By Richard Najdowski

Cicero’s own Adrian Granados lived up to his top billing in the “Crosstown Rivals” fight card. The local favorite scored a 5th round stoppage over Chicago rival Antonio Canas in their main event Friday evening at Cicero (IL) Stadium.  

The official time was 2:36 of the 5th round.  

From the opening bell, there was give and take, back and forth action from both these junior welterweights. Antonio Canas probably knew before the fight started that he would be at a decided disadvantage fighting from the outside, so he did his part to make the fight a trench war.  

Granados, in turn, possibly could have won a landslide victory by keeping on his feet and fighting from the outside.  But he, too, seemed pleased to have a war break out, at least for the first two rounds, where he sat against the ropes and traded bombs with Canas.

Rounds one and two were near carbon copies of each other.  Canas bullied his way to the inside, where he was effective. In close, Canas landed his share of head and body shots.  He even mixed in a multiple punch shoe-shining of Granados’s body in round one.  The unbeaten Chicagoan also took a fair share of hard, accurate shots from Granados in close.  

When the fight was fought at a distance, the disparity in boxing ability was evident.  Canas showed no jab to speak of, and Granados demonstrated a hard jab that set up crisp power shots.  Because so much time was spent fighting in close, it’s conceivable that the match was even after two rounds. Scorecards didn’t prove relevant, as Granados took over the fight from that point onward.

In round three, Granados listened to his corner’s instructions to stay off the ropes. When he was not on the ropes, he was controlling the action in the center of the ring. Granados showed good movement. More importantly, he showcased hard, accurate punching.  Granados appeared to stun Canas with a left hook with under a minute to go in the third.  In the follow-up exchange, both fighters traded hard leather.

Canas spent the entire fourth round appearing to be a punch or two away from being knocked down or knocked out.  Nonetheless, he remained on his feet. Granados used Canas’s head and body for target practice in a thoroughly one-sided round in a fight that was growing more one-sided by the moment.

Round five picked up where the previous action left off. At one point, I counted close to 10 unanswered punches landed on Canas.  Many of the shots were clean, hard punches. Canas staged one last offensive mugging attempt, after which Granados continued to land hard, damaging shots.  

The ref recognized that Canas was no longer able to properly defend himself. Despite never going down, Canas was saved from taking further punishment by the third man. 

With the win, Granados moves to 11-2-1 (7 KO); Canas suffers his first loss, falling to 6-1-1 (3KO).

UNDERCARD
  
In the evening’s chief support, local super middleweight Paul Littleton 6-0-1 (4KO) won a six-round unanimous decision over Missouri’s Jordan Brown 3-1 (1KO). Scores of 60-52, 59-55, and 59-54 seemed in alignment with the action that took place.  

Littleton worked behind his jab and landed frequently. He also took his fair share of punches. But where he showed some defense and the ability to avoid being hit, Brown did not bring that necessary aspect into the ring.  It was evident from early on that Brown would not be going anywhere - he almost seemed to enjoy being hit.  Littleton adapted and did what he had to do to come away unscathed in a distance victory.

Local cruiserweight Junior Wright 5-0 (5KO) looked impressive in scoring a 2nd round TKO of overmatched Nick Reeder (3-1-1). Wright came out working behind a high guard, where he was effective.  It didn’t take long before he’d felt Breeder’s power, whereby he dropped his guard and became more offensive, mixing in hooks, body shots, and uppercuts.  He did not take much punishment in return.

In between rounds, Wright, 26, looked fresh, while Breeder looked like he wished he could take a nap.  Once the bell sounded, he refused to go to sleep, despite being sent to the canvas twice in the first 45 seconds of round two.  He also did not offer anything remotely offensive in return.  The ref saw enough and stopped the fight at 1:30 in round two.

In the evening opening bout, Chicago’s Ed Brown, 1-0 (1KO), made his pro debut at welterweight against game but overmatched Dontre King 6-14-2 (2KO). Most of the fight was fought at a distance between the southpaw Brown and the orthodox King. About two minutes into the 1st round, Brown hurt King and then dropped him with a follow-up attack. King would stay down for the count.  Official time of the stoppage was 2:26 of round one.

“Windy City Fight Night 23” was presented by 8 Count Productions.