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By: William Holmes
Main Events and Peltz Boxing Promotions returned to one of their favorite stomping grounds, the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for another edition of NBC Sports Network’s Fight Night cards. The venue was sold out and fans were waiting to get in before the start of the first bout on the undercard.
The untelevised undercard featured several up and coming boxers. Nathaniel Rivas opened up tonight’s card with a third round stoppage over Terrell James and Jerome Rodriguez and Brandon Williams fought to a draw. Karl Dargan remained undefeated with a glorified sparring session over Chazz McDowell with a clean eight round sweep.
The main fight on the undercard was a battle for Pennsylvania bragging rights between Bethlehem prospect Ronald Cruz (20-2) and former IBF Welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (34-5-2) in the welterweight division. It was a close and competitive bout, but Cintron outboxed Cruz by using his reach and jab to keep Cruz at bay and effectively tied up Cruz whenever he tried to get in close. Cruz did land a few hard shots, but he was being clearly out landed by the veteran Cintron. The judges scored it 96-94 on all three scorecards for Kermit Cintron.
The opening bout of the televised portion of the card was between South African fighter Isaac Chilemba (21-2-2) and Russian boxer Denis Grachev (13-2-1) in the light heavyweight division. Chilemba looked to be in better shape and he looked to be the naturally bigger man.
Chilemba started off the bout staying on the outside and countering Grachev whenever he tried to come in close. Grachev was getting beat to the punch by Chilemba in the first round and was only able to land a few body shots. Chilemba stayed on his jab in the second and was slipping most of Grachev’s shots. He landed a good counter right cross and right uppercut in the second round.
Chilemba dominated the third round and his jab was very accurate. Grachev was able to trap Chilemba momentarily in the fourth round in the corner, but Chilemba was able to fight out of it with a vicious right uppercut/right cross combination. Grachev had a cut by his left eye in the fifth round was getting caught by Chilemba everytime he tried to come in.
Grachev’s best round of the night came in the sixth round when he was able to land solid left hooks and right crosses, but Chilemba still outlanded him. There were some good exchanged in the later rounds, but Chilemba still got the better of Grachev and stayed out of Grachev’s range. Chilemba closed out the fight with a very strong final round.
The final scores were 100-90, 99-91, and 99-91 for Isaac Chilemba.
The main event of the night was for the NABF Heavyweight Title between Tomasz Adamek (49-2) and Vyacheslav Glazkov (16-0-1). Glazkov walked out first and Polish legend Tomasz Adamek walked into the ring second. Adamek had large and vocal contingent in Bethlehem supporting him.
Glazkov, however, did not let the pro Adamek crowd bother him. He started off the first round by landing the first punch of the night, a quick double jab. He never backed off his jab and dominated the first round while walking behind it. Glazkov started to land his left hook in the second round, but the bout remained a jab contest that Glazkov was clearly winning.
The crowd was still loudly behind Adamek in the third round, but Glazkov’s jabs were visibly snapping the head of Adamek backwards, and often. Adamek’s face was showing signs of bruising in the third, and by the beginning of the fourth round his right eye was nearly swollen shut.
Glazkov landed several hard straight right hands in the fourth round and his corner was begging him to come forward. Adamek could be seen spitting out blood in the fifth round and his mouth was wide open showing signs of fatigue in the sixth round.
By the seventh round the question in press row was whether Adamek could survive all twelve rounds since Glazkov was simply dominating the fight and testing Adamek’s chin often. Glazkov wobbled Adamek in the eighth round with a crisp straight right hand, and both the referee and ring side doctor could be seen talking to Adamek at the end of the round to make sure he was fit to continue.
Glazkov blasted Adamek in the ninth round with several more straight right hands, but Adamek surprisingly bounced back in the tenth round with some good combinations and was finally able to slip some of Glazkov ‘s jabs.
By the final two rounds it was clear that Adamek needed a knockout to win, but he was unable to do so and continued to take a pounding.
Adamek showed a tremendous amount of heart, but Glazkov put on the most impressive performance of his career. The judges gave him the wide decision victory with scores of 117-110, 117-111, 116-112.
Undercard Quick Results:
Nathaniel Rivas (3-0) defeated Terrell James (1-2-1) by TKO at 2:37 of round three in the welterweight division.
Jerome Rodriguez (6-0-3) and Brandon Williams (3-0-1) fought to a draw with scores of 59-55 for Williams, 58-57 for Rodriguez, and 57-57 in the Light Welterweight division. Boxing Insider scored it 58-56 for Williams.
Karl Dargan (15-0) defeated Chazz McDowell (6-5-1) by scores of 80-72, 80-72, and 80-72 in the lightweight division.
Kermit Cintron (35-5-2) defeated Ronald Cruz (20-3) with scores of 96-94 on all three scorecards in the welterweight division.,
