Cletus “The Hebrew Hammer” Seldin returned after a 9 month layoff in explosive style knocking out Puerto Rican Orlando Vazquez at 2:40 of the 1st round at Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing’s “Rockin’ Fights’ 22” at The Paramount in Huntington, NY. Seldin, (18-0, 15 KOs Long Island, NY) jumped all over the taller Vazquez (18-8-1 12 KOs Bayamon, PR) and landed virtually everything he threw as Vazquez went into total retreat mode.
Seldin, who was in his first fight back, returning from rotator cuff surgery on his shoulder, landed a picture perfect left hook which dropped Vazquez near the end of the round. Vazquez gamely arose at the count of 8. Seldin attacked again, landing a crushing right hand to the midsection of Vazquez who failed to beat the count of 10.
The undercard of Star Boxing’s show featured wild action in each of the fights. Former Cuban Olympian and amateur star Luis Franco (14-1-1 9KO Miami, FL) had all he could handle facing the less experienced Tyrone Luckey (8-6-2 6KO Middletown, NJ) winning a unanimous 8 round decision in a Jr. Lightweight bout by scores of 80-72, 80-72, and 78-75. The action was fast paced throughout as both fighters threw punches in bunches. Franco’s punches had the greater effect even though Luckey tried to match punch for punch with talented Franco.
Tyrone James (2-0 1KO Elmont, NY) made his Paramount debut a successful one in front of a huge contingent of fans as he won a 4 round decision over Nyein Maung ( 2-2-2 Utica, NY) in a fight that had the huge crowd on its feet for the entire 4 rounds. The much taller James showed lots of class in round 1 as he worked behind a sharp jab and was able to score 2 knockdowns over Maung but to his credit the wild swinging Maung never wavered and even managed to rock James as the bell sounded ended the round with the crowd in an absolute frenzy. The action was wild and wooly for the entire fight and both Welterweights were given a standing ovation by the crowd. All three judges had it 40-34 for James.
Two power punching undefeated Heavyweights George Arias (5-0 3KO Bronx, NY) and James Hammortree (6-1 6KO Ocala, FL) had the fight of the night as they traded bombs in the 4 round Heavyweight bout thriller. When the dust cleared Arias came away with the unanimous decision 40-36 on all three cards, in fight that had the Paramount rocking.
In a 6 round Lightweight matchup Johnny Hernandez (7-1 2KO Huntington, NY) outfought Jose Guzman (6-13-1 Bronx, NY) in an entertaining fight. The shorter Hernandez had the greater work rate and the three judges saw the fight at 60-54, 59-55, and 58-56 all in favor of Hernandez.
Star Boxing’s CEO Joe DeGuardia had this to say about the evening’s festivities: “What a spectacular night once again at The Paramount. We have now established a tradition here at The Paramount – one sold out standing room only crowd after another. We have great fans and I’m pleased they were treated to another great night of exciting fights. ‘The Hammer’, Cletus Seldin went right into immediate seek and destroy mode thrilling his huge fan base with that 1st round knockout. I think Cletus is ready to step up and challenge some of the top rated Jr. Welterweights in the world”.
