Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing returned to professional boxing’s Long Island home, The Paramount in Huntington, New York on Saturday night with another installment of their sold-out Rockin Fights series.
In the main event, longtime heavyweight contender Vinny Maddalone had the Long Island faithful on their feet cheering on his third round knockout of previously undefeated Richard Carmack of Kansas City, Missouri.
With crunching hooks to the body and power shots to the head throughout the first two rounds, Maddalone, 37-8-0 (27KO’s), earned the stoppage, drilling the beefy Carmack, 12-1-0 (10KO’s), to the canvas in the third round as referee Tony Chiaranto called a halt to the proceedings at the 2:57 mark.
“This was our eighth event at The Paramount and the fans who continually turn out in droves, each time packing the house, have really made this a special place for professional boxing” said DeGuardia.
“This was a terrific performance for Vinny and we’re looking to a bigger fight in the division in the coming months” said DeGuardia.
In the eight round light heavyweight co-main event, Buffalo, New York’s Lionell Thompson scored an upset over the returning Yathomas Riley of Augusta, Georgia. A hotly contested battle over the course of the bout, although it appeared Riley may have had a shot of winning the close rounds, Thompson, 14-2-0 (9KO’s) was declared the winner by scores of 77-75 twice and 79-73.
Returning to the ring from a three-year absence following a wrongful incarceration on a murder charge, Riley, 8-1-0 (6KO’s) suffered his first defeat as he couldn’t shake the 3 year ring rust.
Headlining the undercard, touted Huntington prospect Alan Gotay improved to 5-0-0 (2KO’s) with a thrilling performance over Brooklyn’s Bryan Acaba, earning the stoppage at the 1:58 mark of the sixth round in their lightweight bout in a fantastic fight. The valiant but outgunned Acaba fell to 3-4-0 (2KO’s) in the fight which saw celebrity guest LL Cool J enthusiastically cheering the efforts of both boxers.
Hicksville’s junior welterweight newcomer Anthony Karperis got back on the winning track with a sharp looking four round decision over Carlos Nieves of the Bronx.
Dropping Nieves in the fourth from a hard overhand right,
Karperis, 4-1-0 (2KO”s) was declared the winner by scores of 40-35 on all three cards. It was another exciting fight on the great card.
Pro debuting Dave Meloni of Westbury, New York, had a rough start to his pro career as he was dropped and stopped in the first round by Brooklyn’s Soumana Abdoulaye. Giving Meloni a chance to recover from an early knockdown, referee Eddie Claudio stopped the featherweight bout at the 1:54 mark of the opening stanza. Abdoulaye’s record moved to 2-6-0 (1KO).
Opening the show in a four round middleweight bout, Uniondale’s Marcus Beckford and Carlos Lopez of the Bronx fought to a crowd pleasing, action filled majority draw. Scores were 39-37 for Beckford and 38-38 on the other two cards. Beckford now 0-0-2 and Lopez 0-1-1.
