By Tyler Horton, various undercard results by Larry Tornambe

With the possibility of a future World Title shot on the horizon as well as a late switch in opponents, you could only wonder if Koba Gogoladze was taking his opponent Fred Neal lightly as he approached their Friday Night NABO Junior Lightweight Title encounter in Dover Delaware. No such problem would occur as Koba would weather the storm of a game Neal and show some impressive power en route to a 9th round TKO Victory Friday night in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Rollins Center at Dover Downs Slots.

The fight opened up with Koba boxing impressively. He established his early dominance behind a strong right jab in round one and followed his jab with good bodywork and slick movement that confounded Neal. Neal would land one good right hand in the round, but it was nowhere near enough to carry the stanza.

The same pattern of dominance would continue for Gogoladze in rounds two through four as he worked behind his crisp right jab to keep Neal from mounting any real offense. The only break Neal caught in the first four rounds was a low blow in round three that gave him about two minutes to recover from Koba’s onslaught. Round five would begin to show though that Neal was here to fight and not roll over to become an easy victory on Koba’s record

In Round number 5, Gogoladze came out like a man ready to end the evening early. With his Georgian cheering section banging the bongo drums and chanting his name in the stands,  He put Neal on the backfoot almost immediately with his jab and the jumped on him with a series of combination shots to the head and body. For the first minute and a half of the round Koba swarmed his man, firing off non stop combinations, just looking to put his man away as he tagged him cleanly with shot after unanswered shot. He did not finish off Neal in this barrage though and was clearly exhausted mid way through the stanza.

Neal began to capitalize and he would stun Koba with a right hand at the one minute mark of the round. In what would be a summary of his effort for the majority of the evening though, Fred could not capitalize with anything more than one punch at a time and he let Koba get through the 5th without any more damage taken.

Round 6 and seven gave Neal’s fans in attendance some hope that he might be able to pull off the upset this evening. In round 6 Koba had a point deducted for a 2nd low blow on Neal and this actually seemed to spark Fred’s best effort of the evening. Neal would catch Gogoladze with a clean right hand that clearly stunned Koba about 1:30 into the round.

Koba would be in survival mode for the rest of the round as Neal was able to follow up his attack this time around, landing some booming left-hand shots that had Koba troubled and thankful that he made it to the bell in round 6 without tasting the canvas. With the majority of the crowd now behind the underdog Neal, he came out early in round number 7 throwing big left-hand shots that troubled Gogodlaze. Neal was still only able to land one shot at a time though and this allowed Koba to shake off the cobwebs he had from a rough round 6 and start to reestablish himself as the better fighter.

In round eight the beginning of the end would start for  Neal. Koba came out rejuvenated to start the 8th round and worked Neal’s body and head well again behind his strong right jab. Neal tried gamely to stay in the bout but could not keep up with Gogoladze’s increased pace and looked tired at the end of the round.

Round nine would be the end for Neal. He came out and threw three solid shots to begin the round, but after that would be on the receiving end of Koba’s sharp left hook. About a minute into round nine, Koba dropped Neal with a beautiful  hook and from there it was like a shark to blood in terms of Gogoladze’s attack. Koba immediately pounced on Neal after the initial knockdown, smothering him with head and body shot combinations.

He would drop Fred again with a body shot and Neal was almost out at this point. One more restart would occur and Koba landed three big hooks to Neal’s head that would leave him stunned in the referee’s arms and the fight waved off at 2:34 of the 9th round

When asked about how he rated his performance after the bout, Koba (with the translation assistance of manager Jim Williams) said he felt that this showing was an improvement over his previous bout( a unanimous decision victory over Tyrone Harris in May).  When asked if he had really had to switch game plans for the unknown Neal after his original opponent Daniel Attah had pulled out, Koba replied “ No, not really. Both fighters were known for their strength.  The only difference was that Attah was a southpaw. Neal was bit stronger even than I had expected though.”

When the topic came up of future plans, Williams said that Koba’s next bout looks to be against the winner of the September 16th showdown between WBO 130 lb. Champion Jorge barrios and power punching Domninican Sensation Joan Guzman. When asked about which fighter he would prefer to face, Koba immediately said “Barrios.” If all goes well for Jorge on September 16th, The “Cobra” from the Republic of Georgia will get his opportunity to strike for World Title laurels soon.

The undercard action on the card had some very entertaining matchups as well.  The main supporting  bout featured undefeated Buddy Mcgirt trained prospect Juliano Ramos taking on Jonathan Tubbs. Ramos left the building this evening no longer sporting an undefeated record as he ended up on the wrong end of a Majority Decision loss to Tubbs by the scores of 58-56,59-54 and 57-57. The key to this bout was Tubbs landing the cleaner blows throughout the fight although Ramos seemed busier overall activity wise.  

Hometown Dover hero Tony Caldwell couldn’t take advantage of his local support as he was stopped by veteran Doel Carrasquillo 2 minutes and 41 seconds into round two. Caldwell never really got into this bout as Doel controlled round one by working behind an effective body attack. This attack would lead to Caldwell dropping his hands midway into round two and Doel firing off left hooks that would leave Caldwell dazed and saved by the ref at the time of the stoppage.

Other results included Joshua Snyder stopping Phil Hicklin in round one via KO and Ron Boyd defeating James Franks via TKO at 2:04 of round three in the two walk out bouts of the evening.

Richard Stewart had a draw and a close loss over the past month, so it looked like the 8-2-1 light heavyweight might be in easy against the 0-7 Cameron Bright.  Stewart, with the local and vocal following was emotionally hinder by the death of one of his closest friends the day before the bout, started with a pressure jab in the opening heat.  However, Bright was not there to be a target had a better 2nd stanza, by leaning against the lighter Stewart and bulldozing him to the ropes.  Stewart fought off the ropes, but not with a high volume output until a quick counter right landed on Rick’s jaw.  Stewart put some urgency in his offense and ended up with a 40-36 win from all three judges.  Stewart, 178 lbs, improves to 9-2-1.

 

Ryan Belasco “blew that fight” against Linwood Hurd.  Both boxers were undefeated and they stayed that way with a majority draw.  Hurd seemed to come on stronger in the last half of the 4-round lightweight scrap.  Although one judge had it 39-37 for Hurd, the other two judges agreed with 38-38 scores.  I thought Belasco hurt his right hand because he only threw it three times in the final two heats and nothing came behind it.  Belasco later told BoxingScene that he “had a cold this week and ran out of gas.”