Martinez Knocks Dzinziruk Out, Lee Stops McEwan

By David P. Greisman

12:02 a.m. – They checked on Martinez’s left eye between rounds. DZ with jabs. Martinez with a jab. Both send out jabs. Martinez with three straight landed jabs. He’s ducking his head down again to try to get away from the jab, then pounces forward with an amazing left hand that hurts DZ BAD!

He’s wobbled. Another left puts DZ down. DZ is up again, and he’s taking the count. More left hand from Martinez, then a right hand from Martinez puts DZ down on the seat of his pants. Arthur Mercante steps in and stops the fight!

12:00 a.m. – Right hook from Martinez. DZ with a stiff jab. These knockdowns from earlier, by the way, are the first times DZ has ever tasted canvas, either as an amateur or as a pro. Martinez with a jab. Martinez has some bounce in his legs, but he’s still breathing through his mouth. Martinez jabs. Martinez with a left that falls just short.  DZ with a right hook.

DZ with a good left. Martinez jabs and throws a left, all missing, and DZ hits him in return. DZ lands a left. Martinez jabs, DZ jabs. Martinez throws a one-two that lands, then a 1-2 that misses. Martinez is now cut over the left eye. Martinez is flicking at it.

Jab from DZ and it looks like Martinez is having trouble seeing. Good jabs from Martinez but this is Dzinziruk’s round

11:56 p.m. – Martinez throws a lead left and gets countered with a jab. Martinez with a left. Martinez with another solid left. Martinez with a jab, then another jab. One-two from Martinez. DZ for all his boxing skill doesn’t have any head movement.

Martinez with a jab. Martinez’s mouth is wide open. Martinez with jabs. And more. DZ tries a jab and a right hook. DZ brings his right hand low at times. Martinez just got cut, a small one below his right eye. Martinez is timing the left when DZ’s jab is coming back.

Martinez 10-9 in a close round.

11:52 p.m. – Jabs from Martinez. Jab from Martinez, then a good left hand. Martinez with a jab, then DZ with a jab. Martinez with a 1-2, but DZ with a good jab. Martinez jabbing with his right while his left is down. DZ with a left. Martinez with a jab.  Martinez misses two left hands. DZ with a very good left. Martinez’s left eye is pretty marked up.

Martinez with a left.  DZ with a jab. DZ is hitting a rhythm now. Martinez with jabs. DZ with jabs. Martinez sends out several jabs and then, just before the round ends, floors DZ with a left hand. That took the round back for Martinez. 10-9 for Martinez, as DZ was winning that round before the knockdown.

11:47 p.m. – Martinez with a left hand that seems to hurt Dzinziruk momentarily. His knee touches, and he protests, but Mercante calls it a knockdown. DZ doesn’t appear to have been effected, though I’m not sure exactly what happened. Martinez with a left hand. One-two from Martinez.  Right hook to the body then a left hand up from Martinez.

Jabs from Martinez. He misses with a  right hook, then throws a looping left. Dzinziruk responds with jabs, of course. Martinez with a  left hand. Martinez with jabs. DZ with a good left hand that catches Martinez’s attention for a moment. DZ throws another left. DZ hits Martinez with a low blow.

Martinez with a left. He gets the third round, 10-8, on the technicality.

Looking at the replay of the knockdown: A left hand hits Dzinziruk, and then as he’s ducking down, a left hand catches him atop the head and knocks him down.

11:39 p.m. – Interesting that the big screens are where the fighters can see them, and they’re carrying HBO’s broadcast. Wonder if they can see how Harold Lederman is scoring the fight. Wonder if they even care to look.

DZ misses a few jabs. Martinez is trying to compensate for the jab using distance and head movement.  Martinez lands a jab down and a jab up. Another jab down, then three more jabs. Looks like Martinez is trying to set up a counter shot. He dips his head down and invites a DZ right uppercut, but Martinez pulls away, as if he was a rooster cockfighting.

Martinez with several jabs. DZ with a jab and Martinez with one of his own. DZ with a right hook, short. Martinez lands a left, then throws another. DZ with jabs, Martinez with a  right hook. Martinez misses a right hook. Martinez with a jab. Martinez with two jabs, then a left cross that falls short. Martinez with a left. DZ with a jab. Martinez lands a left-hand lead.  Martinez with more jabs and a left. Not much is landing with effect. Martinez 10-9, up 2-0.

11:36 p.m. – Martinez is ducking low to begin with. He throws a right uppercut, comes forward with a left hand, but Dzinziruk backs away. “Dzinziruk” is gonna be a bitch to type all night. Dzinziruk with a jab. Martinez with two jabs to the body. I’m gonna call Dzinziruk “DZ” for my sake.

Martinez ALREADY has his hands down. So dangerous to do against a good jabber in DZ. DZ misses a jab, Martinez lands one to the body and one to the head. Martinez throws two hooks up. Martinez with a jab to the body, a jab to the head. DZ with a few jabs up. Martinez is trying to duck down and to the left when DZ jabs, but DZ is fast enough that he’s landing as Martinez starts the movement.

DZ misses a jab and Martinez lands his.  DZ lands a jab. Martinez throws a left hand. Martinez with the first round, 10-9.

11:26 p.m. – Martinez has made his walk into the ring. The time is nearing for the main event.

11:21 p.m. – Scorecards at the time of the stoppage were 85-85 (twice) and 86-84 for McEwan.

11:18 p.m. – This is the 10th and final round. One-two for Lee. A good right hook for Lee.  Right hook for Lee. And the Lee fans are on their feet as Lee pummels McEwan all over. McEwan’s knees buckle again and he’s out on his feet. A left hand sends McEwan timbering down as referee Steve Smoger is stepping in. Huge knockout win!

Time of the stoppage is 56 seconds.

11:15 p.m. – Lee with a counter right. Both guys are falling into each other now a good bit to get some rest.  Lee with some uppercuts in close, not much behind them. Lee with a left. McEwan with a right to the body. McEwan misses some shots up top and eats a right hook for the trouble. Lee lands a right hand low.

A right for McEwan. He’s digging punches down to the body yo try to slow down Lee’s comeback. McEwan lands a right hook up, but he’s very arm weary.  Lee with a one-two. Another one-two from Lee sends McEwan staggering back and he falls into the ropes, which break his fall. Smoger issues a count. The 10-second warning goes off. The Irish fans get on their feet.

Lee with the ninth, 10-8!

11:11 p.m. – Lee with a right hook as he circles away from McEwan. Lee misses a left cross. McEwan with a good left to the body. He eats a couple jabs, then lands a glancing left. Lee lands a right hook, then a left cross counter. McEwan throws a good pair of left hands to the body.

Lee with a left to the body, then after a few blocked shots up, lands a left hand. He lands another left shortly thereafter. McEwan’s arms look tired now – his last right hook was firmly to Lee’s shoulder. Three-punch combo for Lee. 10-9 Lee, and he pulls even, 4-4. I’d be okay with 5-3 McEwan.

11:07 p.m. – McEwan with a right hook. He looks fresh, as if he took the last round off. And then Lee lands a real good right hook, but McEwan returns fire. McEwan with a right hook. Andy Lee has head movement – when it gets punched. 

Lee with a left hand. That hook from earlier has given him renewed confidence. He still looks like hell. McEwan has a cut on the side of his left eye, it appears. Lee to the body with a right hook, McEwan with a few upstairs.  Lee with an uppercut, then McEwan with some body shots off Lee’s elbows. McEwan on the ropes, and then he gets away. Both guys are tired. Both land left hands toward the round’s end. Lee 10-9. 4-3 for McEwan, though I could see it 5-2.

11:03 p.m. – Lee with a jab and a left hand. McEwan with a left hand and a right hook. A couple jabs, and Lee lands an uppercut. Now McEwan is on the ropes, but he gets away unscathed. McEwan is definitely breathing heavily through his mouth thanks to the damage to his nose. But Lee looks like he’s just run a marathon through Scotland.

McEwan with a left, Lee has a right hook to the top of McEwan’s head. Lee hooks to the body. McEwan is back on the ropes again. This is Lee’s round so far, though it’s close. McEwan with a combination, and a little bit of bounce in his legs. Lee misses with a home run left (though one with little on it). McEwan with a four-punch combo.

If you’re looking for a round to give to Lee, this is it. I give it to him because he did better, but note it as a close round that could’ve gone the other way. McEwan is up 4-2.

10:59 p.m. – Lee trying to create distance with a jab, but he’s still bringing that right arm back low. McEwan sends several to the body then comes back upstairs. Lee winds up with a right to the body that lands and goes un-countered. Lee lands a counter right on McEwan, with a little bit of distance established. Then McEwan lands a good shot, pins Lee on the ropes and lands three to his body.

Very disappointed that Lee doesn’t appear to have grown at all. He did just land a left hand, though. And a right hook. But McEwan is now walking through Lee’s punches. He lands a left hand and a right hook and has Lee badly hurt against the ropes. Lee holds on and makes it out of the round. McEwan 10-9, up 4-1.

10:55 p.m. – McEwan with a jab and a left. Lee is being forced to fight going backwards, and while he has a decent counter right hook, he’s also got to be wary of the same thing from McEwarn. And McEwan is landing his left, too, with good effect. Lee is only fighting in spots, hitting McEwan with a good solid right hook after taking several from McEwan.

Lee is pulling back straight with his chin in the air. McEwan lands another left hand. And then a right hook when Lee winds up with one of his own. Lee is reeling this round. A right hook, left hand, right hook combo from McEwan. And another right hook from McEwan. McEwan easily takes this round, 10-9, and is up on my card, 3-1.

10:47 p.m. – McEwan starts off with two jabs to Lee’s torso, then lands a southpaw counter right hook of his own as Lee comes forward. Lee is jabbing as a timing device, but he’s bringing it back low. McEwan lands a good right hook, then tries another that misses. McEwarn is lunging forward with the left and needs to be careful not to be countered on that.

That’s exactly what just happened. McEwan tries a left, Lee tries a right hook counter, neither lands cleanly. Not much head movement from either guy, and that’s going to make this a fan-friendly fight. Lee with a left, McEwan with a right hook, and Lee is holding on for a little. McEwan with a right hook, then several body shots, then a left hand as the round ends. Definitely McEwan’s round in the second, 10-9.

10:30 p.m. – And we’re under way with the HBO broadcast. Bagpipes play as Craig McEwan walks to the ring. Because, you know, he’s Scottish. And they play bagpipes in Scotland.

Then it transitions into punk rock. Because, you know, he’s Scottish. And they play punk rock in Scotland.

Andy Lee comes out to some pop song. Cool thing is that the fighters come out THROUGH the theater crowd. Nice touch.

10:10 p.m. – Lou DiBella walks over to this side of the ring, looks at press row and says, “What a set of cojones on his guy.”

The time of the stoppage was 2:27.

10:07 p.m. – Wilson went down for a third time in the eighth, off of a cuffing blow. And then down for a fourth time on a left hand that knocked him out for good! Oh, goodness!

9:56 p.m. – There are ebbs and flows to this fight. We go from significant exchanges to Fortuna dominating to quieter sections of the round. Wilson has his legs beneath him, and he is landing the occasional good shot, but this is definitely Fortuna’s fight so far after five rounds.

9:48 p.m. – After a hot start in which Fortuna and Wilson swung wild hooks, the fight has settled down, with each looking for his spots.

And then in the third round, Fortuna lands a well-timed, well-placed right hand that caught Wilson perfectly on the chin. Wilson got up, and we returned to the wild trading that we saw earlier. Not the best strategy – Wilson should be holding.  But he’s tired and doesn’t have the strength.

A crowd that had settled down has come back to life.

9:32 p.m. – Finally, we're getting going with Fortuna-Wilson.

9:06 p.m. – It’s about an hour-and-a-half until the broadcast begins, and all we have left is a scheduled 10-rounder between featherweights Javier Fortuna (13-0, 10 KOs) and Derrick Wilson (8-1-2, 2 KOs).

Time to stretch things out a little – and I’m not talking about my legs.

9:04 p.m. – Dulorme blasted Valdes with a good right hand late in the first round, followed by an uppercut just after the bell that left Valdes looking dazed.

And then in the second round, Dulorme hurts Valdes with another right, then throws several more punches until the referee steps in. The stoppage seemed to come at a weird time, but it’s not like the fight wasn’t going to end this way anyway.

Time of stoppage is 2:30 in the second round. Some in the crowd boos, but it is what it is.

8:48 p.m. – Lamonakis takes the victory by unanimous decision, 59-55 (twice) and 58-56, and what seems to be at least 100 fans toward the back of the theater stand up on their feet.

Up next: Thomas Dulorme, 9-0 (8) from Puerto Rico, in a welterweight fight against Guillermo Valdes, 12-2 (3) from Miami. Gary Shaw was insistent that I and Tim Starks of queensberry-rules.com speak with Dulorme prior to Friday’s weigh-in. Shaw and DiBella co-promote Dulorme, I believe.

Let’s see how he looks.

8:39 p.m. – There's nothing like a 226-pound Greek woman with cornrows.

8:27 p.m. – Looks like Lamonakis’ contingent is seated right behind Monaghan’s. A large “SON-YA!” chant for the 226.2-pound, pink-clad lass, who is basically a female Chris Arreola. This should be entertaining…

8:20 p.m. – I must say it’s amusing to see Cunningham raise his left arm in the air, expecting a decision after four rounds of Monaghan hitting him (and him not hitting Monaghan). The scorecards came in as expected, 40-36 from all three judges, in favor of Monaghan.

Up next is another local ticket seller who’ll never be a star but will at least have her hometown following her wherever: Sonya Lamonakis, a 3-0 (2) heavyweight from the small Western Massachusetts town of Turners Falls. She’ll be facing Tanzee Daniels, 4-0 (1), of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Lamonakis brought in a good contingent when I saw her last year in Worcester, Mass. Will they be willing to make the slightly longer (two-hour) drive to eastern Connecticut?

8:15 p.m. – Cunningham is a saggy 173.8 pounds, which is a bit ironic considering the word “STEEL” is emblazoned on his trunks. His abs are not made of steel. Hell, who am I kidding – he has no abs. 

Anyway, Monaghan has been more than willing to go to Cunningham’s body. Credit to Cunningham: he’s taken those body shots without going down, though he’s visibly worn

8 p.m. ­– Lopez won by a unanimous decision, 39-37 (twice) and 40-36. Now we move to a light-heavyweight bout between Seanie Monaghan (5-0, 4 knockouts, Long Beach, N.Y.) and Billy Cunningham (5-8, 4 knockouts, Jackson, Miss.). A decent contingent of Monaghan fans just stood up and cheered as he walked to the ring (to the tune of bagpipes, of course).

This place just got loud for Monaghan.

While some derided this card taking place in Connecticut when none of the main event guys have a geographical connection, both Foxwoods and Mohegan are close enough to New York and the greater New England area that promoters pack their undercards with guys who can sell tickets.

7:34 p.m. ET – The first fight is under way here at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods. We’ve got seven bouts on the card tonight, including the two that will be spotlighted on HBO. We start out with a junior-middleweight bout between Abraham Lopez (1-1-1, Oxnard, Calif.) and Andrew Jones (0-3-1, Buffalo, N.Y.).

I’ll be here blogging throughout the night, including giving round-by-round updates during the HBO card.