Results From Killer Instinct, Steve Claggett Wins Canadian Welterweight Title

0
1042

On Friday September 13th KO Boxing put on a great display of Canadian boxing. The event was titled “Killer Instinct” and it lived up to its title.

In the main event Steve “The Dragon” Claggett (17-2-1, 12 KO’s) and Francesco CotroniĀ  (7-3, 4 KO’s) went to war as soon as the opening bell rang. Cotroni went right after Claggett throwing thudding punches and even though he landed quite a few shots Claggett was not phased and quickly retaliated with harder, sharper punches which punished Cotroni’s body and snapped his head back several times. Cotroni’s corner decided their fighter had taken enough punishment and threw the towel in at 2:38 in the sixth round giving Claggett a TKO and the Canadian welterweight title.

The co-main event was a short one when 6 time world champion Jelena Mrdjenovich (30-9-1, 15 KO’s) took Karen Dulin (2-13, 1 KO) in the 2nd round. Mrdjenovich received a TKO victory when Dulin’s corner threw the towel in the ring at 1:58 after taking some body shots Dulin was in a lot of pain and could no longer defend herself.

Josh Wagner (1-0) won his pro debut when he took on Antonio Dos Santos (2-7, 1 KO). Wagner controlled the pace of the entire fight winning with scores of 40-36 on all 3 judges score cards. Ā Dos Santos was defensive most of the fight and was very hesitant to throw any punches and the information he was given by his corner did not help him as his corner only told him to fight and throw more punches.

In his last fight before retiring Paul “P-Mac” MacKenzie (5-0-1, 3 KO’s) made a statement when he KO’d Taylor Bull (1-3, 1 KO) within 40 seconds in the fourth round. MacKenzie, who has fought mainly at cruiserweight was now fighting as a heavyweight and was unable to do much conditioning for the fight so he was larger than we are used to seeing in the ring but was able to fight off pure talent and instinct. His superb defense allowed for him to continuously land on his opponent and provide the most devastating stoppage of the night in which we saw Bull fall exactly how Manny Pacquiao fell. MacKenzie landed two punches and bull was out way before he hit the ground. After the KO MacKenzie was a true gentleman and brought over Bull’s stool for the fallen fighter to sit on.

Max Gagne (3-2-1, 1KO) and Brad Soanes (2-5-1, 1 KO) went toe to toe within the first ten seconds of the fight and continued going toe to toe in the final bell. In the last round Soanes was stunned and the possibility of a knockdown or a KO seemed to be on its way but never happened. The final scorecards were 39-37 and 40-36 for Gagne and 38-38.

Hometown fighter Ryan Molnar (1-1, 1 KO) suffered the first defeat of his career against Kye Sabo (2-2, 1 KO). The fight was give and take for both fighters. Molnar suffered the first knockdown of his career in the first round from being off balance. Molnar was able to hurt his opponent with a shot to the liver but came up short. After the fight Molnar admitted that he should have listened to his coach and thrown combinations but the fight was a learning experience and he will be back in action in the upcoming months.

The opening fight between Thomas Speirs (0-0-1) and Gary Kopas (4-5, 1 KO) was a good fight. Speirs was able to land great shots on Kopas and Kopas had swelling and a cut under his right eye within the first two rounds. Kopas maintained a good pace throughout the fight and bloodied Speirs nose and attacked him viciously to the body. Kopas seemed to do more enough to win the fight but it ended in a draw with two judges scoring the fight 38-38 and then 39-37 for Kopas.