By Gary “Digital” Williams at ringside
Photos: Mike Greenhill

For her first time competing in Washington, DC, multi-time world champion Tori “Sho Nuff” Nelson seemed to have a very simple game plan — to hit her opponent, Sanna Turunen, as hard as she could for as long as she needed to.

If that was her plan, then Nelson, a middleweight from Ashburn, VA, executed the plan to perfection as she went on to a relatively easy 10-round unanimous decision over Turunen of Tuusulam, Finland to regain her Universal Boxing Federation Middleweight title during the main event at the Tricky Entertainment/DC Fight Night card at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington, DC.

Nelson landed numerous shots on both sides of Turunen’s head throughout the contest, causing Turunen to develop one welt over her right eye and another down the left side of her face. Ringside physicians never checked on the lumps on Turunen’s face. Nelson won the bout by shutout (100-90) on all three judge’s scorecards.

Nelson is now 19-2-3, three KO’s while Turunen falls to 4-2-1, one KO.

In the co-feature, Greenbelt, MD cruiserweight “The Vanilla Gorilla” Sam Crossed won a disputed six-round split decision over a very game Twon “The Truth” Smith of Oklahoma City, OK. Crossed seemed to have a tough time finding his distance in the first round. With seconds remaining in the second round, Smith landed a big right hand that dropped Crossed to the canvas.

Once Crossed recovered, he seemed to have difficulty landing shots and when he did, Smith was able to shake the punches off. However, Crossed was able to land enough punches to get the win on judges Steve Rados and Wayne Smith’s cards, 57-56. Paul Wallace saw the bout for Smith by the same score. Crossed remains undefeated at 8-0, five KO’s while Smith falls to 3-2, two KO’s.

DC welterweight Kareem “Reemo” Martin won a six-round unanimous decision over Andrew Rodgers of Elkhart, IN. Both boxers had a tough time landing quality shots in this bout. Rodgers spent the bulk of his time in the match holding Martin, who landed a good portion of body shots in the bout. All three judges (Smith, Wallace and Eric Irizarry) scored the bout 59-55 for Martin, who is now 11-2, three KO’s. Rodgers falls to 4-5-1, two KO’s.

DC featherweight Jordan “Shortdog” White made short work of Ndira Spearman of Lavergne, TN by way of Hagerstown, MD. White was able to knock down Spearman with body shots twice in the contest. After the second knock down, Spearman told referee Brent Bovell that he had had enough. The bout was stopped at 2:02 of the first round. White is now 7-1, five KO’s while Spearman’s record drops to 1-4.

Two boxers made returns to the ring after absences of more than two years. DC junior welterweight Antonio “Teflon” Magruder battled Matt Murphy of St. Louis, MO to a four-round majority draw. Magruder, competing for the first time since September of 2016, looked a little rusty early in the bout as he had a tough time keeping the charging Murphy off of him. Murphy, who was competing for the 11th time in 2018, seemed to rock Magruder with a hard right hand in the second round. Magruder, to his credit, was able to do enough in the contest to win judge Smith’s card at 39-37. Judges Wallace and Irizarry both saw the draw at 38-38. Magruder is now 5-0-1, four KO’s while Murphy is now 3-30-4, two KO’s.

DC light heavyweight Alexander “The Great” Johnson returned to action for the first time since August of 2016 and won a six-round unanimous decision over “The Dynamic Warrior” Mengistu Zarzar of Palmer Park, MD by way of Liberia. Like Magruder, Johnson took a round or two to get himself going before he started landing punches on Zarzar. Johnson finally was able to wear Zarzar down to get the victory. Smith and Wallace saw the bout 59-55 while Irizarry scored the contest 58-56. Johnson is now 17-4-1, seven KO’s while Zarzar falls to 6-6-1, five KO’s.

Kiante Irving, a super middleweight from Beaver Falls, PA, scored a second-round TKO over George Sheppard of Virginia. Irving, a 2018 National Golden Gloves champion, dominated this bout from start to finish, eventually knocking down Sheppard twice before the bout was stopped at 1:06 of the second. Irving is now 3-0, three KO’s while Sheppard falls to 1-5-1.

In the opening contest, Silver Spring, MD heavyweight George Harris won by third-round TKO over Lamar Lewis of Conway, AR. Harris was very patient in the bout and worked his way to the eventual knockout. Eventually, the punishment was too much for Lewis and referee Michelle Myers stopped the bout at 2:00 of the third round for Harris who is now 2-0, two KO’s. Lewis drops to 0-4.

Tricky Entertainment is led by Erwin Pendergrast while Sean Magruder, the father of boxer Antonio, heads DC Fight Night. The matchmaker was Chris Middendorf. The ring announcer was Henry “Discombobulating” Jones.

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