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Usmanee stops Faccio
By Dave Spencer, FightNews Canada
Photos by Herby Whyne
Arash Usmanee pounded upon a much smaller Cristian Faccio of Uruguay right from the opening bell on route to scoring a 3rd round stoppage victory moments ago at the Chapiteau CCSE Maisonneuve in Montreal, Quebec. Usmanee walked through the one time world title challenger, digging hooks to the body and landing upstairs when Faccio dropped his hands. Faccio came to fight but couldnt match the intensity or power of Usmanee. With their fighter under constant pressure, Faccio's corner threw in the towel, signalling surrender at 1:58 of the third round of the scheduled 8 round contest. Usmanee improves to 19-0 (9KOs) while Faccio drops his 2nd in a row, slipping to 21-8.
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Quick night for Lavallee
A quick night for undefeated Kevin Lavallee as the Montreal fighter destroyed Dave McQuaker in 46 seconds. A left hand to the body followed by a right hand upstairs ended matters early for McQuaker. Lavallee improves to 9-0-1 (8KOs) while the Lethbridge, Alberta fighter falls to 1-6-1. Sadly, it is the longest McQuaker has lasted in three trips to Quebec. His previous trips netted him work nights of 37 and 32 seconds and he has been knocked out very early in all six of his losses, five in the first round. Lavallee meanwhile at least stays busy and continues to rack up the knockouts, eight in nine wins, impressive for a fighter advertised as lacking power when he made his pro debut. Contacted in Las Vegas, Russ Anber who trains Lavallee told FightNews that there is absolutely no hurry in moving the 21 year-old and prefers to build him brick by brick with no short cut, "He's in University, he's only 21, if you look at somebody like Arash, he's only 30, so there certainly isn't any rush."
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Harvey makes impressive debut
Steven Harvey had a much easier time in his pro debut, stopping 62 fight veteran Viktor Szalai (18-41-4) at 2:05 of the second round. Szalai was downed twice in the 2nd before the fight was stopped. The fighter who recently spent time in Lucian Bute's most recent training camp showed good patience and poise in effectively dismantling his opponent. It was pretty much target practice for Harvey and he didn't miss the target much with Szalai finally falling forward to his knees early in the second. With his man down once, Harvey wasn't about to let up and quickly finished the job with Szalai folding down against the ropes and the referee seeing enough and calling the fight.
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Gadbois scores stoppage
Michael Gadbois scored the second stoppage win of his career, stopping Janos Vass after a single round of action. Gadbois (6-0, 2KO) was much too strong for the Hungarian fighter, dropping him twice and almost sending him through the ropes each time. Both knockdowns were via the right hand with the first having Vass stumbling forward across the ring and running out of realestate and crashing face first into the ropes. The second saw Gadbois surging forward and pinning his man against the cables with no where to go but down. Vass (4-8, 4KOs) survived the round but decided that he had more than enough, surrendering on his stool between rounds.
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Cotroni wins war with Lafreniere
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Frank Cotroni and Francis Lafreniere engaged in an all out war in light middleweight action. Both fighters had their moments in this one with Controni dropping Lafreniere in the 2nd round. Lafreniere got up and more than held his own over the course of rounds 3 and 4 but in the end, the knockdown proved to be too much to overcome as Cotroni swept the cards 39-36, 38-37, and 38-37. In the early going Cotroni rode his right hand that has gotten him three knockouts in as many tries but Lafreniere wasn't about to fold up shop as others had done against "The Hitman's" pressure tactics. Instead he mounted a body attack that was aided by Cotroni standing still against the ropes. There was good back and forth action in the second but Cotroni who had been loaing up with right hands from the start finally preceeded one with a jab that was just enough to have his opponent wilt down to the canvas against the ropes. It looked at that point that the fighter who had large a nd loud contingent of fans on hand might be on his way to his fourth stoppage in as many tries; a right hand from Lafreniere told everybody, not so fast,this one was far from over. A hellacious 3rd saw both fighters have their moments in three minutes of non-stop action. Cotroni finally showed some movement off the ropes and Lafreniere built off the momentum he had from the end of the second. The final round was more of the same and saw both fighters momentarily stopped in their tracks as they landed at the same time,it was as close as they came to slowing down. Pushed further than he has been before it looked at times that Cotroni might be stopped,but each time he would counter just enough to fend off Lafreniere who also had his gas tank quickly emptying. In the end it was the second round knockdown that would secure victory for Cotroni as he went to the scorecards for the first time in his young career. Cotroni moves to 4-0 (3KOs) while Lafreniere dips to 1-3-1 (1KO).
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Gardiner digs deep in debut
Andrew Gardiner made a successful pro debut but it wasnt an easy one as the Manitoban light heavyweight scored a 4 round majority decision victory over journeyman Patrick Tessier. Gardiner came out strong, landing some thunderous shots to the body early on and took the fight to his opponent. Tessier was able to survive the onslaught while Gardiner began to fade and became far too hittable. Tessier did manage to land plenty of leather of his own in the 4th and final round to make things interesting. Gardiner prevailed 40-36 and 39-37 on two cards while the third judge saw it even at 38 apeice. Gardiner moves to 1-0 while Tessier collects his 16th defeat, falling to 4-16-2.
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Deja Vu for Thomas-Forget
In their first fight, Nathalie Forget (4-3) showed tremendous heart from getting up from an early knockdown and battling back against a hard hitting Rosie Thomas (2-0). While the round tally read two a piece, there was no way for Forget to erase the knockdown and she lost by a single point on all three scorecards. Friday seemed like it would be completely different, but in the end, it was a mirror image of the first fight, the only difference that instead of going down early, Forget went down late, once again costing her the fight against Thomas by a single point with the same 38-37 scores from the first fight.
Forget touched down her left glove in the final round after a big haymaker from Thomas necessitating an eight count from the referee. It was a disappointing end for Forget who had done everything right for the first two rounds. The taller Thomas showed she had definite zing at the end of her punches but Forget was able to get inside and not only negate the power of her opponent but mount a sustained body attack as the aggressor. She slipped punches well and made Thomas look slow as she moved well, doing her work effectively. An uppercut in round two showed variation in the body onslaught and had Thomas looking for answers. In the second half of the fight, she found them. The third round had Thomas able to close the door and able to get the distance she needed and leverage on some powerful shots. It was a close round but you could sense the tide beginning to turn. She had drawn Forget into her fight and in toe-to-toe action, it was the younger bigger Thomas who had the advantage, dominating the final stanza, despite a gallant effort by Forget.
Thomas now moves to 2-0 with both wins against Forget. We’d have no problem with a trilogy between the two warriors who have provided two exciting fights so far, but we would like to see six rounds.
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Larcinese collects win
Lucia Larcinese collected a rare win, outboxing Brandy Badry over 4 rounds for the unanimous decision victory. Larcinese (5-9) controlled the action right from the opening bell, using her jab keeping Badry on the outside looking in. Over the final two rounds Larcinese was the only one in the ring willing to deliver punches and the scorecards reflected as much, 40-36 thrice for the Montreal native who improves her record to 5-9. Badry remains winless as a pro, now 0-2.
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