Vanda vs. Campas

[Paul Stanley 0]

Jr middleweight Matt "The Predator" Vanda (34-1, 21 KOs) scored the biggest victory of his career, winning a twelve round split decision over former world champion Yory Boy Campas (86-8, 70 KOs) Friday night at the Target Center, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The back and forth battle featured many good exchanges and both fighters had their moments, rocking the other throughout the fight.

 

Vanda started the fight boxing very well. "The Predator" was keeping the jab in Campas's face, sometimes doubling and even tripling up with it which caused blood to flow from the nose of Campas in the first round. Vanda was putting hard combinations together and displaying an improved boxing style then previously seen in the past. Campas was stalking and coming forward looking to land his trademark left hook to the body in the early rounds but whatever he managed to land, Vanda would come back with more.

 

As the fight went into the middle rounds, Campas was able to find Vanda with combinations to the head and body. Vanda was backpeddeling and Campas was always right in his face throwing hard shots. By the seventh round, Vanda's hands were down and he was looking tired.

 

Vanda showed heart however as he was able to weather the middle round rally from Campas and keep the fight close by trading on even terms with Campas down the stretch.

In the end, Vanda claimed a 116-112, 115-113 win on two cards. Campas was ahead 117-112 on the third card.

 

Local junior middleweight Troy Lowry (25-5, 14 KO's) won a six round technical decision over former WBA champion Santiago Samaniego (36-9-1, 29 KOs).

It was a good, fast paced fight for both fighters. Lowry was effective with the jab, and the straight right to the head. Samaniego was most effective with his body attack, although he was warned numerous times for going below the belt.

 

Lowry was out boxing his opponent and winning an exciting fight through six rounds. After some action inside in the sixth, Lowry came out of the mix with a cut over his left eye. The cut was ruled to be from an accidental headbutt. After the ring doctor looked the cut over, it was decided the bout could not continue. Lowry was declared the winner as he was up by scores of 59-54 on all cards. Samaniego was unlucky to not get the win, as the cut was incorrectly ruled to be from a headbutt. Replays showed the cut was caused by a Samaniego right hand.

 

Comebacking heavyweight Michael Grant (41-3, 31 KOs) defeated Marcus McGee (13-7, 7 KOs) by a pretty uneventful unanimous eight round decision. The crowd was booing the lack of action throughout the bout. Grant threw the jab for most of the fight but rarely followed up with anything else. Mcgee did have a few moments rocking Grant on three separate occasions with the looping shots to the head but was unable to capitalize on any of them. Grant almost had a tired McGee out in the last round, but had to settle for a 79-74, 79-74, 77-76 win.

 

In his U.S. debut, junior middleweight Richard Gutierrez (20-0, 12 KO's) put on an impressive performance in stopping Luis Santiago (18-7-1, 11 KOs) in round five.

Gutierrez landed a right to the body and followed up with a hard right to the chin of Santiago that had him completely stunned and helpless on his feet. Referee Mark Nelson jumped in to stop the fight before Gutierrez could land anything else rightfully so. The stoppage came at 2:57 of the round.

 

Duluth Minnesota's Zach Walters (12-1, 10 ko's) dropped Julio Cesar Montero (2-9) to his knees with a right hand to the head causing Montero to say no mas at 2:20 of the opening round.

 

Hector Sanchez (3-0, 2 ko's) toward over his shorter opponent Julio Paul Mundo (0-2) and landed a huge left hand to the gut of Mundo with one of the first punches landed in the fight. Mundo was counted out a 55 seconds of the round.

 

Yukence Andino (2-0, 1 ko) was too much for Kane Pudwill (5-9). Andino dropped Pudwill once at the end of the first round and three times in the second causing an end to the bout. Pudwill showed heart in never quitting but could not stay with the stronger punching Andino.

 

Tony Grygelko (5-1, 5 ko's) stopped Dallas Jensen (0-2) at 1:37 of the second round. The first round featured some good toe to toe action. However, Grygelko started to connect to the body as the fight progressed and also began to land clean shots the the head that rocked Jensen. Jensen was given a standing eight count after taking a hard left to the head midway through the second. Grygelko finally landed one last combination, a left-right-left to the head and the referee stepped in to stop the bout.

 

Jorge Teron (3-0, 3 ko's) tkoed Bobby Conners (0-2). Teron was punishing the over matched Conners from the opening bell. Conners was given a standing eight count after getting pounded on the ropes by lefts to the head. Conners took some more shots and the fight was finally waived off between rounds as Conners could not answer the bell.

 

Scott Ball (6-0, 6 ko's) had trouble finding his shorter opponent Armond Heath (1-2-1) at first but began to wear Heath out as the bout went on. Heath fought back and had a few moments but was eventually stopped at 2:49 of the third round as Referee Mark Nelson stopped the fight after an accumulation of punches had Heath looking beaten.

 

 

I was there 3rd row ringside and it was one of the better boxing main events i've seen recently, undercard wasn't that bad either.