Top Rank's Night of Boxing |
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IBF World Welterweight title fight at Hard Rock Hotel: Joshua Clottey vs Shamone Alvarez |
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| by Pete Allman, Celebrity Scene Sports News, Las Vegas - December 22, 2007 | ||
 The fight card presented by Top Rank at the Hard Rock Hotel had three interesting fights. The televised fight card on Versus Network presented a quick fight between Tye Fields (39-1, 35 KOs) out of Las Vegas against opponent Chris Koval (24-4, 18 KOs) of Youngstown, Ohio. Fields knocked Koval down twice in the round, finishing him off with a right punch to the jaw in 1:46 of round one. An aggressive Fields said he’s working on delivering more combinations in his fights. The main event, a 12-round IBF World Welterweight title fight, had Joshua Clottey (33-2, 20 KOs) of Bronx, NY, in a decision over Shamone Alvarez (19-1, 11 KOs) of Atlantic City. It was a touch-and-go fight, where Alvaraez was the busier of the fighters, but he didn’t take advantage of delivering many connecting shots. Clottey, on the other hand, was looking for a knockout and didn’t use his jab as he had in other fights. A relatively new fighter Vanes Martirosyan (17-0, 12 KOs) of Glendale, Calif., had no problems executing combinations to Dan Wallace (9-3, 3 KOs) of Adrian, Mich., in a 6-round super welterweight fight. Martirosyan caught Wallace with a right, knocking him out in 1:34 of round one. Other undercard fights included Las Vegan Donnie Orr (10-0, 4 KOs) of Las Vegas, taking on Enrique Gallegos (6-3, 1 KO) of Medford, Oregon, in a six-round middleweight bout. Orr won by unanimous decision.  Another Las Vegan, Diego Magdaleno, won by unanimous decision in his first pro fight in the four-round super featherweight bout against Francisco Palacios (2-3-4, 1 KO) of Bronx, NY. The final fight of the night was a six-round junior welterweight fight between Geoffery Spruell (5-5, 1 KO) of Pueblo, Colo., and Angel Flores (9-2, 2 KOs) of Las Vegas. Spruell won by decision. It was certainly an awkward fight because Flores was much smaller than Spruell who had the reach and height advantage. Flores, however, is a more technical fighter and has a promising career. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said he will continue to promote club fights and looks forward to introducing more fighters in the lower weight classes.  
Photos by Mary Ann Owen. Images may not by reproduced or used without permission.
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Pete Allman is a Las Vegas-based commentator, broadcast personality and celebrity interviewer. He also produces inspirational messages for television and other media. |
