The 1st bout of the evening was a lightweight bout that had Kenneth Sims Jr (5-0 with 2 KOs) squared off against Luis Rodriguez (3-2 with 2 KOs). The fight was scheduled for 6 rounds, and it was a solid fight filled with good activity, a lot of wild punches and low blows. It was the 1st of five bouts that would be included on the card. For an opening bout, there were more people that showed up than expected. It wasn’t packed of course, but certainly a good showing for an opening bout.
The fight had no knockdowns but still had good action with just enough of the wild action that you would expect from two inexperienced guys. Both guys seemed pretty gassed by the time the end of the 5th round came, but the 6th round was still solid, and it went it the scorecard. When it was all over Kenneth Sims Jr had prevailed by unanimous decision 59-55, 60-54, and 60-54. A good way to start the night off and get the fans that arrived early a good opening night fight.
The 2nd bout of the night highlighted two cruiserweights as Iago Kiladze (22-1 with 15 KOs) stepped into the ring against Rayford Johnson (11-17 with 6 KOs). This is a fight that was scheduled to go a maximum of eight rounds, but most people didn’t expect it to go the distance. Kiladze came into this fight heavily supported by his fans from around his hometown or the Ukraine. That was further proven by a pretty loud ovation as he entered the ring and was announced.
The 1st round was quiet as both fighters seemed to try to feel each other out, but in the 2nd round Kiladze began to attack more and established himself with a few hard shots to the face. By round three, Kiladze was dominating, although he got football tackled at the end of the round. It was apparent that this probably wouldn’t last too much longer, and Kiladze proved that by finishing Johnson in the last five seconds of the 4th round by referee stoppage to the joy of the crowd.
The 3rd bout of the event was between two heavyweights as Charles Martin (20-0-1 with 18 KOs) faced Tom Dallas (17-4 with 12 KOs). Martin was the favorite and the bigger man, by 20 pounds, in the ring against his UK foe. It was the 1st fight on the international broadcast, and it was a fight that was supposed to showcase, the KO artist. Martin is an inexperienced, but up and coming southpaw heavyweight who started his career only three years ago at age 26.
Dallas has been known as a guy that can be kind of chinny and a with four seconds to go in the 1st round; Martin caught Dallas with a straight left that immediately stopped the fight. Dallas was bloodied and had to have a ring stool brought to him because he couldn’t make it back to the corner. It was a weird wat to end the fight as most people were wondering what really happened until they saw the replay and saw Dallas get caught flush with a straight left.
With two early stoppages and the 1st fight only scheduled for six rounds. There was a lot of anxiousness still left for NY fight fans. There was only about half the crowd had filed into MSG, so there was still a lot of time before the arena would be packed. With two bouts left, they still had a chance to quench their appetite with Sadam Ali vs. Francisco Santana before the main event of Dr Steelhammer Wladimir Klitschko vs. Bryant “By-By” Jennings.
