Ronson Frank’s Uprising Promotions returned to Club Amazura on Friday night for its first show of 2019, bringing seven bouts to the stage in a co-promotion with The New Mexican Promotion and Fists of Legends. In addition to the fans who witnessed the action live at Club Amazura, a worldwide audience also had the opportunity to watch in real time via Fight Night Live on Facebook.
In the showcase bout of the evening, featherweight Titus Williams (8-2, 3 KOs) scored an emphatic knockout of Cristian Renteria (7-8, 6 KOs). While displaying good movement and quick footwork over the course of the first three rounds, Williams was also being sound defensively and not allowing Renteria to land any clean shots. At the same time, Williams was finding counter punch opportunities when his opposition came forward, and he used that to his advantage at the start of the fourth frame.
Just 22 seconds into that round, Renteria stepped into a perfectly timed counter right uppercut from Williams that immediately sent him crumbling to the canvas. Referee Sparkle Lee did not even see a need for starting her count, and she waved off the bout instantly to give Williams the knockout victory.
In the night’s co-feature, bantamweight Ariel Lopez (12-0, 7 KOs) overcame a durable opponent in Jose Chanez (6-8, 3 KOs), with the duo competing in a non-stop action fight. The contest was held almost entirely on the inside, where Lopez was able to get the better of the exchanges. Chanez proved that he was very much game for the encounter, but Lopez was the man who landed the cleaner punches and threw heavier volume. After the six frames concluded, Lopez emerged victorious with a unanimous decision win via counts of 60-54 (twice) and 59-55.
In featherweight action, Jude Franklin (9-0-1, 8 KOs) found himself opposite a very game Aleem Jumakhonov (7-2-2, 4 KOs), who was able to lure Franklin into making this fight a brawl. The two combatants exchanged heavily throughout the six rounds of action, with both men giving and taking. The back-and-forth scrap was highly contested and made it a tough job for the ringside judges, who eventually ruled the bout a majority draw when a Franklin card of 58-56 was overruled by a pair of 57-57 tallies.
Welterweight Mathew Gonzalez (8-0, 5 KOs) increased his perfect record on Friday, needing less than three frames to dispose of Gabor Kovacs (7-7, 6 KOs). After putting Kovacs down in the second round, Gonzalez continued to overwhelm his opposition until the bout was halted with 34 seconds remaining in the third frame.
Putting forth a dynamic performance at Club Amazura was featherweight Jose Gonzalez (12-0-2, 4 KOs), who needed less than one round to drop David Berna (17-7, 16 KOs) three times and finish his night early. Gonzalez put him down the first time with a two-piece about a minute into the frame before sending him back to the canvas within 30 seconds with a hard left hand to the body. The New York native stayed on his man when the action continued, and he eventually ended the fight at the 2:13 mark when he blasted Berna with a looping left hook to the body.
Super lightweight Wesley Ferrer (13-1-1, 7 KOs) picked up another win on Friday night when he hosted Andrew Rodgers (4-6-1, 2 KOs) of Indiana, controlling the fight by working behind the jab and landing hard shots when his opportunities arose. Rodgers proved that he was a game opponent, but the bigger Ferrer was just a bit too much for him. When the ringside judges were called upon for their insight, Ferrer emerged victorious when they revealed flush 60-54 counts in his favor.
In the opening bout of the evening, 50-year-old Hawaiian native Eileen Olszewski (11-7-3, 1 KO) controlled the action against Judit Hackbold (5-7, 1 KO) over six rounds, putting a stamp on the bout in the fourth frame when she sat Hackbold down with a looping left hook. While her Hungarian counterpart was a willing participant, Olszewski boxed an intelligent fight, and she was rewarded for her efforts by receiving straight 60-53 cards from the judges to earn a unanimous decision.