Lajuan Simon Stays Undefeated: Results From Turning Stone Resort & Casino

By Evan Korn

In the main event, undefeated Super-Middleweight prospect Lajuan (12-0-1 7KOs) won a hard-fought unanimous decision over Richard Grant (18-12-1 4 KOs).

Simon controlled the early rounds of the bout, popping his jab, and raking Grant with numerous counter right hands.  Grant, who has been the distance with the likes of Jeff Lacy, was buzzed on a few occasions, but never found himself in serious trouble.

Simon did his best work when he had Grant pinned the ropes, often landing crackling lead right hands.  The tide turned a bit in the later rounds, as Simon began showing signs of fatigue.  In the eighth, Grant became the aggressor, backing up Simon with an assortment of winging shots.

When the dust settled, Grant was not busy enough to counter the effective aggressiveness of Simon. 

Judges Don Ackerman and Frankie Adams scored the contest 99-91, while Tom Hicks had a tally of 98-92.  Boxing Scene scored the bout 98-92.

In the ten round co-feature, Featherweights Cindy Serrano (12-0-1 7KOs) and Rhonda Luna (10-0-1) fought to a hotly disputed draw. It was one of the better bouts (male or female) of the calendar year.

The more technically sound Cerrano dictated the early rounds, using her superior boxing ability to keep the face-first Luna at bay.  As the rounds progressed, Cerrano would begin to tire, as Luna’s once-lunging blows began to land with more frequency. 

With the scorecards tightening, the stage was set for a dramatic final round.  Calling the last round dramatic would be a gross understatement.  Both Cerrano and Luna fought nose to nose the entire round, as all pretenses of boxing were thrown out the window.  It was an estrogen fueled Holmes/Norton, the type of final round where both pugilists were determined to leave every ounce of sweat in the ring.  When the final bell sounded, the sparse crowd erupted to a near frenzy. 

Judge Don Ackerman scored the bout 96-94 for Cerrano.  Tom Hicks scored the bout 98-92 in favor of Luna.  Frankie Adams had a tally of 95-95.  The crowd passionately booed the decision, as they were won over by the late round charge of Luna.  Boxing Scene at ringside scored the contest 96-94 for Cerrano.

Note:  Before the scorecards were read, it was announced that Turning Stone was going to host a Cerrano/Luna rematch.

Russell “Spider-Man” Jordan (12-2 7KOs), coming of his “rock-em, sock-em” TKO win over Henry Humphrey less than two months ago, took a step up in class when he faced Maximino “holy hands” Cuevas (6-2-1 2KOs).  Before the dust settled, “holy hands” would be looking up at the heavens.

The first two rounds of the bout saw the surprisingly skillful Cuevas dictating the pace of the fight with superior lateral movement. Jordan, who fought with reckless abandon last time out against Humphrey, was unable to let the hands fly. 

In the third round, Jordan, who was well on his way to his third professional loss, did his greatest Arturo Gatti impression.  A crisp right hand to the top of Cuevas’ head sent the West Palm Beach, Florida native to the canvas.  Somehow, Cuevas managed to rise to his feet.  Jordan wasted little time, sprinting across the ring to finish off his beleaguered opponent.  With a furious two-fisted assault, Cuevas crumbled to the canvas. Referee Ken Zimmer immediately called a halt to the contest

Philadelphia Jr. Welterweight Patrick Lopez upped his perfect record to 4-0 with a third round TKO over the game, but overmatched Diego Villalba (1-3).

The opening round was a hard fought stanza, as Lopez, who was being countered at will in the center of the ring, did his best work when he had Villalba pinned against the ropes. 

The second round was more of the same, as Lopez would follow his retreating opponent to the ropes, often unloading short, concise combinations, most of which did little damage.

In the third, Lopez, who by this point had lost most of the steam off his shots, continued to follow Villalaba to the ropes, where he unloaded a fuselage of power blows.  Although most of the shots failed to land cleanly, Villalba ceased to return fire with fire.  Referee Charlie Fitch eventually stepped in to halt the assault with twenty-four seconds remaining in the round.

After a forty-two month hiatus, heavyweight Derrick Brown (12-2-1 10 KOs) obliterated Ricardo Kennedy (14-9-1 14KOs), knocking out the Fort Lauderdale resident 1:05 into the opening round.

Brown immediately bullied his opponent to the ropes, where he unloaded furious combos at warp speed, snapping Kennedy’s head back until he lay limp against the ropes.  With little fight left in Kennedy, the referee mercilessly stopped the fight.  Kennedy protested, but his legs were still wobbly as he stood up to retreat to his corner.

  

In the opening bout of the evening, junior-middleweight Alex Perez (3-0 3KOs) made short work of Edy Chavez (1-1), outclassing the Missouri native en route to a second round TKO.  The time of the knockout was 1:28.