Saturday night, July 9, was fight night at Henderson Hall's Smith Gymnasium as three home-based boxers climbed into the ring during the July Justice amateur boxing event. Representing Henderson Hall Boxing, two amateurs made their boxing debuts and a third took on a last minute match during the four-and-a-half-hour, 16 bout card.
To start his amateur boxing career, HH's 152-pounder Kevin Guzman bested Gregory Elion of the Art of Boxing club in a three-round decision as Guzman needed to rally after being knocked down twice in the first round.
“I felt kind of dizzy, but I got right back up. He got me with a good shot; he got me good,” Guzman conceded after his first-ever victory. After the knockdowns, Guzman's trainer, Ted Hohney, shouted to the rookie boxer to pace himself and slow down, and Guzman regrouped and used his right hand to drop Elion, which produced a pair of standing eight counts in the second round.
“This kid has a lot of heart; his problem is he wants to knock everyone out,” Hohney said of Guzman. “That was his first fight, and he showed that he had enough heart getting knocked down and get two eight-counts and come back and win a fight.” During the first half of bouts, Henderson Hall's Keisha Lewis also made her ring debut against a seasoned Kendall Rice of In Motion Boxing. Rice bested Lewis in the three round fight, but Hohney was pleased with Lewis' initial ring appearance.
“She's a sports fitness person who is interested in boxing,” said Hohney about Lewis' evolution toward boxing. “We taught her and trained her; this was her very first fight. I want the whole world to know that even though she lost that fight, there's a lot of victory in her because the girl she fought, that was her sixth fight.”
Two bouts after Guzman won on his home turf, HH 201-pound class boxer Kyle Benz took on Combat Sports' Jeffery Brown. The first round's style of boxing between Benz and Brown produced toe-to-toe jabbing, but the final two rounds found both boxers turning to an aggressive, brawling type of fighting. Benz, who signed on to box in the July Justice card just five days before the event, was on the losing end of the 201-pound match against Brown, but Benz's manager thought he deserved a better fate when the decision was announced.
“I thought he kind of won that fight,” Hohney said of Benz's tough decision. “I'm not making excuses for him " a win is a win and a loss is a loss " but he just got back [in the States] about five days ago, and he took this fight.”
Other July Justice winners were Lontez William (Diamond in the Rough), Walter Parker (Art of Boxing), Xavier Ruiz (Art of Boxing), Jacob Okiya (Balance Boxing), Daniel Acero (E.C. Boxing), Cedrick J. Reaves, Jose Israel Flores, Matthew Abregu, Eric Hernandez and Seth Billips all from Craig Flannagins Gym and Antwan Ward of Peninsula Boxing.
Charles Dorner of Newport News Boxing recorded a second round knockout in a heavyweight match, and in the main event, Keron Greene of ILA boxing decisioned No Pain Boxing's Robert Seweney.
Social Sharing