By Victor Salazar

Madison Square Garden, New York, New York - “Sir” Charles Martin (21-0-1, 19 KO’s) defeated Tom Dallas (17-4, 12 KO’s) via a straight left hand forcing a stoppage of the United Kingdom native. Martin started early closing the distance on Dallas. Martin landed a big straight left that stunned Dallas and essentially ended the fight after the referee stepped in to stop the fight. Martin notches his 21st win and 19th knockout of his career.

The stoppage came at 2:56 seconds of round number one. Martin was the bigger guy in the ring and had the longer reach. Dallas tried to stay on the outside but in the early going but to no avail. It was an early night for Martin who said, “That’s what I prepared for, winning by knockout.” That he did keeping his knockout ratio close to his win percentage.

In an 8 round Cruiserweight bout, Iago Kiladze (23-1, 16KO’s) of Ukraine stopped Texas’ Raford Johnson (11-18, 6 KO’s) in the 4th round. The Ukrainian stiff left jabs made it difficult for Johnson to get inside. Kiladze continued to stalk his opponent. In the second round a lead left hurt the American and Kiladze followed it with big right hands.

The combination punching put Johnson on his bike for the rest of the round. The same continued after stiff left jabs and straight right hands cornered Johnson on the ropes but Johnson survived the onslaught in the 3rd round. In the 4th round Kiladze landed a big right hand that stunned Johnson that made him buckled. Kiladze pounced on him with Johnson not firing back forcing the referee to end the fight at 2:59 of the 4th.

In the opening bout at Madison Square Garden, Chicago’s own Kenneth Sims, Jr (6-0, 2KO’s) defeated Puerto Rico’s Luis Rodriguez(3-3,2 KO’s) by unanimous decision. Sims controlled much of the fight with his jab and straight rights that backed up the Puerto Rican throughout the fight. Rodriguez however did his best to compete throwing some strong straight lefts that landed on Sims from the southpaw stance but Sims kept his composure and kept doing what was making him successful. Simms even switch to southpaw to match his counterpart. The scores were 59-55, 60-54.