Wednesday night, the amateurs took center stage at St. Lucy’s in Campbell for the Bob Roth Memorial Boxing Tournament.  Jack Loew has put a lot of time and effort into the show as a tribute to Roth.  The card was very entertaining and featured the emergence of Popo Salinas as maybe the next big thing for Youngstown sports notoriety nationally.  In front of a good crowd, there were nine other bouts besides the Salinas Main Event that deserve mention.

In the opening bout, Keith Bebbs of Youngstown squared off against Delorane Gray of Cleveland in a battle of 152-pounders.  Gray caught Bebbs in both the first and second rounds with short hooks that floored Bebbs.  After a standing eight count later in the second, the fight was stopped and Gray was declared the winner via TKO.

The next fight featured a pair of 175-pound fighters. Laquan Brooks of Youngstown and Josh Fisher, who represented Columbus.  Fisher caught Brooks in the second round with a sharp right.  Brooks never full recovered and tried to continue, but after a standing eight count, the referee made a good decision and stopped the one-sided fight from continuing.  Fisher picks up the win with a second round TKO.

Lavell Headley of Youngstown faced Ron Hicks of Cleveland in a 155-pound contest.  Near the end of the first round, Hadley knocked Hicks down, but the bell rang and he did not have time to finish.  Hadley again floored Hicks in the second round, this time he did have clock to work with as he unloaded a barrage of offense until the ref stopped the fight.

In surprisingly one of the best technical fights of the night, Carrie Foil, fighting out of Loew’s Southside Boxing Club lost a three round decision to Christy Lacy of Cleveland (above).  It was classic cat and mouse boxing as Foil was using good footwork to avoid taking too many punches.  Lacy did most of the chasing, and probably landed a few more punches on her way to victory.  Foil used a nice jab, especially in the third round, but the more experienced Lacy hit a few combinations to get the nod.

The most entertaining fight of the night was a 152-pound contest between Kewan Griffin of Youngstown and Anthony Blane of Columbus.  Both fighters emerged from their corners swinging.  Midway through the opening round, a charging Griffin was given a WWE back-body drop (top photo) and Blane had a point deducted.  Griffin was the better fighter in the first round.  However, in the second round, Griffin landed a couple of haymakers, scored a couple of knockdowns, and left no doubt who the winner was.

Vic Toney representing Youngstown, and Russell Scott of Cleveland had a good fight at 165.  Both fighters were pretty technically sound and seemed to have split the first two rounds (that of course through my eyes, and I am not a boxing judge).  Toney used a couple of big flurries in the third and final round to pick up the decision.

In other fights, Ali-Abu Gouman of Youngstown lost a decision to Romeo Rodriguez in a 60-pound, battle of young four-footers. Mike Fisher of Columbus fell to AJ Materna via decision in a 180-pound match.  Lucian Clinkscale of Youngstown challenged Romeo Hernandez of Cleveland.  Hernandez separated himself on his way to a decision victory when he sent Scott to the canvas with a solid body blow that drew an eight count.

Loew saw the show as a tribute to a friend, and a success.  “Bob Roth was the type of guy that bugged the hell out of the sports people about boxing.  He kept it going.  We were good friends, and it is the least I could do for a guy like that.  It was a good crowd.  People might look around tonight and say that it wasn’t as crowded as the Saxon Club in years past, but here we set up 520 chairs and it was quite full, we could only set 300 chairs up at the Saxon Club.”