The Showdown in Bell Town

Last night I was officiating at a pro boxing show in Brantford, Ontario...the Showdown in Bell Town. It was a decent six fight card featuring some of Ontario's young talent. There was a good crowd on hand at the Brantford Civic Centre to cheer on some of their local fighters.

The first fight saw the pro debut of Brantford's Isaac Maich as he took on John LePere from Toronto at 147lbs. It was a good workmanlike perfomance for Maich's first time out as he pounded out a 4 round unanimous decision.

The second fight had local fighter Dan Slezsak take on Scott Paul from Niagra Falls in a rematch where Paul had stopped Slezsak in the second round. This was a tough lightweight fight that I would have called a draw. Paul got the decision but I felt he gave away the second and third rounds as he looked very tired. I thought he just edged the fourth and final round as Slezsak also looked very exhausted by that point.

The third fight, which had the most action of the night, was a 124 lbs women's fight between Kara McCleod of Brantford and Priscilla Trompowsky of Toronto. Entertaining back and forth action with both fighters landing clean hard shots, but Kara just stole the decision with the cleaner punches over 4 rounds. These two never stopped.

Next up was London's Frank Abbiw as he took on Chris Aucoin in a welterweight bout. Aucoin was never able to get himself into the fight as he was dropped in the first and second round. Abbiw might have been able to finish the hurt fighter but got a little too wild throwing wide hooks trying too hard to get the KO. Abbiw looked tired by the fourth but swept the fight with a unanimous decision.

The fifth fight was for the newly created Ontario Boxing Council Lightweight championship belt. Orangeville's Buzz Grant took on Bellville's Harrison King-McBain in a 6 rounder. Grant's effective movement and counter punching allowed him to steal most of the earlier rounds but McBain came on stong in the last two rounds chasing Grant down and landing some good shots. Just felt he waited a little too long and Grant pulled out the decision.

The main event was another 6 round fight for the OBC Welterweight belt between local Paul Watson and Mississauga's Tebor Brosch. This fight had the crowd charged up, especially since the pro Watson crowd was pretty liquored up and getting a little rowdy. I'd say the first half of the fight was fairly close, neither fighter really taking charge and landing clean blows...but Watson started slowly showing the signs of being beaten up as Brosch landed more frequently with power shots in the second half of the fight. I felt Brosch could have possibly gotten a TKO in the sixth but was pretty tired by the last round and he did enough to take the decision which was not a popular one with the crowd.
All in all a good show.