Club boxing has strong showing at amateur event

Boxing connoisseurs know that there is nothing amateur about former light-heavyweight contender Jimmy Ralston or his son "Lightning" Les Ralston.

But on Saturday night the elder Ralston took the time to fill in as the trainer for the UB Boxing club's amateur bouts.

A large crowd of UB students as well as many local boxing fans packed into Michael's Banquet Facility in Hamburg, N.Y. on Saturday where sophomores Wendy Casey and Oumar Sy made their amateur debuts, while recent UB graduate Heanyi "Bob" Nwachukwu fought for the sixth time. Both Casey and Nwachukwu won by knockout while Sy was disqualified for holding.

As the tenth bout of the night and the first of two female fights, Casey came out of her corner strong against her opponent, MaCrissa Anthony of Toronto. Landing a high percentage of left hooks and overhand rights, Casey's power stunned Anthony so seriously that the referee was forced to stop the fight twice in the first round.

"I wrestled in high school so I'm kind of used to the one on one but it is a completely different sport," said Casey. "I took a lot of punches from her but they weren't very strong, I don't think she was turning her body and transferring her weight the right way.

In the second round, Casey methodically used her jab to keep Anthony away, while continuing to land bombs to Anthony's head and ribs.

After two rounds of abuse, Anthony refused to go back into the ring for the third and final round of the fight, therefore giving Casey the TKO victory.

"Being hit by someone who is transferring their weight, it's a lot stronger of a hit and I think it just kind of set her back, I don't think she was used to it. Once I got the initial punch and knocked her off her feet a little everything else just landed," said Casey.

Four bouts after Casey's win, in the second to last fight of the night, Nwachukwu - more commonly known as Bob or "the Nigerian Fox" - stepped in the ring against Julio Torres of Jamestown. As the former president of the club and its most seasoned fighter, Nwachukwu went into Saturday's bout with an amateur record of 3-2.

Nwachukwu's fight was a tale of four hits, as "The Nigerian Fox" hit Torres twice with left jabs, once with an overhand right. Torres hit the canvas when Nwachukwu's right hand to Torres' chin knocked him out just 12 seconds into the fight.

"It's the greatest feeling the world," said Nwachukwu about the knockout. "I thought it was going to be a good fight. I've been working on my overhand right with my trainer Dean for the last couple of months and it paid off. It was just one, two and it was over."

In addition to Casey and Nwachukwu, UB was represented by one other fighter on Saturday night: southpaw Oumar Sy. Competing earlier in the night than his teammates, Sy's fight proved to be a bit controversial.

Sy, at 6-foot-3-inches tall and 178 pounds fought A.J. Ribbito out of Syracuse. Ribbito at 5-foot-9-inches was able to continually slip past Sy's long reach in an attempt to attack his body. In order to defend against Ribbito's body shots, Sy tied up with his opponent, causing the referee to stop the fight. After stopping the fight twice to deduct points from Sy, the referee disqualified him in the middle of the second round.

"I was testing him with my jab one, two. He was coming straight down the middle so I moved him with my left and then the referee stopped me for holding," said Sy. "What I do all the time in sparring is what I'm going to do inside the ring. My trainer always taught me if I get caught up to hold him and that's what I did. I didn't hold him really hard I just laid my hands on him to stop him from punching."

Although some of the UB fans felt that a holding violation was no reason to stop the fight, Sy made no excuses for his loss.

"Rules are rules. Rules are meant not to be bent for people. I have got to step up to those rules. So we'll go back to sparring and training and change my weakness into strengths," said Sy.

All three UB fighters will be back in action on April 30 when they travel to Syracuse to compete in the New York State Golden Gloves tournament. Although the trio is excited to compete on a state level, "The Nigerian Fox" has his sights primarily set on rewarding himself for all of the hard work he put into training for his victory over Torres.

"I've got another fight for the state championships in Syracuse so hopefully I can get that," said Nwachukwu. "But right now I haven't had a beer in about a month so that's the first thing on my mind."