By Brad Snyder-The Undercard
Photos by Bob Ryder

Friday night in Detroit, Michigan, Carlos Llinas brought the city another explosive showcase of professional boxing at Motor City Casino Sound Board with Night of Knockouts XXXI. Llinas stated about the card, “I am very happy with the way this show turned out. This show made Michigan History by having the first female referee to officiate a womens boxing match. The Tini vs Begley fight had an international flavor to it, as Begley was brought over from Ireland to face Tini. So, just happy for the fans and support as always.”

The co-main event was undoubtedly the fight of the night bringing a brutal female 4-Round contest to the ring. The bout gave us Welterweight Savannah Tini (3-0, 2 KOs) against Deirdre Begley (0-1). Begley came over from Dublin, Ireland as a professional MMA fighter to make her professional boxing debut and to give Tini the toughest fight of her career so far. In the 1st round, Tini appeared to be the faster fighter, as she was able to land straights to the body and jab, then get out of the way defensively. Tini continued to switch from orthodox to southpaw in the round. In the 2nd Round, Begley was able to start off by landing a couple of right hooks to the head of Tini. That round was close and set up a dramatic finish in the 4-round fight. The 3rd round was action packed, as Tini developed a cut on her nose, as Begley got a cut on her hairline that added a dramatic flair to the fight. Both corners did great jobs of stopping the bleeding in between rounds, only to have the fight pace and punches open them both up again. The energetic fight ended up going to the scorecards with all three judges seeing the fight in favor of Tini (UD 40-36, 40-36, 39-37). The fight was the first fight in Michigan Boxing History that a female referee officiated a professional women’s bout. The honor went to Lorraine Aldrich.

In the night’s final contest, local favorite Jr. Lightweight Sam Rizzo took on Columbia’s Rafael Saenz. After a feeling out 1st round, Rizzo stunned Saenz in the 2nd with a big right hand that had Saenz stumbling to the ropes. Saenz survived, but in the 3rd, Rizzo knocked him partially out of the ring with another hard blow. Saenz remained tough, however, and managed to return to his feet and make it to the 4th. Shortly into the round, Rizzo bombed Saenz through the ropes into the ringside media section. As he looked to his corner, Saenz failed to either pay attention to referee Steve Daher, or as later claimed did not understand him due to the language gap. So, it appeared that the fight was over, as he did not make a sufficient effort to get back into the ring. After some heated conversation, it was ruled that the round would resume by Daher, as Saenz does not speak English. It did not help Saenz, as Rizzo went right back to work knocking him down and out at the 2:50 mark. Rizzo, now at (8-1, 6 KOs), while Saenz declines to (0-2). It was a wild finish to an entertaining night of fights.

Welterweight Dwane Taylor (7-1, 7 KOs) took his first loss to Travis Floyd (2-10-2) in a 4-round contest. The 1st Round had a slow start with both fighters taking their time. In the 2nd, Taylor attempted to figure out the timing of Floyd’s punches, yet Floyd countered with all of them proving he wasn’t going to be an easy battle for Taylor. It should, also, be noted that Floyd did not sit in the corner between rounds. In the 4th, Floyd knocked down Taylor with a right before finishing strong to take the MD (38-37 for Floyd, 38-37 for Taylor, 38-37 for Floyd). Taylor’s head might not have been in the fight due to his brother having tragically passed away the same week because of gun violence.

Cruiserweight Eric Hayes (1-2) took on Cory Mulhern (4-1, 4 KOs) in a 4-Round contest for his first professional win. Mulhern came out hard in the 1st round but had to chase Hayes down and around the entire ring. When he could get him on the ropes, he let loose on Hayes’ body. In the 2nd, Hayes decided that his favorite punch was a right to Mulhern’s right ribs. The 3rd showed Mulhern running to attack Hayes from the start. He stuck to his bodywork trying to wear Hayes down, to no avail. Hayes clearly was gassed, yet he was not backing down from Mulhern’s hits. In the 4th round, we saw both fighters scraping to the bell. The crowd was definitely in disagreement with the judge’s decision, as they booed at the reading of the MD (39-37, 39-37, 38-38) in favor of Hayes.

Another fight going to decision was Kevin Carree Jr. (3-0, 2 KOs) vs Ja’shar Banks (0-3) in the Middleweight division. In the 1st, Carree Jr. survived the first onslaught of hits from Banks. He was measuring the shots of Banks by the end of the round. Banks showed he was tougher than expected in the 2nd round. Carree was waving powerful shots from Banks, possibly showing signs of fatigue. In the 4th round, both fighters traded equal blows, while answering each other’s combinations. The judges went to the scorecards for this one scoring it (38-37, 40-35, 39-36) all in favor of Carree Jr.

The packed crowd in the Sound Board was treated to a live mariachi band leading out the Featherweight Miguel Lopez (2-0, 2 KOs) as he faced David Firlotte (0-6) in a 4-round contest. Lopez showed his power by his first knockdown of Firlotte in the 1st round with right and left hooks. He scored his second knockdown of Firlotte right before the end of the round. In the 2nd, Lopez threw a left hook to Firlotte’s body looking for another knockdown. He finally forced a third knockdown forcing the ref to wave off the fight at the 25-second mark of the 2nd round for a TKO win for Lopez.

Welterweight Justin Lacey-Pierce entered the ring Friday night to Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life” and the quote, “It’s not personal, it’s business” on his fight shorts. He was about to show how good he was at his job against Jorge Fleites (2-1, 2 KOs). Lacey-Pierce took the 1st round seriously, as he consistently worked Fleites down. He continued to push Fleites into the ropes. This forced the blue corner to literally throw in the towel signaling ref Steve Daher to wave off the fight just as Lacey-Pierce sent Fleites through the ropes. The TKO win was at the 2:24 mark of the 1st round.

Welterweight Terrance Livingston (2-1, 2 KOs) took his first loss against a tough opponent Nermin Zalic (1-1) in a 4-Round bout. The judges scored the fight (39-37, 39-37, 39-37).

In the night’s only 8-Round fight, Heavyweight Antwan Jones (16-0, 9 KOs) battled it out to the finish with Robert Daniels (8-2, 7 KOs). In the 3rd Round, Antwan “Lunchman” Jones showed his strength with good punches straight through to Daniels. His punches were just harder. Round 4 was very entertaining showing, again, that Jones just hit differently than Daniels. By the 6th round, the crowd was getting excited watching the two fighters battle each other. In the 7th, Jones came out stronger than Daniels, even though he was beginning to fight back. The judges scored the fight (77-75, 77-75, 80-72) all in favor of Jones.

The second fight of the night was Welterweight Matthew Niziolek (6-1, 3 KOs) from Monroe, Mi against Michael Lemelle (3-20-3) from Fort Worth, Texas. The judges scored the 4-round contest (40-36, 40-36, 40-36) for the UD in favor of Niziolek.

The craziest start of the night was the 4-round bout between hometown favorite David Olivera Rojas (5-0, 4 KOs) being knocked down with the first punch thrown by Light Flyweight Keven John Cruz Jusino (0-3) in a rematch between the two boxers, who fought in 2023. Rojas fell twice more in the 1st round, but ref Daher ruled them both as slips and not knockdowns. In the 2nd round, Daher warned Cruz twice about blows to the back of Rojas’ head and his use of elbows in the fight. In the 3rd, Daher waved off the fight at the 2:27 mark for the TKO win for Rojas.

The card was promoted by Carlos Llinas and was matched by Brian Dillon and Carlos Llinas.

_