For the past few years, the heavyweight division seemed to lay dormant, having been exclusively dominated by two brothers from the Ukraine Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko. Now America has a heavyweight champion, after many years of playing second fiddle. Deontay Wilder, the WBC Heavyweight Champion has awoken, a new found life into the division. Wilder says all the right things and is made for T.V.
We can now look forward to exciting fights once again and tonight on ESPN Friday Night Fights the Heavyweight Boxcino Tournament quarterfinals will be taking place. A future star may arise from this tournament, just like Andre Ward emerged from the Super Six Super Middleweight Tournament and Abner Mares surfaced from the mini Bantamweight tournament.
We never know who will come out on top in this heavyweight tournament. 27-year-old Donovan Dennis, a 6-foot-5 southpaw, is 12-2 with 9 KO’s as a professional and brings good amateur experience as well having fought more than 200 fights. He takes on Steve Vukosa (10-0 4 KO’s) an undefeated 38-year-old who was also an amateur standout winning the National Golden Gloves 15 years ago. Steve Vukosa returns to the ring after 12 years lay off. Vukosa is better technically speaking, but Dennis has youth and power on his side.
Another fight on the card will be Razvan Cojanu (12-1 7 KO’s) against Ed Fountain (10-0 4 KO’s). Cojanu a 6 foot 6 inch Romanian who is trained by famous former boxer James “Buddy” Mcgirt has already beaten another fighter in this tournament when he beat Donovan Dennis earlier in the year. Cojanu will be facing another undefeated fighter in Hawaiian native, Fountain.
Fountain who now lives and trains out of St. Louis, MO is a former MMA fighter who preferred the good old fashioned fist fights over grappling on the ground. So he opted to give up his short MMA career and became a boxer three years ago and has won all his fights as a pro. This seems on paper as the best fight of the night.
Also on the card Andrey Fedosov takes on Nate Heaven. Fedosov (25-3 20 KO’s) comes from Russia a country that has produced punching machines like Sergei Kovalev, and Ruslan Provodnikov just to name a few and Fedosov is no exception boasting 20 knockouts in his 25 wins. His opponent Heaven is 9-1 with 7 KO’s and stands at 6 feet 6 inches. Both possess knockout power, but Fedosov has the edge in experience although Heaven a former basketball standout has the natural athleticism on his side, so this one should be interesting.
Last but not least you have Jason Estrada 20-5 6 KO’s vs. Lenroy Thomas 18-3 9 KO’s. Estrada is a highly decorated amateur having won a gold medal at the 2003 PanAm Games and representing the US at the 2004 Olympics who compiled a 285-16 amateur record.
The 29-year old southpaw, Lenroy Thomas from Jamaica reminds me of a young Evander Holyfield, because of his muscular physique; thanks in part to his past years spent on football as a teenager. This one on paper seems like the most even match of the evening. You won’t want to miss an exciting night of boxing in the heavyweight division. .
