By Michael Shefield @ ringside
Prize Fight Boxing’s Fights at the Fitz series returned Saturday night, with a national audience tuning in on SportSouth for “Mississippi Fight Night.”
The five-fight card ran the gamut from Jr. welterweights to heavyweights, with heavyweights Adam Kownacki (2-0, 2 KOs) and Yohan “The Bodysnatcher” Banks (3-3, 1 KO) putting on the most entertaining fight of the night in a 4-round battle.
The Polish Kownacki, fighting out of Brooklyn, brought a sizable and vocal cheering section with him and he wouldn’t disappoint the fans. Banks would give it his best shot for the first two rounds before he ended up on the receiving end with Kownacki punishing his midsection in the third round. Banks would survive the round and Kownacki would pick up where he left off immediately in the 4th round.
After a standing 8-count from referee Randy Phillips, Kownacki would end the fight with a knockout at 1:11 of the 4th round.
In the main event, Jr. Middleweight Shawn Porter (16-0, 16 KOs) would need 4 of the scheduled 8 rounds to pick apart Bobby Kliewer (10-10 6 KOs), who had 6-inches on his opponent.
Porter was clearly quicker and more skilled than Kliewer, who would attempt to lean on him to slow his momentum. Porter eventually was able to neutralize Kliewer and would stun him at the end of the 4th round, before quickly eliminating Kliewer at 1:08 in the 8th round by TKO.
Marlon Lewis (2-1, 1 KO) and Chris Gray (1-1 1 KO) would renew hostilities from an underwhelming April bout at the New Daisy with another underwhelming opening bout. Gray, who was visibly tired at the end of the first round of the previous fight, actually put up more of a fight this time around, catching Lewis with hard hooks and jabs throughout the fight before tiring in the 4th round.
However, as has been his MO during his 3-fight career, Lewis couldn’t finish his opponent, but did enough to win a unanimous decision 39-35, 40-34 39-35.
Welterweight Rodney Coffman would notch his first victory against Lewis Crews (0-2), scoring a TKO in 55 seconds of the second round.
Both fighters would trade hard and wild shots throughout the first round with Coffman getting the better of his opponent as the round went on
Light heavyweight Donta “The Dream” Woods (6-0, 5 KOs) would score a TKO at 2:27 of the second round against Roy “The Destroyer” Ashworth (5-8 2 KOs) and
Middleweight Dominic “The Blade” Wade (6-0 5 KOs) would take a unanimous decision (40-35, 40-35, 40-33) against Michael Faulk (2-0)
