Report & Photos By Bob Caico
A usual sellout crowd at the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino in Niagara Falls, NY were presented a nine-card bout promoted by Felix Zabala, Jr. of All Star Boxing.
Azael “Candelilla” Villar of Panama will be taking home the WBA Fedecentro Jr. Flyweight belt after defeating Ricardo Astuvilca of Peru for the vacant strap. The two fighters fought a close battle for seven rounds. In the eighth Villar suffered a cut over his eye and that seemed to spur him on. He went after Astuvilca and scored with heavy blows that had the referee keeping a close watch. Villar outboxed his opponent over the last two rounds to earn the unanimous decision by scores of 97-93, 97-93 and 96-96. The new belt holder raised his record to 22-4-4 (16 KOs) while Astuvilca slides to 23-4 (5 KOs).
In the eight-round co-main event Mikiah Kreps of Niagara Falls improved to 11-0 (2 KO’s) by taking a split decision over former world title challenger Juliana “La Profeta” Basualdo of Argentina. The action packed bout was entertaining but the undefeated WBO and IBF number one rated super bantamweight earned the decision with scores of 77-75, 78-74 and 75-77. The tough Argentine drops to 13-7 (2 KOs).
The fight of the night belonged to Elon DeJesus of Dunkirk, NY and Belmar Preciado of Columbia. The two super bantamweights exchanged stinging blows over the course of the fight. The difference was DeJesus’ better and heavier combinations. Scores were 78-74, 77-75 and 77-75. DeJesus raised his record to 11-1-2 (3 KOs) while Preciado now sees his record stand at 22-10-1 (15 KOs).
Buffalo, NY’s Gerffred “The Authentic” Ngayot defeated the always tough Jaylen “No Plain” Phillips of Atlanta by majority decision. The fight was a tactical battle until the fourth round when Ngayot suffered a bad cut over his right eye. From there it turned into a battle for the next two rounds. The judges saw it as a close fight by giving Ngayot a 59-54, 58-56 and 57-57 scores. The Authentic improves to 9-3 (7 KOs) while the hard luck Phillips slides to a deceiving 4-6-4 (2 KOs) record.
Jr. Flyweight Miguel Estrada now of London, Ontario, Canada kept his record clean at 3-0 (2 KOs) by stopping Sterling Love (0-3) of California in the second round of a scheduled four. Estrada dropped Love in the round and after reaching his feet the referee didn’t like what he saw and stopped the bout.
Joseph “Ming” Mesi of Buffalo defeated Alexis Taveras of Santo Domingo after Taveras complained of pain in his shoulder starting round two. A check up by the doctor determined he could not continue. The stoppage was at :03 of round two in the scheduled four. Heavyweight Mesi improves to 3-0 (2 KOs) while Taveras drops to 3-4 (1 KO).
Jr. Welter weight Michael Vega of Niagara Falls improved to 4-2 (1 KO) by scoring a shutout six-round decision over Carlos “Zurdo” Aguilera (13-28 (6 KOs) of Mexico. Scores were 60-54 x 3.
Alexander Hernandez of Miami dropped Rodolfo “El Tsunami” Puentes of Columbia with body shots in the second round and referee Tim Evans saw the anguish on Puentes face and stopped the bout at 1:51. The Jr. middleweight Hernandez ups his record to 8-1 (4 KOs) while Puentes drops to 21-13-2 (16 KOs)
In the opening four round super featherweight bout Daniel DeJesus of Buffalo stopped Don Linwood Stewart of St. Louis at 2:09 of round two. DeJesus scored a beautiful left right to the body that dropped Linwood to his knees. Linwood beat the count but a carbon copy body combo from DeJesus dropped him again. Linwood rose but on unsteady legs and referee Charlie Fitch called the bout off. Dejesus improved to 2-0-1 while Linwood slides to 4-14.
With the success at Seneca Niagara in Niagara Falls the partnership with All Star Boxing will continue with shows next year in May and October.
