Corey Webster, Brian Irr among other local winners Saturday night at raucous Lockport Kenan Arena.
By John D’Onofrio
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
LOCKPORT — Lockport’s Amer Abdallah ascended to the top of the national kickboxing world on Saturday night with a much-deserved, eight-round unanimous-decision win over Francois Ambang at the rocking, raucous Kenan Center Arena.
A raucous crowd estimated as high as 2,500 packed the Kenan to witness the World Kickboxing Association light heavyweight championship fight — the city’s first-ever professional title fight.
With legendary local fighters on hand that included “Baby Joe” Mesi, Tommy Hicks and Tony Ventura, Abdallah improved to 11-0 in his career with a close, hard-fought win over the equally-impressive Cameroon-native Ambang.
“He was by far the toughest opponent I’ve ever faced,” said Abdallah. “I’m a little banged up and a little sore, but the fight went exactly as we planned.”
‘He’s 10 years younger than me and he’s fought all over the world. He’s also got the highest knockout percentage in the division. Europe, Africa — he’s the real deal. There was never any trash talking between us before, during or after the fight. He’s a world class fighter and we just gave him a world class butt kicking in Lockport.”
After an inactive first few rounds that had both fighters trying to figure out the other, Abdallaah opened things up in the middle rounds and started landing punches and his trademark powerful leg kicks in combinations.
“He was strong and durable, but when I started landing body shots, his hands started coming down in middle rounds,” Abdallah said.
“He hit me with a good punch in the second round. I could feel that he had a lot of power. I tried to beat him to the punch and keep him off-balance by constantly moving.”
The rounds were all close except for the fifth, in which Abdallah dominated thoroughly and came close to knocking Ambang out.
Abdallah, 32, said the WKA will mandate who the next No. 1 contender in the division will be and it’s likely he will fight that person sometime next spring. Ambang entered the ring Saturday as the No. 1 contender for the vacant crown and Abdallah was No. 2.
Meanwhile, local fighters Brian Irr and Corey Webster gave the partisan crowd plenty to cheer about with their impressive professional victories.
Irr, 23, posted a one-sided third round technical knockout win over Rochester’s Jarrett McBride. The lanky Newfane native Irr used his height to his advantage and dominated thoroughly.
A right hand felled McBride in the first round, then a spinning leg kick dropped McBride in the second and he was finally saved by the bell.
The third round was all Irr again, who pounded McBride into submission before the referee stopped the fight with 1:01 left in the third.
“I felt like I was control,” said Irr, who is a veteran of numerous national and international martial arts competitions.
“I think I was a lot more patient in this fight than I was in my first pro fight,” Irr said. “The last time, I let the guy bull rush me. This time, I made sure to keep my distance.”
Irr (2-0) said his future plans are up in the air. “We’ll see. I’m just going to take things one day at a time,” Irr added.
Webster made a successful transition from amateur to pro with his second-round technical knockout win over Majhid Reassi (2-2) of Ontario, Canada.
Webster was a tank, compact, aggressive and powerful, throughout, scoring a standing eight count on Reassi in the first round, then finishing him off with rights and lefts to the head in the second.
The fight was stopped at 2:55 of the second.
“I’m so proud of Brian and Corey. They’re the next generation of Lace Up Promotion and Lockport prize fighters,” Abdallah said.
“Corey took care of a kid who was a seasoned professional. Keep an eye on him. I think he’s going to be Lockport’s next shining star.
“In his second pro fight, Brian fought a kid with 10 professional fights. He showed huge improvement from his first fight and I think a lot of that had to do with the excellent coaching he gets from Eric Hill.”
In other fights involving local fighters, Lockport’s Oliver Kimmons (1-3) lost to Tonawanda’s Eric Herbert (3-1) in a professional heavyweight kickboxing match. Herbert landed a good right hand and the referee stopped the fight at 2:52 of the first round.
Anthony Winfrey of Cleveland scored a second round technical knockout win over Lockport’s Kyle Gibas in a heavyweight bout.
Two lefts by Winfrey forced a standing eight count in the first. A right hand knocked Gibas down again, then in the second, a Winfrey flurry forced another eight count, before the referee stopped the fight with 1:18 to go in the second.
Buffalo’s Jay Bauman scored an impressive third round TKO win over Dillon Clark of Ontario in their middleweight bout.
Rounding out the 10-fight card, featherwight Miguel Desus of Cleveland earned a decision win over Armand Mushkelani of Ontario, Liverpool’s Leith Ashkar earned a majority decision win over Macho Garcia of Cleveland in their lightweight amateur bout, super middleweight Josh Fitzsimmons earned a second round TKO win over Sean Connor of Dunkirk and in one of the best bouts of the night, light heavyweight amateurs James Strawder of Dunkirk and Brandon Hunter of Ontario battled to a deserving draw.
NOTES: The ring announcer was Lockport’s mild-mannered Miles Patterson. Many thanks to Lizz Bouchard and Gina Nowak … Dressed to the hilt were smiling ring ladies Nadine Jones, Nicole Carcione and Marissa Carcione … Taping the event for rebroadcast was Lockport Community Television with ring announcers Jim Slowey, the vampire Danny Sheehan, Bo Bilicki and former professional boxing light heavyweight contender Tommy “The Fighting School Teacher” Hicks of Newfane.
