On Friday night in Atlanta, Shea Bailey Promotions delivered as promised with an exciting night of action packed boxing at the Center Stage Theater. In the main event hometown favorite Paul “The Truth” Delgado (21-1 9, 4 KOs) cruised to a unanimous decision victory over cagey veteran Roberto Valenzuela (51-51-2, 42 KOs). Sporting a chiseled new physic due to a newly implemented strength and conditioning regimen, Delgado looked ripped once his corner peeled off his ring entrance garb. Although bigger and stronger Delgado did not lose his slick boxing ability, but did have the wherewithal to trade shots with the Mexican road warrior.
In the first few rounds of the contest it appeared that Delgado wanted to get rid of Valenzuela early by planting his feat and landing some solid overhand rights and vicious left hooks. Much to his surprise Valenzuela did not give, but rather added pressure by constantly moving forward.
In the middle and final rounds of the 6 round contest Delgado adjusted his initial plan and used slick boxing and counter punching to pick Valenzuela apart. All three judges scored the contest 60-54 for Delgado.
In other action:
Bahamian 2008 Olympian Taureano Johnson (1-0, 1 KO) made his long awaited pro debut by totally annihilating Cleony Fuqua (1-1, 1 KO) of Columbus MS. Before Fuqua could try to establish any type of rhythm Johnson jumped all over him in the first and scored a TKO. Official time of the stoppage was 2:50.
In the opening bout of the evening cruiserweights Anthony Doughty (6-1, 5 KOs) of Atlanta, GA and Clarence Moore (5-8-1, 5 KOs) of Charleston, WV set the table for an exciting night of fights by going back and forth in a true barn-burner. After going back and forth for most of the scheduled 6 rounds Moore was the first to succumb and after being dropped in the 6th referee Vincent Accoo stepped in and stopped the fight at the 1:53 mark.
Super bantamweight Akbar Walton made his pro debut a successful one by defeating Leshaun Blair (4-22) with a four round unanimous decision. All three judges scored it 40-36.
“Notorious” Nicole Woods (9-6-1, 2 KOs) demolished debuting Tara McCulough with a pulverizing right hand. After getting to her feet at the count of eight, McCulough look towards her corner gesturing “no more”, forcing the referee to stop the fight.
Zahir Raheem, a member of the 1996 US Olympic Boxing team, is best known for his unanimous decision victory over Erik Morales in 2005. At the time, Morales was coming off of his victory over superstar Manny Pacquiao and was looking for a “stay busy/easy fight” before the highly anticipated rematch with Pacquiao. Morales made the mistake of picking Raheem who picked him apart and out-boxed the Mexican legend over 12 rounds. With the victory Raheem captured the vacant WBC International lightweight title.
beat ex-contender Lionel Butler, Cuban Jorge Luis Gonzalez, Ross Puritty and was the first man to stop both Obed Sullivan and Al Cole, and knocked out hard-punching David Izon (which brought him a ranking in the Ring Magazine). He also outpointed Lou Savarese and knocked out Andrew Golota. During that fight Grant was knocked down twice only to come from behind to score a knockout in the tenth round.
featuring would be hopefuls and veterans to the squared circle.
always been a spectator and because of his absolute love for the sport, realised an opportunity that he wanted to be in the sport, but not in the physical sense .His passion has opened up a door for him here in the local fight scene,that he now finds himself right in the middle of things and is a crucial part of Atlanta’s fight scene!
For Love of the Fight
