This weekend at the Uncas Ballroom at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, Main Events and Mohegan Sun debuted the pilot event of the Mohegan Sun’s Rising Stars Boxing Series. Fans in attendance and watching online via Facebook Live were treated to nine exciting bouts of boxing which featured both locals talent and international prospects.
The main event of the evening featured an action-packed ten-round battle between Virgilijus “The Terminator” Stapulionis (18-4-1, 13 KOs) of Lithuania and Oxnard, California and Patrick Day (13-2-1, 6 KOs) of Freeport, New York. Day knocked Stapulionis down in the third but The Terminator recovered and delivered a thrilling performance in a close fight that was not necessarily reflected in the scores. In the end, Day defeated Stapulionis via unanimous decision (99-90, 97-92, 98-91).
Local fan-favorite Cassius Chaney (8-0, 5 KOs) of New London, Conn. stopped Carlos Sandoval (10-11-1, 7 KOs) of Agua Prieta, Mexico in his first fight with world-renowned trainer, John David Jackson. This was also Chaney’s first fight since returning from shoulder surgery earlier this year. The referee stopped the fight just after the bell rang to end the second round.
After the fight Cassius said, “This was great. This guy is tough and I want to thank everyone for coming out and supporting. I want to thank my manager, trainer, Main Events, my family and my fans. I want to thank Carlos Sandoval for taking this fight.”
Main Events’ middleweight prospect Madiyar Ashkeyev (7-0, 3 KOs) of Kazakhstan remains undefeated as he scored a unanimous decision (59-55 for all three judges) over Marcus Beckford (3-4-3, 1 KO) of Uniondale, New York.
Reinald Graceski (4-0, 2 KOs) made quick work of Rodrigo Almeida (1-6) in an all-Massachusetts match-up. The doctor advised the referee to stop the fight at 1:25 of the first after Almeida suffered an injury to his right wrist.
A large crowd came out to support New Jersey native Kevin Asmat (1-1, 1 KO) of Union City and he did not disappoint them. Asmat stopped local Ernesto Ornelas (1-1, 1 KO) of Portland, Maine at 1:04 of the second round.
St. Louis prospect Vaughn Alexander (7-0, 5 KOs) made his Main Events’ debut with an impressive unanimous decision win over Antonio Fernandes (7-29-3, 2 KOs) of Brockton, Mass. All three judges scored the fight 60-54 in favor of Alexander.
Local prospect Josh Crespo (7-4-3, 3 KOs) of New Haven Connecticut knocked out Jesus Gonzalez (4-13, 3 KOs) of Bethlehem, Penn. in the first round. Gonzalez had slipped just prior to the knockout and made it back to his feet for a matter of seconds before Crespo laid him out.
Former professional kickboxer, Enriko Gogokhia (3-0, 1 KO) made his east coast debut against Roberto Yong (5-11-2, 4 KOs) of Phoenix, Arizona. The judges scored this one a split decision with two judges giving the win to Gogokhia (60-54 and 59-55) and one judge scoring the bout for Yong 59-55.
In the first bout of the evening Uganda native Kennedy Katende (1-0) made his professional debut with a four-round unanimous decision victory over Tracey Johnson (4-5-4) of Boston, Mass. All three judges scored the bout 40-35. Kennedy knocked down Johnson in the third round but Johnson managed to finish the bout.
