turn to go down as a flurry of punches sent him to the ground. Referee Eddie Cotton put an end to the bout at: 42 into the second round as a huge right ended Damien Clement’s night.

Kownacki improves to 4-0 (4), and Clement remains winless at 0-3.

The next bout would be the first fight on the ESPN telecast as Newark native, Alex Perez, the undefeated prospect walked out into the ring to a huge ovation. Perez exhumed confidence as you could tell that he wanted to come out and impress his fans in attendance. This was also his National TV debut.

Perez would match up with Edvan Barros, a Brazilian native, known to have decent boxing ability, but his capacity to win fights using his abilities was lacking, and that was most definitely apparent tonight.

As round one began, Perez took it straight to Barros, using combinations of jabs to the head and hooks to the body to completely dominate the opening round. The second round was more of the same from Perez until Barros began to catch the hooks into his clinch and spin Perez against the ropes, scoring well and using quick, multiple shots to the body and snapping uppercuts. But in most of the judge’s eyes this is where the success for Barros ended, Perez adjusted his game plan to combat the tactics of Barros.

Perez appeared to realize that Barros wanted this fight on the inside and as long as he kept using his jab to keep him at length, then his boxing abilities and IQ would take over and he could be victorious.

"I beat him at his own fight on the inside and let him know that I can do that. I was definitely trying to get him out of there but he is a veteran and I was a little rusty."

Perez noted when asked about some of the trouble Barros was giving him.

In the fifth and sixth rounds we saw Perez use effective counter punching, landing a big shot at the end of the fifth and even when finding his back up against the ropes in the sixth, using transition defense to get off the ropes and turn it loose on Barros, unleashing some heavy combos to the head and body.

Once again in the opening of the seventh, we saw Barros corner Perez, only to see Perez quickly turn the tables, and land some heavy shots to the body and head once again.

The scorecards read 77-75, 78-74, and 80-72 all for Perez. A tough battle for Perez, as he was tested at times, but used a well adjusted game plan to grind out the.

"It was a blessing to win in front of my hometown fans." Perez said. He moves to 12-0 (7) with this victory and Barros falls to 10-10-1 (7).

Former Olympian Sadam Ali was next up, with a bout with Julius Edmonds from Philadelphia. The Brooklyn native completely dominated this matchup, putting Edmonds down in the first and second round via uppercuts. Referee Eddie Cotton put an end to the matchup at 1:14 in round 3 as Ali hit Edmonds with a left and left him stumbling to the ropes.

Ali improved to 8-0 (4) and Edmonds fell below .500, 7-8 (0).

The main event on the ESPN card was up next, as Zab “Super” Judah squared off with Jose Armando Santa Cruz. The welcome back party did not last long as Zab opened up Santa Cruz with effective body punching to start the fight. Quick combinations in the second left Santa Cruz seemingly confused as how to defend the determined Judah. With 2:33 left in what would be the final round, Judah landed his trademark left uppercut in the 3rd to note his 27th knockout. Judah goes to 39-6 (27) and Santa Cruz falls to 28-5 (17).

In the final matchup Nicky DeMarco faced off against Jose Guzman in a lightweight four round battle. “Lil Nicky” dominated the first three rounds, throwing tons of punches and continuously cornering Guzman into helpless positions. Guzman gave it his best shot in the final round, but DeMarco was too much in the opening 3 rounds. 40-36 and 39-37 twice were the final tallies. DeMarco improves to 3-2 (2) and Guzman falters to 5-8-1 (0).