Showtime Championship Boxing and Banner Promotions returned to the Turning Stone Resort and Casino on Saturday evening and the sold out Event Center crowd was treated to a main event that just about lived up to the hype.

Molina def Provodnikov (Jeff Monaski, WIBX)
Molina def Provodnikov (Jeff Monaski, WIBX)
loading...

John Molina Jr. (29-6, 23 KO's) came out aggressive and it was a question if he could maintain it for the entire fight while withstanding the barrage of power and quickness from Ruslan Provodnikov (25-5, 18 KO's) in their WBO Junior Welterweight Title fight.  Molina answered that question with a resounding "YES", scoring a unanimous decision victory, upsetting the top contender in the weight class.  Molina used his jab brilliantly to set up close power shots, keeping Provodnikov off balance for the majority of the fight.  But Provodnikov would not go away, answering each barrage with a flurry of punches of his own...reminiscent at times of the old Rock Em' Sock Em' Robot game.  In the end though, Molina walked away with the WBO Junior Welterweight Belt.

 

Jeff Monaski, WIBX
Jeff Monaski, WIBX
loading...

Demedrius Andrade (23-0, 16 KO's) and Willie Nelson (25-3-1, 15 KO's) did battle in a WBC Super Welterweight Title Eliminator bout.  Just a minute into the first round, Andrade landed a flurry of left and right hooks and finished with a stabbing counter to put Nelson on the mat.  This set the tone for the fight as Andrade continued to be the aggressor into the second round, doing a great job mixing his jab with body punches, negating Nelson's height and reach advantage.  Nelson showed a little bit of life in the third round, but Andrade took control again in the fourth round.  Andrade's power ended up being too much for Nelson to overcome.  Andrande dropped Nelson at the end of the 11th round, and then twice in the 12th round, with the ref ending the fight after the second knockdown at 1:39 into the 12th.  Andrade will next take on Jermell Charlo for the WBC Super Welterweight title. Charlo defeated John Jackson last month to win the title that was vacated with Floyd Mayweather's retirement last year.

 

Jeff Monaski, WIBX
Jeff Monaski, WIBX
loading...

Earlier in the evening, the first of three fights featured on Showtime started with a bang with a WBC Lightweight World Title fight between the #1 WBC Lightweight World contender DeJan Zlaticanin (18-0, 11 KO's) from Montenegro and WBC Lightweight World #5 contender Franklin Mamani (21-3-1, 12 KO's) fighting out of Bolivia.  This was the first fight for a title for both.  Zlaticanin landed a vicious left hook to rock Mamani in the beginning of the third round and then pounced on Mamani with a flurry of punches to score the TKO victory 54 seconds into the third round.  Zlaticanin remains undefeated and is the first boxer from Montenegro to win a World Title.

(Jeff Monaski, WIBX)
(Jeff Monaski, WIBX)
loading...

In the first bout of the undercard featured on Showtime Extreme, Russian fighter Andrey Fedosov (29-3, 24 KO's) captured the WBA Heavyweight Fedelatin Title in a one side victory over Mexican Mario Heredia (12-4, 10 KO's) via ref stoppage in the sixth round.  Fedosov, the #9 ranked heavyweight WBA fighter showed his incredible power after a first round of feeling out his opponent and as the fight wore on, Fedosov knocked Heredia down in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth rounds.  Heredia was able to come to his feet each time, but the ref had seen enough and ended it midway into the sixth round.

Jeff Monaski, WIBX
Jeff Monaski, WIBX
loading...

The second bout featured Rochester's Willie Monroe Jr. (20-2, 6 KO's) against New Jersey native John Thompson (17-3, 6 KO's) in a Super Welterweight battle.  Monroe sent Thompson to the canvas with a wicked left counter hook in the second round.  Monroe got to Thompson again in the fifth round with a right hook, but he was unable to finish Thompson after a wild exchange after Thompson got to his feet.  Thompson showed some life at the end of the sixth round and was able to survive all ten rounds, but in the end, all three judges saw the fight in favor of Monroe as he picked up his 20th win.

Jeff Monaski, WIBX
Jeff Monaski, WIBX
loading...

The rest of the untelevised undercard featured three fights. Cruiserweight Stivins Bujaj (16-0-1, 11 KO's) out of West Chester, NY remained undefeated with a TKO at 1:09 in the first round after knocking down Mexican fighter Sergio Ramirez (9-1, 6 KO's) twice to end the fight quickly.  Welterweight Oscar Sarmiento (3-0-1, 1 KO) scored an unanimous victory over Jose Miguel De La Rosa (3-1,1 KO) while Super Welterweight Miguel Trejo 5-0, 4KO's) opened the evening with an impressive showing, scoring a first round TKO victory over La'Torrie Woodberry (0-2-1)

More From WIBX 950