By Bruno Gumpka, ringside

Salomon Beccera’s Rough House Promotions Fight Night on October 9th in Green Bay was certainly an ambitious undertaking with a total of 13 bouts. What was unfortunate was the fact that the effort put into creating this event didn’t have more focus on quality Vs. quantity as almost every single bout ended in the first round.

Lightweight Muhammad Adam TKO’d hapless Devon Sipes in just over a minute, both men from Michigan. Brian Mendoza of Albuquerque, NM went to 9-0 as he needed just over a minute to stop Antoine Elerson of Milwaukee who fell to 2-14 in a Welterweight bout. Super Welterweight Ernest Muhammad Jr. kept his record perfect and is now 3-1 stopping Norman McGinn of Battle Creek who maintained his perfect 0-5 record in, you guessed it, just over a minute. I was starting to suspect that former Coloradan Woody Kislowski’s refereeing might have been at fault but nope, when Jeff Nass took over in the ring, the same trend continued.

In a Super Welterweight bout, Chicago’s Vernon Demitrius Brown needed (yup) just over a minute to stop Chris Taylor of Milwaukee followed by Featherweight Joshua Greer Jr. whacking out Nicholas Brand of Battle Creek, MI in a bout that went shockingly close to 2 minutes. 12-0 Ed Brown from Chicago kept it up with a 1 round stoppage of Michael Pickett of South Bend, IN in another Welterweight affair. In Featherweight action, Stephon McIntyre of Jonesboro, GA bucked the trend and gave Raeese Aleem of Muskegon, MI all that he could handle (compared to the other bouts so far) when he went slightly over 3 rounds before Referee Nass had seen enough in round 4. Aleem goes to 8-0 with McIntyre falling to 2-14-2.

Chicago Heavyweight Nicholas Mazurek improved to 2-0 with a one-punch knockout of Tommonte Jefferson of Milwaukee. The one-punch part sounds more impressive than it actually was as it was not only the only punch thrown in the “fight” but it glanced off of Jefferson’s shoulder by all appearances. Despite his performance, Jefferson was considered brave by the crowd; brave in his willingness to remove his shirt in public as he sported a pair of, well, let’s just say that there were numerous catcalls from the crowd about his extreme need for a support device described on an old Seinfeld episode as a “Bro” or “Manzierre”.

Cruiserweight Albert Harkins of Battle Creek, MI increased his loss total to 12 against a single win when he fell in 1 to Nathan Howard of Tennessee who improved his record to 9-0. Howard, a murderous puncher, would do well to step up the level of his competition so we can see whether he is for real or not. Tomas Trevino of Green Bay whacked out Joshua Conger also of Green Bay in, you guessed it, 1 round.

Dale Bennett from Green Bay roared out of his corner and literally leaped at Rudy Paine of Milwaukee who grabbed him in mid-air and body slammed him. Deciding that there was no point (pun intended) in a deduction from both fighters, the referee instead called time and spoke sternly to both men, warning them that the next such action would result in a disqualification. The boxers settled into a back and forth battle whaling away at each other. Mr. Paine, apparently trying to fill a dual role as both boxer and referee, continually advised Woody Kislowski that, “he’s holding me”, “that was low”, “he hit on the break” prompting a very loud, “you fight, I Ref” response from the official which brought laughter from the crowd. In the 4th (!) round Paine was being pummeled and turned his head to once again instruct Kislowski about Dale’s actions when he took a punch to the throat causing a stoppage. All previous levity went out the window immediately as Paine was down for several minutes and in serious distress while the Doctor worked on him and he was eventually taken to the hospital on a stretcher.

The very experienced Super Welterweight “Indiana Boy” was driven to the mat 3 times by body shots, the last one leaving him howling in pain from local Oneida favorite, Daniel Denny who improved to 5-0.

In the final bout of the evening, Potawatomie favorite, “The Chosen One” Ricky Smith was battered and quit on his stool after the 4th round of a scheduled 5 by Middleweight Kelin Sharp, who apparently failed to read the script and improved to 4-1. Both Mr. Smith and his corner exhibited very poor sportsmanship, cursing and shouting at Referee Jeff Nass and accusing him of favoring the boxer from Joliet, IL with one of the corner men actually throwing Smith’s mouthpiece at Nass. The win by Sharp was the only one of the night from the red corner…