Report and photos by Bob Ryder

Before a loud and boisterous crowd that filled the inside of the Hype Athletics Center in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights, the two hometown main event favorites prevailed in what was by far their toughest fights of their young careers. In the six round main event Husam Al Mashhadi had all he could handle in the person of Houston’s Gabriel Smith.

Welterweight Al Mashhadi had blown through his first five opponents in ridiculously easy fashion, scoring knockouts or stoppages all in the first round. The sound of the opening bell had barely faded before it became clear that Smith was not going to be easy victim number six. The first two rounds were fought in tactical fashion with Al Mashhadi appearing to win both. In the third stanza the complexion of the contest began to shift. Smith became more aggressive, throwing combinations and boxing well, bloodying Al Mashhadi’s nose in the process. Smith continued his success in the fourth round as well. The pace slowed in the fifth round and heading into the final three minutes it appeared that an upset could be in the making. Al Mashhadi responded strong in the sixth round, outworking and taking the play away from Smith to the delight of the crowd. The final scores for the most part demonstrated the closeness of the bout as Al Mashhadi upped his record to (6-0, 5 KOs) by scores of 58-56 x 2 and a way too wide 60-54. Smith falls to (11-7-1, 4 KOs). Credit to Al Mashhadi’s team for putting Husam in a much needed step up test which he passed with flying colors.

Promoter/matchmaker Michael Awada along with matchmaker Lina Kurylyuk did well with the other six round match up as well. Super welterweight Gheith Karim faced his best opponent to date in Mexico’s Ramses Agaton in their semi main event. Agaton was cut near the right eye in the first round that he felt had been caused by a butt although referee Steve Daher deemed it to be from a punch. Agaton also engaged in a heated conversation in the second round with ref Daher over what he perceived was Karim’s continued use of his head. Thankfully things calmed and the bout continued and a good action fight it was. Several times Agaton was able to do good work along the ropes, landing some nice shots on Karim. Karim bounced back with good combinations himself and Agaton’s cut had Karim’s trunks and white gloves splattered with blood. There was an excellent exchange in the final seconds of the final round as both fighters felt the need to make a statement for the judges. Karim took a majority decision as the judges card read 60-54, 59-55, and 57-57. Karim improves to (9-0, 3 KOs) while Agaton declines to (22-14-3, 12 KOs) in the fight of the night.

The rest of the show was comprised of scheduled four round bouts. Dearborn’s Hassain Bilal stayed undefeated (4-0, 4 KOs) by TKO 2 at :41 of the round over Jordy Tientcheu who was making his pro debut. Tientcheu hails from Detroit by way of Cameroon. Bilal had scored first round wins in his first three fights the most recent being eight days ago in Detroit. He nearly made it four in a row when he floored Tientcheu heavily right before the bell to end the first round. Tientcheu bravely came out for the second but was soon overwhelmed as Bilal teed off at will with hard punches necessitating referee Frank Garza to wave off this middleweight match up.

Cruiserweight Mohammed Awada from Dearborn bounced Grand Rapids’ Brandon Bates off the canvas five times to up his record to (2-0, 2 KOs). Bates was making his pro debut and brought a herky jerky awkward style with him that Awada had little difficulty overcoming, scoring two knockdowns in the first and another three in the second round requiring referee Daher to administer the mandatory stoppage at 1:13 of the stanza. Detroit super lightweight Walid Muhsein evened his record at (1-1, 1 KO) with a knockout at 1:31 of the first over pro debuting Darius Frazier of Kalamazoo. Frazier had been down once already when he took a knee a second time to be counted out by referee Garza. In a battle of super welters Marcus Wilson and Antoine Blassingame engaged in an entertaining scrap. Wilson rode a knockdown in the second over Blassingame to a points victory (40-35 x 2, 39-36) and goes to (2-0, 1 KO) while Blassingame is now (0-2). Wilson hails from Pontiac, Blassingame calls Flint home. Heavyweights kicked off the night with hometown Ali Atat enjoying a successful pro debut over Grand Rapids’ Conway Beaudry (0-2), scoring two knockdowns in the first for a TKO at :55.

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