On May 30th the Danbury Arena played host to its first fight night. Local boxing manager, and now promoter, AJ Galante promised a lot of action and overall the night delivered on the promise.
While the super-hyped prize fights like Mayweather versus Pacquiao are loosing viewers to other sports like MMA, this event brought boxing back to it’s raw, real roots. The eight bout fight card featured many up and coming Connecticut fighters, hungry to prove themselves in the ring.
AJ said how he got into boxing as a manager was a total fluke, but once in, he was hooked. Two years in the making, this was the first event organized by Galante’s business Prize Promotions.
Here’s how the night played out:
In the junior welterweight match, Jair Ramos of Waterbury won by unanimous decision over Osnel Charles of Atlantic City, NJ.
Former University of New Haven basketball star, heavyweight Cassius Chaney of New London won a four round unanimous decision over Rubin Ortiz of East Providence, RI.
Despite an action-packed fight, lightweight Oscar Bonilla of Bridgeport lost in a four-round unanimous decision to Andrew Bentley of Jersey City, NJ.
It was a draw in the six-round junior middleweight bout of Rich Neves of NYC and Gilbert Alex Sanchez of Camden, NJ.
Super lightweight Wellington Romero of Newburgh, NY won in a split decision over Evincii Dixon of Lancaster, PA.
Featherweight John Crespo of New Haven came out swinging and won by technical knockout against Edgar Cortes of Vineland, NJ.
Super bantamweight Nate Green of New Haven remained undefeated with a win by unanimous decision over Timur Shailezov of Philadelphia, PA.
In the main event, featherweight Tramaine Williams of New Haven remained undefeated, winning by technical knock-out in the sixth round over Josh Bowles of Harrisburg, PA.
AJ believes that this could be the start of something big. “Danbury is an event town,” he said. “If you do it right, the people will support it.”
With nearly 2,000 fans filling the transformed ice hockey arena, it seems like Danbury is ready for this kind of action. In fact, this was my first time seeing a boxing match in person. “It’s something you have to see live to appreciate, “ added AJ. I cannot disagree.
