By Sam Gregory: Tonight at the Valencia Ballroom in York, Pa TKO Boxing Promotions presented an evening of boxing that featured six action packed bouts to a soldout crowd of 1,250 paying customers.
The evening got underway promptly at 7:30 PM with a four round Jr middleweight bout. The principals of the first bout where from Laurel, Md. Norman Allen going into tonight’s fight with a record of 5 wins and 1 lose, with 3 KO’s. His opponent from Washington DC was Spencer Harsley who went into tonight’s fight with a record of 1 win, 8 loses and 2 draws.
The first two rounds were pretty even with both fighters landing good combinations; Allen usually got off first but Harsley proved to be a good counter puncher. In the opening seconds of the third round Harsley scored a flash knockdown that impressed the sold out crowd. Allen was quick to get back to his feet and finished the third round strong even though it was a 8-10 round in Harsley’s favor. As soon as the bell sounded for the fourth round Allen charged right in and dropped his opponent to even the score. The fight ended with Norman Allen declared the winner by split decision. The judge’s cards were 38-37 twice for Allen and one even at 37-37. Allen improved to 6-1 while Harsley fell to 1-9-2
The second fight was a scheduled four round bout in the Jr welterweight division. In the red corner was undefeated Terrance Crawford from Omaha, Ne. going into tonight’s fight at 5-0. His opponent from St. Joseph, Mo was Travis Hartman who going into tonight’s fight had a record of 9-10 with 7 KO’s.
This turned out to be a very one-sided fight as Crawford totally outclassed his opponent in every way. Crawford outlanded his opponent at about a 5-1 ratio and beat almost merciless for four rounds. In the fourth round Crawford scored a knockdown that in some ringside opinion should have stopped the fight.
At the end Crawford won a unanimous decision on all three cards; 40-35, 40-35 and 40-34
Terrance Crawford’s record improved to 6-0 while Travis Hartman fell to 9-11-1
The third fight of the evening was a scheduled four round cruiserweight bout between Andres “Taylor made” Taylor from nearby Johnstown, Pa with an undefeated record of 5-0-1 and his opponent Larry Carter 3-3-1 with 3 KO’s from Detroit, Mi.
Taylor had a very large fan-base at the fight from Johnstown and he didn’t let his fans down as he was quick to score a first round knockdown over Carter and the crowd erupted with chants of Taylor made!, Taylor made! Taylor easily controlled the fight throughout all four rounds. Taylor won a clear cut unanimous decision on all three cards; 40-35, 40-35 and 40-34.
Taylor’s undefeated record improved to 6-0-1 while Carter fell to 3-4-1
The fourth fight was a scheduled four round featherweight bout featuring from York, Pa Eric Nemo 6-1-1 2 KO’s whose opponent tonight was from Stillwater, Ok Ricky Alexander 7-8 with 5 KO’s.
In the opening round Alexander scored a flash knockdown over the hometown hero Nemo. It didn’t take long for Nemo to score a knockdown of his own over Alexander and the sold out crowd erupted one more time. These two featherweights went toe to toe in a real crowd pleaser of a fight for two and a half rounds until Nemo ended the fight by stopping Alexander 2:00 in the third round. It was the body shots that Nemo used to wear his opponent down.
Eric Nemo improved to 7-1-1 with 3 KO’s while Alexander fell to 7-9.
The co-main event for the evening was a six round fight in the bantamweight division. Leo Santa Cruz whose record going into tonight’s fight was 7-0-0; his very experienced opponent from Miami was Jose Garcia Bernal. Going into tonight’s fight his record was 27-14-1 with 1 KO.
Bernal showed his experience as he used every trick in the book to keep from being dropped by the hard hitting Santa Cruz, he hit and held, pushed and held, he held on every time he got in trouble.
Santa Cruz stuck with it and won a unanimous decision on all three cards; 59-55, 59-55 and 60-54
Leo Santa Cruz improved his undefeated record to 8-0-1 while Bernal fell to 27-15-1
Tonight’s main event was a six round Jr lightweight bout between undefeated York, Pa hometown hero Carney “The Fireman” Bowman 12-0 with 5 KO’s and Jesus Perez of Miami with a record of 25-23-3 with 14 KO’s.
Bowman got off to a good early start landing some solid combinations to hold the very ring experienced Perez at bay through the first round. Bowman landed a clear hard shot in the second round sending Perez to the canvas. Bowmen kept control and dominated the fight even though there were some back and forth heated exchanges in the fifth and sixth rounds. Bowman easily rode the last two rounds of the fight to victory winning a unanimous decision on all three cards that read; 59-55, 59-55 and 60-54.
Carney Bowman improved his undefeated record to 13-0 with 5 KO’s while Jesus Perez fell to 25-24-3.