Headlining for the first time at the 25th Rockin Fights at The Paramount in Huntington, NY, was newly signed Star Boxing Jr. Welterweight Anthony ” Showtime” Karperis of Hicksville, NY, as he made his first defense of his NY State Jr. Welterweight title against Queens, NY native Ariel Duran in a 10 round bout.
These two had met once before early in their careers with Karperis coming away with a hard fought 4 round win and it was no different this time around. The two fighters battled throughout the contest which featured great two way action and it was also a rough and tumble affair with both fighters suffering cuts.
Karperis stormed out to an early lead as he boxed smartly and was able to fend off the attacks of Duran. Through 5 rounds it looked as though Karperis would cruise to a win but the tide turned in the 6th round as Duran started to put together nice combinations and out land Karperis.
Duran arguably won the next 3 rounds and was on his way to another good round in the 9th when Karperis landed a picture perfect right counter sending Duran to the canvas and turning the fight back in his favor.
The 10th and final round saw both fighters go for the win but in the end it was Karperis successfully defending his title with a unanimous points win raising his record to 13-2 4KO while Duran dropped to 9-9-1 5KO. The judges turned in scores of 97-92, twice, and 98-91.
The undercard featured Huntington Lightweight Johnny Hernandez, defeating Philly’s Seifullah Wise by unanimous decision over 8 rounds. Hernandez improves to 8-1 1KO while Wise drops to 3-3 1KO.
Two popular Long Island Super Middleweights hooked up in a 4 round battle as Glen Cove’s Vinny D’Angelo returned after a 3 year layoff squaring off with the very tough Dan Cion of Farmingville, NY, who was making his pro debut. After a slow 1st round the fight intensified and the final round saw the 2 fighters bring the crowd to their feet as they traded toe to toe shots with D’Angelo capturing a close unanimous victory and improving to 2-0 while Cion goes to 0-1.
East Hampton Jr. Middleweight Juan Mancilla made his pro debut a successful one as he stopped tough luck loser Phillip LeGrand with only a few seconds left in their 4 round fight. The fight was all action and hung in the balance but the aggressive Mancilla started landing numerous power shots towards the end of the fight which caused head ringside physician Barry Jordon to call a halt to the action against the strong objections of LeGrand who falls to 1-4 1KO.
Promoter Joe DeGuardia had these comments to say about last night’s action “The fights were all very competitive and the sold out crowd once again was treated to an exciting night of professional Boxing”.
