Andy Lee Wins in The Windy City
By Jorge “BoxWrite” Garcia (At Ringside)
From the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois, 8 Count Productions put on a great night of fights in their latest installment of Windy City Fight Nights in front of an energetic crowd. The Main Event featured Kronk Gym fighter Andy Lee displaying his skills as he stopped a very game Michael Walker at the 2:03 mark of the 8th round.
Early on Lee used his great jab to clearly dominate the first couple of rounds as he was timing Walker coming in while landing crisp shots like a beautiful uppercut at the end of the 2nd round. In the 3rd round Lee put Walker on the canvas but two times they were ruled as slips while the last one was ruled a push with the forearm and as expected the pro Lee crowd voiced their displeasure to the ref in charge of the bout.
From the 4th round on Walker’s pressure was starting to pay some dividends as he was starting to land some right hands over the low guard of Lee. Walker was not landing enough to win the rounds but he was able to trap Lee in the corner at times to unleash some body shots and right hands. Unfortunately for Walker he didn’t have the power to hurt Lee like Brian Vera did in Lee’s only loss 8 fights ago plus Walker was starting to ware down by all damage he was taking from the 6′-2″ fighter.
In the 8th round, Lee’s high output was visible all over Walker’s face prompting the ref to step in during Lee’s unstoppable attack at one of the neutral corners. Walker did not complain as he added another loss to his record and was quick to tell Lee’s trainer Emanuel Steward “I trained myself” referring that even limited in skills he has an elite heart. Andy Lee improved to 23-1-1, 17 KO’s as he didn’t miss a beat in his quest towards a world title shot next year while the always game Michael Walker dropped to 19-5-2, 12 KO’s.
In the Co-Main Event Russian Anton “The Pick Hammer” Novikov took a unanimous decision over the Chicago based Luciano “El Michoacano” Perez over 8 rounds of action. Novikov looked very impressive as he displayed very good boxing skills dominating the hometown Perez in the exciting one sided fight. Perez came to fight, which he showed by always swinging back as displayed in some of the middle rounds where he landed some good right hands when he trapped Novikov in the corner.
Novikov, a member of Team Pitbull, showed a solid foundation of boxing skills by always being one step ahead of Perez. That theme stayed consistent throughout the fight keeping Anton Noviko’s record unblemished at 17-0, 6 KO’s while adding another loss to Luciano Perez at 17-11-1, 15 KO’s.
More Results:
Ramon Valenzuela, JR. 2-0, 1 KO UD over Chris Grays, 9-21, 2 KO’s
Aslanbek Kozaev 12-0, 4 KO’s UD over Marcus Thompkins 5-1-1, 2 KO’s
Adrian Granados 4-0 2 KO’s UD over Trenton Titsworth 3-8-1, 2 KOs
Mike Jimenez 2-0, 2 KO’s KO 3 over Cesar Martinez 1-2
Antonio Canas 2-0, 2 KO’s TKO end of 2nd David Laque 2-6-1, 2 KO’s
Donatas Bondarevas 9-1-1 3 KO’s TKO 2 over Michael Davis 5-8, 4 KO’s
Evgeny Gradovich 5-0, 4 KO’s TKO 3 over Steven Johnson 5-2, 4 KO’s
Overall it was a great night of fights showcasing some young, up and coming talent as 8 Count Productions has been accustomed to display in their top notch cards. Keep some of these names in mind as I’m sure some of these fighters will challenge some of the elite fighters in the years to come.