By: Sean Crose
The 15-0 Avious Griffin took on the 12-2-1 Adrian Gutierrez in a scheduled welterweight 8 rounder Saturday night in Atlantic City. The first two rounds were exciting as both men had their moments. A single, powerful straight right ended up putting Gutierrez down and out in the third. “I give me like a B- because he touched me. He wasn’t supposed to touch me,” Griffin said afterward. And his victorious strategy? “Take my time, work behind the jab,” he said. “I was just being patient.”
Next up the 17-0 Dominique Crowder took on the 24-2 Duke Micah in a scheduled 8 rounder in the bantamweight division. The far taller Crowder employed his height advantage in the first. A straight right that landed on Micah’s glove, which subsequently and strangely sent Micah down and out. It was a very odd ending to a very brief fight. “I threw it hard but I don’t know what he felt,” a puzzled Crowder said afterward. “I was just warming up…it is what it is.”
What it was was time for the main event of the card. The 10-0 middleweight Justin Figueroa took on the 9-3-1 Omar Rosales in a scheduled 6 round battle. Figueroa started strong, tossing off accurate shots his opponent couldn’t answer. By the third, Figueroa had essentially turned the fight into target practice. It was to Rosales’ credit that he stayed on his feet. An impressive left-right combination ended up putting Rosales down in the fourth, however. The referee then wisely stopped the festivities.
“I was so calm this fight because I had over a hundred rounds in sparring,” Figueroa said afterward. “I got an insane fucking work ethic and that’s how I got here.”