By Williams Potter

Columbia, South Carolina-based Palmetto Boxing Promotions put on an exciting card at the Township Auditorium. Chris Fitzpatrick and Mark Anderson were the highlights of the show with dominating knockouts and Joseph Rabotte upsets Taurus Sykes.

Mark Anderson TKO 4 Travis White (Super Middleweight)

          

Mark Anderson made is pro debut at super middleweight against Travis White and got a thoroughly dominating knockout. Anderson, who came in a 166lbs vs Travis White 166.5lbs ,clearly was better conditioned in this fight as Travis White had the appearance of a light heavyweight. It showed in the fight as White appeared to be weight-drained and sluggish.  They split the first two rounds of a scheduled four rounder but Anderson began to annihilate White midway through the third round and score four knockdowns in the fight when it was stopped in the fourth round. Many people thought the fight should been stopped earlier as White appeared to be a walking mannequin unable to defend himself from the relentless barrage of power shots from Anderson. Anderson appeared to be the best of the debuting crop of prospects that promoter Andrew Stokes put on the show.

Gilbert Jacobs MD 6 Pete Yates (light heavyweight)

The fifty-seven year old Gilbert Jacobs fought tough chinned Pete Yates to a methodical six round majority decision to improve to 2-0. Yate's unorthodox boxing skills were no match for Jacobs clean jabs and forced Yates to throw sloppy and wide hooks to try and land anything on Jacobs.

Joseph Rabotte (9-14) split decision win over Taurus Sykes (25-6, 7KOs) 

Sykes has fought a whos who of top 10 heavyweights for the past five years ( Alexander Povetkin, Sam Peter, Hasim Rahman), but he was in seemingly poor condition for the eight round fight against Rabotte. Sykes ability to use the left jab especially when Rabotte tried to get inside was not utilized enough in the fight. Rabottes abililty to use quick combinations on the inside and near the end or the round allowed him to steal several rounds. They had to be pulled apart after the eight round as Sykes was frustrated and might have felt he would lose the fight. Rabotte won the UNBC Americas heavyweight Title although the score card of 79-71 for Rabotte may have been too much as this writer thought Rabotte won by two to three rounds.

Chris Fitzpatrick KO2 Jemar Sanders

Chris Fitzpatrick (12-0, 5KOs) whose weight has fluctuated throughout his career seems to have found his weight class at middleweight. He took on a game opponent in Jemar Sanders who was able to capitalize on Fitzpatrick's predictable upper body movement in the first round. In the second round Fitzpatrick made some major adjustments and increased his punch output by 20-30 punches from the previous round. His tremendous body attack usually landed flush to the body of Sanders while Sanders who did not pick his shot would keep attacking Fitzpatrick's body even when he was doing a great job of using his arms to protect his body. With a minute to go Fitzpatrick seemed to outclass  Sanders and put together a beautiful flurry against him in the corner towards the end of the second round, and that was the demise of Sanders. Fitzpatrick threw a right hook to the body followed by two left hooks to the body and a left hook to the head that left Sanders gasping for air and the referee with no choice but to stop the fight.

Also fighting:

Maurice Jeter TKO1 Michael Whitaker(junior welterweight)

Broderick Antoine UD Jamar Sanders (junior welterweight)