** Lupo vs Garnett **

Promoter: Title Fight Promotions Inc. Main event: Victor Lupo vs Shawn Garnett 8 round Welterweights Location: The Docks Nightclub, Toronto, Ontario Date: June 23rd, 2006 Photos taken by Team Wambolt, FightNews Canada Article written by Rick McLean, FightNews Canada Lupo decisions Garnett! Last night, June 23rd 2006, at The Docks night club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Title Fight Promotions in association with Atlas Boxing and Morales Boxing hosted “Friday Night Fury” that consisted of four exciting professional boxing matches. The roughly 700 in attendance got their monies worth as they were treated to a Swimsuit Canada bikini & lingerie contest, an upbeat and exciting atmosphere, and last but not least a definite candidate for Canada’s “Fight of the Year” for 2006. The main event of the evening was an eight round affair that saw undefeated Toronto native Victor Lupo square off against a very tough Shawn Garnett of Maryland. This was a fight of two champions as Lupo currently holds the Quebec Welterweight title, the Canadian Welterweight title, and the WBA Fedecentro Light Middleweight championship. Shawn Garnett was only given five days notice for the fight and he is coming off a tough six round unanimous decision loss to Toronto’s Jo Jo Dan last month in Montreal however he is no slouch in his own right. Garnett is the former New York State Light Middleweight champion as well as the former WBC Latin American Light Middleweight champion. It should be noted that Garnett won the New York State Light Middleweight championship by knocking out Andrey Tsurkan. It was Tsurkan who recently scored an eighth round TKO victory over Hector Camacho Jr. on the Tarver – Hopkins undercard a couple weekends ago. That is the type of tough opposition that Lupo is facing and this fight was a war from start to finish and is an early candidate for Canada’s fight of the year for 2006! This fight saw Lupo coming straight at Garnett for the full eight rounds. He was relentless and threw non stop punches. It was this kind of ruthless aggression that can nullify superb boxing ability. Most fighters could not hold the fast pace that Lupo set without burning out in the later rounds. This example of non stop punching and aggression is a testament to Lupo’s excellent conditioning and tremendous work ethic. At the end of the match both fighters and the referee were covered in blood, a validation to the type of war this fight was. In round one Lupo bulled straight in at the southpaw Garnett and landed good combinations of left hooks and straight right hands with the occasional mixture of consistent body punches. Garnett did not back down and moved well snapping stiff jabs and nice counter punches to the head and body of Lupo. By rounds end Garnett had a cut over his right eye and Lupo had a knot over his right eye. Rounds two, three, and four saw similar action as Lupo stalked Garnett and came straight forward loading up with power shots and impressive body work on the inside. However some of Lupo’s power shots were wide which allowed Garnett to counter punch effectively to the head, chest, and body of Lupo. Garnett spent a lot of the time backpedaling and proved that he has a durable chin. In round five things started to get dirty, however referee (former professional boxer) Rocky Zolnierczyk took charge and did his job well. Zolnierczyk had already dished out warnings to both boxers in round four for dirty tactics. Early in round five Garnett gave Lupo a cuff as Victor went to touch gloves in a sportsmanlike manner. Midway through the round Zolnierczyk deducted one point from Lupo for holding behind the head and hitting. The pace did not slow and both fighters pounded away on each other on the inside. Garnett should be given credit for being smart and moving around and not standing toe to toe with Lupo. He was constantly looking for angles and threw a high volume of punches. Shawn was more precise with his punches and was usually able to land straight clean punches to Lupo’s head and body when Victor got wide. Both fighters were obviously slowing down by the sixth round as the punch output had dropped however Lupo was able to pin Garnett on the ropes and deliver impressive left and right hooks to the body and head of Garnett. Near the end of the round Lupo forced Garnett into the corner and caught him with a big left hook to the jaw followed by a straight right hand. Garnett was saved by the bell at this point and he slowly and awkwardly made his way back to his corner. The seventh round saw much of the same style of non stop action but a significant pause in the fight took place to fix the tape on Lupo’s glove. This pause in the action gave both fighters a chance to rest and regain much needed energy. Lupo looked very frustrated as his trainer Adrian Teodorescu (the 1988 Canadian Olympic team coach and former trainer of Lennox Lewis) retaped his glove. Lupo did not like the pause in action and wanted to get back to relentlessly pounding away on his opponent. After Lupo’s glove was fixed the action continued and things got dirty again as Garnett dished out low blows on two separate occasions forcing the referee to give him a warning. Round eight resembled a street fight as both fighters came straight in at each other and went to war. However Lupo forced Garnett into the neutral corner with a bombardment of punches but Garnett answered with a huge straight left hand that opened a deep inch and a half cut over Lupo’s right eye. The cut bled profusely forcing the referee to stop the action to take a look at it. As the fight continued the bleeding got worse forcing the referee to stop the action once again and this time have the ring doctor take a look. Luckily for Lupo the fight was allowed to continue. The cut was ruled to be caused by a punch and not from a head butt; this ruling was significant because had the fight been stopped Garnett would have picked up the TKO victory. It can be said that Lupo was lucky the fight was in his hometown because had the match been on neutral ground or in Garnett’s neck of the woods the fight could have been stopped very easily. On the other hand it was the eighth and final round of a tough fight and the blood was not going into Lupo’s eye so it could also be said that a stoppage wasn’t warranted. The scores for the fight were 78-73, 78-73, and 77-74 giving Victor Lupo a unanimous decision victory. With the win Lupo remains undefeated and moves to 15-0-1, 8 KO’s while Shawn Garnett slipped to 10-4-1, 3 KO’s. This win gives Lupo definite credibility as a rising contender in the Welterweight division. After the fight Garnett stated that he could have done better but was only given 5 days notice to fight in Lupo’s backyard. Garnett also said the he wasn’t feeling well and “only gave 25% tonight but has 75% more to give to Lupo”! Garnett went on to say that he could beat Lupo if he was given a rematch. Lupo stated that he was surprised how good Garnett was and he stated that Shawn hit very hard and was one of the toughest opponents he has fought to date. Victor said that he had trouble adjusting to Garnett’s style and that Shawn was the first southpaw he has faced as a professional. When asked whether Lupo would grant Garnett a rematch Victor’s trainer/manager Adrian Teodorescu quickly responded with a yes! I also asked when Lupo was expected to fight again and Teodorescu stated that he wants Lupo to fight again next month. However this would be very difficult after the cut Lupo received in this fight plus it should be noted that Lupo has to defend the Canadian Welterweight Championship against the mandatory challenger by September. Thus there are tough decisions to be made in the Lupo camp for the near future. The first undercard bout of the evening featured a scheduled 6 round bout between Toronto’s Rocky Floriano and Michigan’s Erik Butz. This bout was the best of the undercard bouts but Floriano was in control from start to finish. The first round saw Rocky move in loading up on power shots to the head and body that drove Butz backwards. Floriano was calmed and composed and slowly picked apart Butz’s defense. Butz was caught with a short right hand and was dropped but survived the opening round. Round two saw much of the same action as Rocky kept moving in and landing effective left hooks to the body and straight right hands to the head. At this point in the bout it looked as though Floriano could end it whenever he wanted to but he was only throwing two or three punches at a time and never moved in for the kill. It looked as though Rocky just wanted to get some rounds in. However in round three, Rocky decided to turn up the heat and finished Butz with a left hook to the body and head. Butz was able to make it to his feet but the referee waved the contest off at the 1:24 mark. With the win Floriano moves to 6-2-1, 5 KO’s while Erik Butz drops to 3-2-1, 3 KO’s. It would be interesting to see Floriano step up and fight local rising prospect Matt Hart in the near future. The second bout of the evening was a Heavyweight contest between Toronto native Claudio Rasco and Barbadian, Curtis Murray. This bout was fought at a very slow pace with not much action. It was obvious that Rasco was the better boxer but Murray proved tougher than expected. Throughout the early part of the fight both boxers through one or two punch combinations then held. In the clinches or on the inside Murray would hold tight or bend over forcing Rasco to get frustrated and pound him repeatedly in the back of the head. However Rasco was never warned for hitting behind the head and there wasn’t much he could considering the circumstances. The fight continued on at this style and pace until the fifth round where Rasco finally picked it up and started putting solid combinations together that started to land effectively. After about 4 punches hit Murray to the head he finally dropped to his back. He looked more exhausted then hurt and just laid there to take the 10 count. Murray got up quickly after the count was over. The fight was over at the 2:20 mark of the fifth round. With the knockout victory Rasco moves to 10-3, 3 KO’s and Curtis Murray drops to 6-2-1, 6 KO’s. The last undercard bout of the evening saw 2000 Polish Olympian Heavyweight Greg Kiela take on Mickey Richards. Kiela a southpaw pressed the action from start to finish with straight effective punches. Greg counterpunched well and overwhelmed the inexperienced Murray and he tripped and went down late in the second round however this was a slip. This caused tremendous confusion because Murray got up walked to his corner looking fine, he said something to his trainer. The referee gave Murray a standing eight count then stopped the fight. The official ruling of the bout was a second round TKO at the 3:00 mark. Kiela moves to 3-0, 2 KO’s while Murray moved to 0-2. This information is copyrighted and can not be used without consent from FightNews Canada.

** Rasco vs Murray ** ** Floriano vs Butz ** /P> ** Kielsa vs Richards **