By John Wall (ringside)
A capacity crowd filled the ballroom at Bally’s Atlantic City for a night of boxing featuring contenders as well as some top local prospects. The packed house was treated to some fine displays of pugilism and a late April Fools joke in the form of an upset in the main event.
The main event turned into a boxer vs tough guy contest as Philadelphia’s Farah Ennis (17-1 11KOs) the more experienced, more polished combatant scored well in the early rounds but the bigger stronger Alexander Johnson (11-0 4 KOs) wore down the NABF champion and took home the prize in the form of a majority decision win.
For the first half of the fight Ennis was content to jab-cross scoring well and leading on my card but not doing any damage to the rangy dreadlocked Johnson. The southpaw Johnson walked in on Ennis fearlessly with with his right low inviting Ennis to challenge him with a left hook. It wasn’t until round 8 that Ennis saw the opening but by then the damage had been done. Ennis looked weary and had developed a cut over his right eye. The judges had it 95-95, 97-93 and 98-93.
In the second heavyweight bout of the evening southpaw Amir Mansour of Pens Grove, (13-0 10 KO’s), trotted out his knockout power stopping Hector Ferreyo of Laredo, Texas, (21-10-12KOs)m with a crushing right hook that crumbled the Texan at 2:08 of round one. Ferreyo was taken from the ring on a stretcher, no word yet on his condition.
The biggest ovation and largest entourage of the evening was for Bayonne’s real life “Lights Out Leary”, Bobby Rooney (12-3 6KOs). His opponent Adrian Armstrong of Springfield, Missouri was content to lay on the ropes with his earmuffs on (thank you Teddy Atlas). Rooney split the guard with an uppercut and sealed the deal with the hook stopping the action at 2:03 of round one.
In a junior middleweight contest, Steven Martinez, (9-0 7KOs), of the Bronx took a unanimous decision from MMA fighter turned boxer John Eric Marriott (3-3 3KOs) of Independence, Missouri.
In more heavyweight action Damian Wills (30-2 22KOs) bested Aaron Lyons (12-10 9KOs) of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Wills dominated the early action until Lyons discovered his hook in round four. Lyons sustained a cut over his left eye in round eight and the ringside physician stopped the bout after nine giving the TKO win to Wills.
In a lightweight matchup Osnel Charles (7-2) of Atlantic City outclassed Chris Green (4-3 1KO) of Asbury Park in a bout the judges saw closer than this observer did. Charles went home with the majority decision win 60-54 59-55 56-56.
Bantamweight Victor Valenzuela (8-2 1KO) of Passaic dropped his second straight bout after being bested by St Joseph, Missouri’s Steven Johnson (7-2 4KOs) all three judges saw it for Johnson, with the scores reading 59-54 twice and 58-55,
In the opener, Thomas LaManna (1-0) of Vineland, NJ made quick work of an overmatched Bobby Bynum, who should find a new way to make a living. Bynum was knocked down three times in round one before referee Earl Brown stopped it at 1:36 of round one.
PHOTOS BY E.A. SIROTA
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