NO HOLDS BARRED

SecondsOut Radio with Eddie Goldman

On this week's edition of SecondsOut Radio, host Eddie Goldman reviews the "Punchin' at the Paradise" fight card, which was held Friday, August 24, at the Utopia Paradise Theater in the Bronx, New York, and which was shown in the US on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights.

After his fight, we spoke with 27-year-old cruiserweight Alfredo Escalera Jr. (15-0-1, 11KOs), who survived a first round knockdown to take an eight-round decision over Harvey Jolly (6-5-1, 3 KOs). He is the son of the former world super featherweight champion Alfredo "Salsero" Escalera, who attended this fight.

The main event featured welterweight Delvin Rodriguez (now 20-2-1, 1 ND, with 12 KOs) in his first fight back after being stopped by Jesse Feliciano in March. His opponent was Keenan Collins (12-2-1, 1 ND, 8 KOs). Rodriguez's attempted comeback fight proved to be anti-climactic, as the bout was halted after the second round due to a cut over Collins's left eye. The referee ruled that the cut was caused by an accidental head butt. Since the fight had not gone at least four rounds, it was declared a no decision.

Video replays of the fight, however, seemed to indicate that the cut was caused by a right hand by Rodriguez, and showed no evidence of any head butt by Rodriguez. Controversy ensued, and Ron Scott Stevens, chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, said he would review the video in the commission's offices this week.

We spoke with Ron Scott Stevens after the fight about this controversy, and what the commission does, and does not, have the power to do in such instances. We also asked him about the proposed sanctioning of mixed martial arts in New York.

As many people already know, the September 8 fight between Fernando Vargas and Ricardo Mayorga has been postponed after Vargas was found to be suffering from anemia. No new plans for this bout have yet been announced, although its promoters have said that they want to see it rescheduled.

The 29-year-old Vargas had already announced that this was to have been his last fight, and that he was now going to become a promoter. Before the announcement of this fight's postponement, we spoke with Fernando Vargas on a media teleconference call this past week to get an idea of what he plans to do after he retires as an active fighter.

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Labels: Alfredo Escalera, boxing, Eddie Goldman, Fernando Vargas, Ron Scott Stevens, SecondsOut Radio