Former New England middleweight champion Kendrick “Peppa” Ball, Jr. (16-1-2, 11 KOs) won an eight round unanimous decision over veteran Bryan “The Warrior” Vera (28-17, 18 KOs) on the evening portion of Saturday’s “Crossroads” day-night doubleheader at New England Sports Center in Derry, New Hampshire. Scores were 79-73, 79-73, 78-74 as Ball became the WBC USNBC United States Silver super middleweight champion. Overall 18 fights took place during the day/night boxing marathon.
A new record was set during this event according to Greg Sirb, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission. He pointed out that the shows included the most boxers on a card that were also on the ABC Watch List (10). The ten fighters went 0-10, with nine losing by KO.
What the hell is the ABC Watch list?
I think it’s a list of fighters who have are deemed ‘at risk’. They have really bad records or are on really bad streaks and have been knocked out several times. For example, on this particular card, Chris Traietti, who was also the promoter of the event, is a fighter with a 29-4 record and he fought Kevin Brown who was 2-13 and had lost his previous 5 fights (including his last fight to a fighter who was 0-5), being knocked out in 4 of them. Unsurprisingly, Traietti won by ko. They had a guy who was 10-1 against a 7-55-2 fighter and another one involving a 16-5-2 fighter versus one with a record of 2-43-1 who had been knocked out 33 times. And that same fighter with 43 losses won his first 2 fights, so he’s gone winless in 44 fights and hasn’t won in 15 years.
Sometimes those bad-record opponent types can fight. In one of the bouts on this card that looked like a horrible mismatch on paper, Leonardo Ladeira (0-6) managed to lose by decision and score a knockdown against Anthony Lenk (17-7).
On a recent thread about Edgar Berlanga on fightnews, one poster wrote that Berlanga should step his level of competition up and fight Bryan Vera. I think he was being serious.
Look up other cards held in New Hampshire in the past. Their commission is a total joke.
When a fighter with a good record comes from a certain region of the country, or world for that matter, you have to look at it with a jaundiced eye. See how they really built up that good record. Fighters from Tennessee, Oklahoma, Midwest, and I would put New England on that list. New England has produced many a great fighter over the years, but they also have that bum circuit going too. This card is a prime example.
Might have set a record for the longest name of a title.