By Mark Vaz
Portland Boxing returned Saturday night for their annual pro-am event at the Portland Expo Center with a loaded card of 10 entertaining bouts. Local favorite Casey “The Comeback Kid” Streeter headlined the evening in defense of his New England Welterweight Title. Nearly losing a leg in a logging accident 4 years ago, doctors were doubtful that Streeter would walk without the aid of a cane, never mind fight again, but determination and hard work brought him back to 100%, continuing on his boxing career.
Defending his New England Title against Holyoke, MA’s Derrick Whitley, Jr, Streeter pressed the action over 8 entertaining rounds against the counter-punching Whitley who showed the faster hands against Streeters aggression and defense. The give and take bout ended in a split draw, leaving Streeter 12-2-2 and Whitley 8-4-2.
In a scheduled 8 round co-feature, fan favorite Brandon “The Cannon” Berry picked up his 30th win via 4 th round stoppage of game Ricardo Ocampo. Welterweight Berry, hailing from West Forks, Maine, showed why he’s one of the most popular fighters in the state, banging punch for punch with Ocampo before finding a home for a sustained body attack, dropping Ocampo to his knee for the count in the second round. Berry continued the attack, dropping Ocampo 5 more times before referee Tom Clark finally called a halt to the carnage. Now 30-8-2 (21 Kos) Berry’s fans were delighted to see him accomplish the 30-win mark in his career.
Former multi-time national amateur champ Marco Romero of Kansas City, KS made his second appearance before a Portland audience, having made his debut at the Cross Insurance Arena in June. Facing tough journeyman Orlando Salgado of Colorado, the highly-touted prospect, known as “El Tiberon” lived up to his knickname smelling blood in the water after landing a vicious body shot, clearly hurting Salgado. Showing the killer instinct and precision punching of a future world champion, Romero put together a brilliant combination to both head and body, finishing the game Salgado at 2:12 of the first round.
Multi-time New England amateur champ Wade Faria, 2-0, 1 KO, from Portland looked solid taking a unanimous decision win over Oklahoma’s Jonathan Gary in a 4 round super- middleweight bout.
In a scheduled 4-round heavyweight bout, Chris Sarro of Ellsworth, Maine made the jump from MMA and bare-knuckle boxing to the pro ranks winning a narrow decision over former wrestler Igor DaSilva. Down in the first from a looping haymaker, Sarro survived the scare and utilized his reach to outwork the wild-swinging DaSilva to pull out the win 38-37 across the board. Fryeberg, Maine’s Liam Harriman had a successful pro debut over Cleverton Rodrigues of Woburn, MA via an exciting first round KO over his much larger opponent. Giving away 80 pounds, Harriman boxed intelligently, picking his spots and punching in combination before finding a home for a clean right that ended the show.
Fall River welterweight Ricky Jordan began his pro career with an entertaining decision win over David Rodrigues of Framingham, MA. Working behind a sharp jab, Jordan was able to effectively press the action, outworking the very game Rodrigues with better technique and defense.
