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03/26/2005 Archived Entry: "Fiorentino Awarded Gift Nod"
Fiorentino Awarded Gift Nod
By J.D. Vena at ringside
DORCHESTER, MA – She may wake up with some early eggs this morning but they aren’t going to be left by the Easter Bunny. These eggs were left by the fists of journeyman (or is it journeywoman) Kimberly Colbert who cracked at Missy “The Fury” Fiorentino for the better half of the four-round scrap they had at the Dorchester Armory last night. But as swollen as her face may be this morning, at least Fiorentino didn’t suffer what would have been her second consecutive loss since suffering a title fight defeat to WIBA featherweight champ, Emiko Kaika of Japan. Instead, all three state official judges saw Fiorentino win by a tally of 39-37.
The CBZ, along with MaxBoxing’s Steve Tobey and the Boston Herald’s George Kimball all scored the contest a draw at 38-38. I know we’re only talking one round here but going into the third, it was almost expected that if the durable Fiorentino, 132, absorbed any more of the same bombs she was walking through that she could hit the canvas. Rounds one and two were completely dominated by Colbert, 131, who seemed to land every haymaker thrown in Fiorentino’s direction. Fiorentino consistently dropped her hands and should have paid for it by the hands of the judges.
Fiorentino fought back well in the third and fourth rounds and seemed to outdo Colbert because of Colbert’s fatigue. A 6-rounder would have proved to have favored the Fury’s relentless forward attack but only because Colbert did not appear to show the stamina. Fiorentino is now 10-1 with 6 KO’s while Colbert is now 2-7 with 2 KOs.
In the main event of last night’s honorary card for the late great boxing trainer, Jimmy Farrell, Sr., Mike “The Heat” Bonislawski, 171, of Cambridge, MA won a unanimous 8-round decision over Khalif Shabazz of Bellows Falls, VT. Shabazz, 166, who turned 45 years old yesterday, wasn’t able to get his punches off but it didn’t appear much to do with his age. The “Heat” as he is called, wasn’t pouring on much of a beating when he wasn’t moving around the ring and hitting the gloves of Shabazz. Bonislawski’s warmth had to do with his excessive holding which went unnoticed by only referee Paul Casey.
Bonislawski won by scores of 78-74, 79-75 and 80-72 and improved his record to 18-20-2 with 4 KOs while Shabazz, who last year scored a :19 knockout in Cape Cod is now 11-16 with 7 KOs. Bonislawski by the way turns 39 on the 4th of July and their bout last night could have been the most combined age in a boxing match in the Baystate.
It was supposed to be Paschal Collins’ happy return to the ring last night. In fact, the Dublin native was to have faced Atlanta’s Jerald Lowe in last night’s co-feature until he suffered a cut from an accidental head butt from Joe “Sugar” Rea of South Boston via County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The cut obviously kept him out of the fight but since Rea was in fighting shape for Jimmy Burchfield’s next show in New Haven, Ct. next Friday, he decided to take Packie’s place.
Rea, 174, would have seemed to have been in too deep in this one in that we haven’t learned enough about his career which began last summer. Despite entering last night’s fight with a 4-12 record, New England fight fans should be familiar with Lowe as he gave Brockton veteran Mike Culbert all he could handle in November of ’03 and defeated Plymouth’s Geoff Yalenzanian last year. He even broke his ribs. But the beating last night particularly to the body was dished out by the quick hands of Sugar Rea who dropped Lowe three times, twice from the accumulative effect of his body punches to win by 3rd round TKO.
Rea dropped Lowe in the first round with a fusillade of head shots. In the third, Rea relentlessly pounded Lowe’s midsection until Lowe took a knee against the ropes. Following Casey’s mandatory 8-rounder, Rea moved in for the kill and drilled Lowe with a straight right hand to the body. This time, Lowe stayed on his knees and Casey stopped counting when the bell ended. The time of the knockout should have been after the 3:00 minute limit though it was announced by ring announcer Larry Rosoff at “the end of the third round.”
Rea goes into next week’s bout (headlined by “Bad” Chad Dawson) with Andres Filiberto Lirrinaga at the City Wide Field House in New Haven, CT with a record of 3-0 with 2 KOs and 1 NC. For ticket information call 401-724-2253.
In other bouts Dorchester’s John Paul Keane, 159, originally from Galway, Ireland made a successful debut when he stopped fellow Irish debutant Ray Stafford, 159 of Shannon at 2:18 of the second round and Philly’s Phillip “Mongoose” McCants, 155, upped his mark to 3-1-1 with 2 KOs by stopped Brian Paul, 151 of Anderson, IN at 2:43 of the second round.
Promoter – Ward-Kelley PromotionsRing Announcer – Larry Rosoff
