By John DiSanto at ringside
In the final off-tv fight at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, middleweight Meriirim Nursultanov, 8-0, 7 KOs, Kazakhstan, stopped Jonathan Batista, 17-15, 10 KOs, after the completion of the second round. Nursultanov dropped Batista in round two, but the Dominican survived the round. However, when Batista returned to his corner, his team asked referee Eddie Claudio to stop the bout. The time was 3:00 of the second.
Philly lightweight Karl Dargan, 18-1, 9 KOs, returned to the ring after a layoff of more than three years to pitch a six round shutout over Jonathan Perez of Colombia, 37-22, 29 KOs. Dargan won by three scores of 60-54.
In a brutal junior middleweight bout scheduled for eight rounds, Brooklyn’s Frank Galarza, 20-2-2, 12 KOs, dropped Brazilian Alex Duarte, 13-6-1, 10 KOs, twice with vicious shots to the body. Duarte made it to his feet the first time, after he was floored with a hard right to the stomach. But he took the full ten count from referee Eddie Claudio when Galarza cracked him with a left hook to the body moments later. The time was 1:57 of round two.
Russian junior middleweight Bakhram Murtazaliev, 13-0, 11 KOs, remained undefeated and defended his Interim IBA International belt, making short work of Mexican Fernando Caracamo, 23-9, 18 KOs. Murtazaliev jumped right on Caracamo and staggered him with an assortment of power shots. Finally a right hand put the Mexican on the canvas, and he failed to beat the ten count of referee Eddie Claudio. The time was 41 seconds of the first round.
Junior middleweight Madiyar Ashkeyev of Kazakhstan, 10-0, 6 KOs, scored a 4th round TKO over Eduardo Flores of Ecuador, 26-30-4, 15 KOs. Ashkeyev pounded away at his opponent from the opening bell and appeared on the brink of a stoppage more than once. However, Flores prolonged the finish by spitting out his mouthpiece a total of four times in the bout. He lost a point for the tactic in the third. After Flores spit his mouthpiece out in round four, the referee halted the bout, calling it a TKO. The time was 50 seconds of the fourth.
Middleweight Denis Douglin, 21-6, 13 KOs, won a lopsided unanimous decision over Vaughn Alexander, 12-1, 8 KOs in their ten rounder. The scores were 100-90 and 99-91 twice, all for Douglin.
In a 6-round welterweight bout, LA-based Georgian Enriko Gogokhia remained undefeated, 5-0, 3 KOs, with a shutout points victory over Colombian Ronald Montes, 18-10, 16 KOs. All three scores were 60-54 for Gogokhia.
In the opening bout, Bronx junior middleweight Ismael Villarreal, 3-0, defeated Philadelphian Kieran Hooks, 3-1-1, 1 KO, by unanimous decision over four rounds. All three scores were 39-37.