An interesting pugilistic event, "A Fistful of Shamrocks" was held at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden under the promotion of Celtic Gloves on Saturday, Mar. 15, a St. Patrick's Day weekend event.
The card was headlined by Irish junior middleweight James Moore. Moore (15-0, 10 KO's), now a resident of Maspeth, Queens in New York City, kept his undefeated record intact with a unanimous decision over Juan Carlos Candelo (27-10-4, 18 KO's).
The 34 year-old veteran from Columbia has only been victorious once in his last seven bouts. This was his first bout in New York City. Moore, like many European boxers, had a long amateur career that created a fundamentally sound professional. Moore was captain of a fine Irish National Team that included John Duddy. Each of the two boxers on Saturday pummeled his opponent; each had his knees buckled, but neither was floored. At the end of the tenth round, each of the three judges awarded the decision to Moore (97-92, 97-93, 95-94).
After the bout, Candelo took the mic and expressed his strong disagreement with the decision, "You won't see me fighting here again. The New York judges f______ suck." Moore, who never went ten rounds before, described the importance of the difficult bout, "He's [Candelo] a crafty veteran who exploited my mistakes. This was the kind of change I needed to get to the next level. I'm only going to get better by fighting veterans like this. I don't want easy fights."
The co-feature, another ten round junior middleweight encounter, saw Pawel Wolak (20-0, 14 KO's) remain unbeaten. The 26 year-old native of Poland easily handled his opponent, Dupre "Total Package" Strickland (18-3-1, 7 KO's). This was Strickland's second consecutive fight in Madison Square Garden. He lost to John Duddy in MSG in May 2007.
Dupre opened a small cut over Wolak's right eye in the first round, but the injury did not hinder Wolak's relentless attack. Wolak knocked Strickland cold at the end of round two. As a fighter can not be saved by the bell, Strickland was counted out at 3:06 of the second round.
The lengthy undercard featured a number of young fighters advancing in the profession. The Irish boxers were not to be denied on their celebratory weekend. Oisin "Gael Force" Fagan (20-5-1, 13 KO's) was the winner of a scheduled four rounder against Brian "The Lion" Carden (6-5, 5 KO's). Fagan was narrowly defeated in his last contest. He lost a split decision to Vequan Kimbrough for the USBA Lightweight Title. He bounced back from that narrow defeat as he looked sharp from the opening bell against Carden. The referee stopped the bout 16 seconds into the second round as the less skilled Carden was unable to defend himself against the blows of Fagan. The sod of Ireland was also well represented by super middleweight Simon "Slick" O'Donnell (5-1, 2 KO's) who stopped Chris Overby (8-9, 2 KO's) at 1:33 of round two.
Several fighters on the undercard remained unbeaten. Welterweight Martin Wright (5-0-1, 2 KO's) of Brooklyn won a unanimous decision (40-35, 40-35, 40-36) over Mexican native Juan Carlos Sanchez (3-3-1, 1KO) who now resides in the Bronx. Another Mexican born fighter, Luis "El Jefe" Ruiz (3-0, 1 KO), now residing in Brooklyn, stopped Terrell Boggs (0-2) at 2:14 of round two.
Boggs turned his back on Ruiz and sat down in his corner to end the bout. Khabir "Russian Twin" Suleymanov (3-0, 1 KO) was awarded a unanimous decision (40-36, 40-35, 40-35) over Robert Phillips (0-1) of Staten Island in Phillips' pro debut. Ukranian native Suleymanov, now living in Brookln, and his twin brother were successful amateur fighters. They shared a Golden Gloves title as brothers were not permitted to box one another. An unpopular split draw was announced at the conclusion of the Jules Blackwell (7-0-1, 2 KO's) -Jae Sung Lee (8-1-1, 5 KO's) featherweight bout. One judge voted 59-55 for Lee, another selected Balckwell by 58-56, and the third voted 57-57 draw.
Ringside observers and many fans believed the Korean born Lee was the aggressor. Lightweight Joe Rosa (1-3-1) of the Bronx was stopped by Jose Espinal (4-3-1, 1 KO) in 58 seconds of the second round. A women's junior middleweight bout was won by New York City native Christy "Code Red" Nickel (7-5, 4 KO's) over Olivia Fonseca (1-22-22, 1 KO) by a unanimous decision (40-36, 39-37, 39-3.) Several recognizable fighters were in the ring, but not to box.
Heavyweight Tim Witherspoon was in O'Donnell's corner, Yuri Forman was in the corner of former Russian Suleymanov, and Edgar Santana of East Harlem was in the corner of Ruiz. The capacity crowd in the theater cheered vociferously for Moore, Wolak, and for the three extremely attractive round card girls who beautified the ring between rounds.
