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Litzau and Julio Victorious

By Danny Serratelli, ringside

Last night, Main Events presented a great card to the fans at the sold-out Schuetzen Park in North Bergen, NJ. It was a night where a couple of hometown favorites were upset on the undercard, however, both of Main Events featured fighters, Jason Litzau and Joel Julio were victorious.

In the main event of the evening undefeated featherweight prospect Jason Litzau (16-0, 14KO's) took on Miguel Munguia (15-5-1, 13KO's). Litzau was taken the distance in a solid performance. He was the aggressor all night, and while neither fighter ever appeared to be hurt Litzau dominated the action with his aggression and by staying busy from beginning to end. Munguia was game, but out-gunned and in the end the scorecards read 99-90 and 99-91 twice all in favor of the undefeated Litzau.

In the co-feature, Joel Julio, 24-0 (21 KO's), the undefeated welterweight from Monteria, Colombia who is trained by Buddy McGirt, advanced his record to 25-0 via 4th round TKO over Hicklet Lau after the second knockdown in round four. Julio continued to impress with his performance. His opponent Lau, has been in there with some good fighters, and usually performs better and lasts longer. He had been the distance with Kofi Jantuah in his last fight and has lasted the distance in all of his fights with top notch opponents with the exception of this fight with Julio and with Kermit Cintron who stopped him in 9.

In a puzzling light-heavyweight fight, up-and-coming Wayne Johnson, 9-1, 5 KO's was handed his first defeat by a questionable majority decision. In a difficult fight to score, Johnson was the aggressor, but had a tough time getting to Detroit's Joe Hill, who improved his record to a 4-2, 2 KO's. Hill, who has fought all of his fights as a heavyweight or cruiserweight, apparently dropped 20 pounds for this fight. Johnson, who I spoke to prior to the fight, had no idea that Hill was a southpaw and well over 6 feet tall. Hill slapped his right jab and held whenever Johnson got into range. Johnson, who just returned from Jermain Taylor's training camp, pursued the much taller and awkward Hill but neither fighter was able to land much. They say it's tough, almost impossible to come to another guy's backyard and win a close fight….well they are wrong in this case. In close rounds where no one is landing any good leather, the aggressor will often get the round, especially if he is the home fighter….not the case here. Johnson was the aggressor, but in this case slapping and holding on the road translated into a W. Hill was awarded a majority decision with the scorecards reading 57-57, 59-55, and 58-56.

In the welterweight division, Henry Crawford 8-0-1, 3 KO's impressively stopped Tony Grygelko 5-2, 3 KO's at 1:58 of round number 1. Crawford was impressive in a fight that didn't last very long. In the end Crawford's speed and the right hand made it a short night for Grygelko.

Light-Heavyweight Edward Hemphill of Washington. D.C., 3-1, 1 KO won by unanimous decision over local favorite Bobby Rooney 5-2, 3 KO's of Bayonne, New Jersey. There was some good action in the fight, and both fighters had their moments, but in the end the judges all had it the same 39-37 for Hemphill.

Opening the card Junior Lightweight Danny McDermott 3-0-1, 1 KO of Jersey City, New Jersey and Edward Valdez 2-3-2 1 KO of New York, New York fought to a four round draw. On the cards, one judge had it 39-37 for Valdez, while the other two had it even 38-38, for the majority draw.