The Brawl at the Beach- The Results

Tyrone “King of the Ring” Spong gets his 12th KO- Photo Credit The Fighting News

August 31, 2018-The Brawl at the Beach lived up to its billing this evening with nine exciting matchups at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. Kudos to Andy Perez’s A and T Events & Promotions and matchmaker Melvin Rivas.

The opening bout in the Super Middleweight division saw an undefeated up and comer Noe Larios Jr. (7-0-0) of Mexico making his stateside debut against journeyman Alvaro Enriquez (14-22-2). After an even opening round of feeling each other out, Larios found a nice rhythm with his jab and began to score with some body shots as well, ultimately winning a unanimous decision with all judges scoring the bout 40-36.

The second fight was a Cruiserweight battle between Miami’s Anthony “White Chocolate” Martinez (1-0) and Columbia’s Antonio Ocles (6-5-1). With a significant height and reach advantage, Martinez spent most of the fight trying to clinch and wear down his opponent and it seemed at first that Ocles was in for a bad night. The second round saw some ferocious blows being thrown by both men but the action was stopped briefly following a head butt from Martinez. In the third round, the exciting pace continued and Ocles began to deliver some punishment with looping punches to reach the head of his taller opponent. Round four saw both fighters swinging for the fences in a battle of wills. A knockout seemed likely and could have been delivered by either man. In the end, Ocles continued to score with those looping overhands and won by split decision.

In other bouts, Super Welterweight Juan Carlos Rubio (12-0-0) continued his undefeated streak with an exciting victory against Ulises Jimenez (23-22-1). Next, Cruiserweight Siarhei Novikuv made his pro debut at age 29 defeating Mexico’s Bladimir Hernandez Cazares (20-13-0) by TKO in the first round.

Next up was a Middleweight bout featuring Juergen Doberstein (23-3-1), originally from Germany but currently training with Dr. Pedro Diaz as part of the Mundo Boxing Team and making his North American debut. His opponent, Martin Fidel Rios (23-17-4) of Argentina is a skilled technician who has held several WBC Latino titles. In what proved to be study in contrasting styles, Doberstein managed to control the action for most of the fight by dancing around Rios, preventing his opponent from cutting off the ring, and escaping some tricky positions with ease to win the contest by split decision.

In a Featherweight matchup for the vacant WBC Latino title, Ruben Garcia Hernandez (23-3-1) defeated Jose Estrella (20-13-1) after 10 rounds of action that went to the judges scorecards. Afterwards, another vacant belt was claimed, this time the WBA-NABA Bantamweight title. In the seventh fight of the evening, undefeated southpaw Melvin Lopez of Nicaragua (15-0, 10 KOs) defeated Jose Maria Cardenas (15-2, 12 KOs) out of Tijuana, Mexico. The southpaw controlled the action and took the strap by unanimous decision 96-94, 98-92, and 97-93 on the scorecards.

Which brings us to Tyrone “King of the Ring” Spong (12-0, 12 KOs) vs. Santagar Silgado (28-5, 22 KOs), with the WBC Latino Heavyweight belt on the line. In typical King of the Ring fashion, Tyrone Spong delivered an absolutely punishing right hook behind the ear that dropped Silgado just at the one-minute mark in the opening round. By now, Spong has proven that he is a top-level competitor that would give any opponent a hard time. Knock out power, a world-class trainer in Pedro Diaz, and a fifteen year history of dominance in combat sports-the sky’s the limit for Tyrone Spong.

But the fight of the night belonged to the last fight of the night, where Victor Fonseca (16-8-1, 14 KOs) won a very close contest against Manuel Ceballos (15-1, 9 KOs) to snatch the WBO Latino Light Heavyweight title. This was simply a boxing fans fight with both men gaining and losing advantage throughout the course of a brutal ten rounds. Judges scorecards at the end recorded 98-92, 96-94 and 96-94.

By Matt Benoliel, TFN Reporter