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Cherry (20-4-2 9 KO's) is another example of a young fighter who “learned on the job.” Opening his career in 2001 at the age of 18, he ran into some roadblocks along the way. He started his career 3-2-2 and appeared on the verge of becoming nothing more than a journeyman fighter.
Things have been much different since that point though. The “Cherry Bomb” has lost only two fights since then, and those fights were both close. The first loss since his career resurrection was against former title challenger Ricky Quiles. The fight was a heated battle from start to finish. Mmost ringsiders believed Quiles deserved the decision, especially after Cherry had one point deducted for a low blow, ultimately making the difference between a draw and the split decision.
The other loss was to Jose Armando Santa Cruz by unanimous decision. Cherry had Santa Cruz seriously hurt in the third round, but Cruz got off the canvas and won nearly all the remaining rounds. If
he's lucky enough to drop his opponent tonight, he might not get up.
Daniel Alicea (30-5-2 22 KO's) is a 14-year pro that's been in the ring with some of the better lightweights in the world. Unfortunately, they have also knocked him out.
Alicea's four knockout losses have come from “Prince” Naseem Hamed (he also knocked down Hamed), Jorge Monzon (not one of those big names), Acelino Freitas, and Nate Campbell. To be fair, though, Alicea has also had some success in the ring.
He hasn't won any major titles, but he has held two of the better regional titles, the NABF and NABA featherweight titles. He won both of those titles on the same night, which were both vacated at the time, when he defeated Brian Adams in the spring of 2002. However, he only held those titles for about five months before getting knocked out by Nate Campbell in three.
After that loss, Alicea took almost three years off before stepping back in the ring.
He's gone 3-0 since the comeback, but is undoubtedly taking on his toughest opponent since then.
The first round started like a lot of typical first rounds, lots of staring at each other and flickering the jab. Alicea did land a right hand near the end of the round, which was probably enough to earn him the “10” on the judges scorecards.
Cherry controlled rounds two through four by continuously greeting Alicea with combinations as Alicea was charging in. Alicea was the aggressor, but hardly effective. He was hurt by a right hand and stuck his head out of the ropes in the third.
It's up to the referee to decide if this is a knockdown or not, but Dave Johnson decided not to call it. Just a minute later, however, Cherry landed a right hand that did knock Alicea down. Alicea bounced off the ropes, but most certainly fell because of the punch. Johnson, however, ruled this a slip. So a possible 10-7 round only ended up being 10-9.
In rounds five and six, Alicea did solid work to the body of Cherry along the ropes. He also landed a right hand over a lazy jab of
Cherry's, stunning him ever so briefly in the fifth. In the sixth he started it off with another solid right hand.
Cherry landed a straight right off the top of Alicea's skull in the opening moments of the seventh round. After hesitating briefly, Cherry shrieked in pain, as it was clear he had hurt his hand in some way. Alicea, sensing Cherry was hurt, starting attacking more, but to little avail.
At the beginning of round eight, Teddy Atlas talked to
Cherry's trainer Peter Fernandez, who believed Cherry had broken his knuckle because of the pain Edner was describing. From this point on, Cherry would be forced to fight with limited use of his right hand, and try his best to outbox the always-aggressive Alicea.
The left hand would come to the rescue for Cherry in the ninth. Cherry landed a brilliant left hook in the center of the ring that rocked Alicea back into the ropes. Cherry then followed that up with some 30 unanswered punches trying to end it then and there. Not many of the punches from the flurry went through, but damage had been done.
After both fighters seemed to take a break in the 10th, perhaps because of the action in the previous round, Cherry came out firing in the 11th. Cherry now started firing the right hand more after his corner told him to not worry about it,
he'd go to the doctors on Monday. Alicea walked forward, but he received his worse punishment of the night as Cherry was landing everything. Near the end of the round, Cherry landed a straight right and again followed that up with a near 30-punch flurry.
Now both the doctor and referee Johnson were looking for
Alicea's health. The 12th round began. With Cherry landing a jab that rocked Alicea, who was still suffering from the end of the 11th. A few seconds later, Cherry landed a big straight right hand and Alicea sank back towards the ropes. Johnson immediately stepped in and at 1:50 in the final round, Edner Cherry was crowned the new NABF lightweight champion.
In the opening bout, Dean White (13-5-1 6 KO's) lost in a very spirited effort by sixth-round TKO. Monty Meza-Clay (21-1 14
KO's), coming off his only loss against last night's headliner, Edner Cherry, was aggressive from the start. But, Dean White stayed right with him the whole time. A nasty cut over his left eye appeared from a punch by Meza-Clay in the third round. By the fifth it was bleeding enough for referee Tim Wheeler to stop the action and have the doctor take a look. White begged to finish the end of the round, prompting Teddy Atlas to say,
“That's the heart of a real fighter.”
White tried to finish it, but couldn't land anything big on Meza-Clay. In the sixth round, Wheeler called time again, and the doctor had no choice but to stop the fight because blood was flowing freely into his
White's eye. After the fight, Wheeler could be overheard telling the corner of White, “I really wish I could have kept that fight going.”
It's not often you hear a referee apologize for stopping a fight, especially a scheduled eight rounder.
On the anniversary of their first fight, Verquan Kimbrough (15-1-1 7
KO's) once again defeated Marty Robbins (21-33-1 15 KO's), this time by a four round unanimous decision. In their first fight Robbins knocked down Kimbrough three times in the 10th and final round, but he still lost a unanimous decision. Robbins took this fight on one
day's notice, hoping to capitalize on the 10th round from a year ago. It
wouldn't be a continuation as the final scorecards read 39-37, 40-36 and 40-36. After the fight Brian Kenny said, “Unfortunately I
don't think they'll be setting aside Aug 11th 2007 for the third fight in the trilogy.” That really is too bad.
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