By Brian Gorman

A joint celebration of Youngstown and Cleveland boxing broke out before a full room at the St. Lucy's Banquet Center in Campbell, Ohio, just outside of Youngstown, and local favorites Jake "the Bull" Giuriceo (11-0-1, 3 KOs) and Miguel "Silky Smooth" Gonzalez (17-2, 13 KOs) each gave their fans what they wanted by shutting out game opponents.

In the main event, hometown crowd pleaser Giuriceo, supported by his new mentor Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini and other Youngstown notables such as Harry Arroyo, Jeff Lampkin, trainer Jack Loew and current lightweight prospect Dannie Williams, applied that familiar relentless pressure on late sub Dedrick Bell (6-8, 4 KOs) to earn 60-54 scores over six rounds on all three judges' cards.

With seemingly improved speed, shorter punches and excellent conditioning, Giuriceo stalked Bell for the entire fight, appearing to average 100 punches per round.  He settled into a pattern of trapping Bell on the ropes and mixing up body and head work, then avoiding Bell's return fire, as the Memphis fighter came out of a shell and loaded up on counter shots.

Bell came in at the last minute to replace Pittsburgh's "Lightning" Rod Salka (12-1, 3 KOs) in an anticipated regional showdown due to Salka becoming a medical scratch this week, with ongoing testing to determine the nature of Salka's medical problem.

Bell was well-conditioned and game, as was Christopher Fernandez (19-13-1, 12 KOs) in the co-feature against Cleveland's Gonzalez, but "Silky Smooth" lived up to his nickname and dropped the Salt Lake City veteran twice over ten rounds to deservedly outpoint Fernandez 100-87 on all three cards.

With Cleveland welterweight contender Shawn Porter supporting at ringside, Gonzalez wisely took what Fernandez gave him, asserting himself when the opportunity presented, including on a third round knockdown on a left hook to the body and one in the eighth on a three punch combination.

On the undercard:

Cleveland middleweight (160 lb.) Wilkins Santiago (3-0, 1 KO) swept four rounds against Columbus' Russ Niggemyer (2-2, 2 KOs), setting the tone in the opening round by getting inside and landing heavy combinations, forcing Niggemyer to survive after more of the same for the next three rounds.

Toledo light heavyweight (175 lb.) Damar Singleton (8-0, 4 KOs) benefited from a hometown majority decision of 39-37 (twice) and 38-38 over Memphis' Grover Young (5-2, 2 KOs) in a four round bout where Young minimally won two rounds.  The first two rounds were competitive and perhaps edged Singleton's way with body work and by splitting Young's guard, but Young clearly should have been awarded the last two rounds.

Scores were also off in the opening bout, as two judges awarded Cleveland lightweight (135 lb.) Derrick Moss (1-0) received scores of 40-36 (twice) and 39-37 in a contest closer to a draw than a shutout due to Crabtree's awkard, free-swinging style causing Moss problems.