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By: William Holmes
The finals of ESPN’s better than expected Boxcino Tournament was held tonight at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York. Tonight’s tournament finals crowned champions in the lightweight and middleweight divisions.
The middleweight finals were between Willie Monroe Jr.(17-1) and Brandon Adams (14-0). Monroe is a southpaw with some height and amateur experience on Adams, but Adams had the edge in power.
Monroe was sharp with his jab early on in the first round while Adams was short with his punches. Adams was able to find the body of Monroe a few times in the first, but Monroe punctuated the first round with a straight left hand near the end.
Monroe connected with a straight left in the second round that momentarily stunned Adams. Adams tried to close the distance in the second, but was met with well timed clinches from Monroe. Monroe was beating Adams to the punch in a close second round.
Monroe continued to stay on the outside in the third round and was pop shotting Adams with ease. His counter shots were landing, and even when Adams got on the inside he was tagged with cleaner punches from Monroe.
Adams was able to land a few good body shots early in the fourth round and had Monroe trapped by the corner, but Monroe once again fought his way out and landed the cleaner shots. Monroe had a dominating fourth round that was highlighted by another straight left hand to Adams’ jaw.
Monroe started to land clean uppercuts in the fifth round, but he was caught off guard by a right from Adams that sent him stumbling backwards in the sixth round. He was able to recover well and out landed Adams in the sixth.
Monroe looked more comfortable as the fight progressed and was showcasing his boxing ability. Adams needed a knockout in the final two rounds to get a victory, but was unable to do so.
The final scores were 99-91 on all three score cards for Willie Monroe Jr.
The lightweight final between Petr Petrov (34-4-2) and Fernando Carcamo (17-5) was the main event of the night.
Carcamo was taller than Petrov, but was unable to use his reach to his advantage early on. He looked dry and was the victim to an accurate jab from Petrov in the first round. Petrov found his range by the middle of the first and was beginning to land his left hooks with accuracy at the end of the first.
Petrov’s left hand continued to be sharp in the second round and he came out more aggressive than the third. Petrov’s left was landing with regularity and he was moving away from the power shots of the southpaw Carcamo. Petrov was landing his double left hooks and mixing it to the body and head.
Petrov continued to stick and move in the third round, but Carcamo landed more punches in the third than he did in the first two rounds. Petrov, however, still outworked Carcamo in the third.
In the fourth round Petrov was starting to land his right hand and right uppercuts. He was seemingly scoring at will and was showing a good variety of punches. His uppercuts were rocking the head of Carcamo.
The fifth and sixth rounds were more of the same from Petrov. He was out working, out landing, and slipping more punches than Carcamo. Petrov’s punches were landing with louder thuds in the sixth round and Carcamo was starting to look frustrated.
Before the start of the seventh round Carcamo’s trainer Joel Diaz warned him that he will stop the fight if he doesn’t start to see something more from his fighter, and he didn’t see much from his fighter who was rocked at the end of the round with hard right hands and was wobbly as he went back to his corner.
Joel Diaz told Carcamo he was stopping the fight when he first came back to his corner, but let Carcamo go back out for round eight after the ringside doctor checked him out. Petrov continued the assault in the eighth round and forced the referee to step in and stop the fight.
Petr Petrov wins by TKO at 0:40 of the eighth round.
