Power and Volume; United Boxing Promotions hosts Fight Night at Pickering Casino Resort

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

As I made the trek down to Pickering, I couldn’t help but be excited. I was going to the United Boxing Promotions first event of the year, and they started this year out special with a sold-out, jaw-dropping, can’t take your eyes away for a minute round of fights.

The promotion team at United Boxing Promotions decided to take it there this year by hosting their first series of fights at the Pickering Casino Resort. Located just east of downtown Toronto, the new entertainment and hospitality destination stretches over 96,000 square feet of land, and it features casino gambling, Great Canadian Sportsbook, some exquisite dining amenities, an event center, and more.

The hotel is just a short drive from downtown Toronto, and it was an ideal destination for this boxing card, and the city of Toronto was out. The 2,500-seat arena was filled to the brim with enthusiastic boxing fans, all there to cheer on their local hometown fighters.

I quickly found my seat, which happened to be beside the former Middleweight Jamaican Champion Kemahl Russell, who took some time to educate me on what to look for when watching the match. As one of Jamaica’s hardest hitting, and dangerously impressive boxers, Kemahl really knew his stuff. An all-action fighter, he is definitely one to watch in 2023. United Boxing Promotions is looking to make him a household name in Canada, and the world, and from what I have seen so far, this is going to happen sooner than later.

My takeaway from our discussion was to understand what a fighter brings to the table.

“Simone, there are three ways that a fighter can win a fight: they either have power, volume or both!”

“Explain what you mean by volume Kemahl,” I inquired.

“Power describes those fighters that hit heavy and hard. If you get caught by one of those punches, you are out. Some examples of fighters with power are: James Toney, Mike Tyson, Prince Naseem Hamed, and Julian Jackson.

Volume is when a fighter is relentless with his punches, you know fighters like Hector Camacho, and Joe Calzaghe. When you think about a fighter who has both, you can talk about one of Jamaica’s greatest fighters Mike McCallum.”

With that in mind, I was able to analyze the style of some of the fighters. It really started to make sense to me.

The bouts between super lightweights Mark Smithers of Barrie (9-0) against Jorge Amaya Diaz of Mexico (7-4), was when I first saw an example of volume. I saw that Smithers had respect for Diaz’s power and fought cautiously through much of the match as the Mexican fighter was swinging for the fences. Smithers was the aggressor for most of the match and strung together some hard combinations in the fifth and had Diaz in trouble in the eighth.

Canadian Super Lightweight Champion Mark Smithers of Barrie improved his unbeaten record to 10-0 with a hard-fought unanimous decision over a very willing Jorge Amaya Diaz of Mexico (now 7-5).

I have to give it to Diaz; he stayed in the fight and counter-punched effectively and while Smither was the clear choice for the win, the scorecard showing the local boy winning all eight rounds showed some bias.

You cannot deny that the next match was all about POWER. Six-foot-seven former Jamaican Olympic heavyweight Ricardo Brown dispatched Cruz Duran in just 56 seconds to improve to 6-0. To be honest, there is not much else to say about that; it just seemed all too easy.

I was a little disappointed at the loss of Richard Holmes of Jamaica (19-12) to Ajacian Brandon ‘Bad Boy’ Cook (23-2). Brandon ‘Bad Boy’ Cook, another fan favorite from nearby Ajax, won his fight in more dramatic fashion, stopping Richard Holmes of Jamaica (now 19-13) in the sixth of a scheduled 10-round middleweight fight.

The knockout was the fourth time Holmes went down and was given an extended break at the end of the fourth after Cook started pressuring Holmes with a series of punches to the head and body, and came in too low, sending Holmes to the canvas in obvious discomfort.

After the restart Cook continued to stalk Holmes and eventually finished him with a combination that forced the ref to put an end to the proceedings at 2:04 of the sixth.

The championship match brought fans to their feet. Singh, the Canadian Middleweight Champion, dropped his opponent Lonescu with a straight right to the body in the first for an eight-count, but bobbed and weaved looking for a KO for most of the next seven rounds while Lonescu – a dangerous fighter gathered confidence and counterpunched effectively.

The audience grew restless, cat-calling, and jeering Lonescu, and Singh continued to press and landed some hard shots that hurt Lonescu in the ninth and tenth rounds. Singh won by unanimous decision to push his record to 14-0.

What a night, and don’t you worry boxing fans; the next United Boxing card will be held at the Brampton arena February 25^th with unbeaten fighters Josh Wagner (Orangeville) and Joshua Frazer (Brampton) as co-headliners.