NEWARK, New Jersey — Shaun George, who has been the coach for Damian Knyba for the previous two years, has been preaching endurance for the 6ft 8in fighter. That’s precisely what the coach obtained out of his fighter on Saturday evening at Prudential Heart in Newark, New Jersey.
Confronted with an opponent who appeared ill-prepared for the duty at hand, Knyba allowed his boxing abilities to do his speaking for him, as a substitute of simply utilizing physicality to get the job completed. Knyba jabbed and feinted at his fellow Polish huge man Andrzej Wawrzyk, utilizing each a part of his 86-inch attain to land proper arms from distance as Wawrzyk slid throughout the ropes to keep away from contact.
The second Knyba was searching for lastly got here halfway by the third spherical when a counter proper hand almost deposited Wawrzyk outdoors the ring. Wawrzyk beat the rely, however his nook threw within the towel moments later, opting to forego pointless punishment.
The struggle was stopped formally at 2:21 of the third spherical, bringing an finish to a bitter rivalry that noticed each fighters commerce insults in Polish media circles.
George says the 29-year-old Knyba, 15-0 (8 KOs), of Wydzyn, Poland may have completed the struggle earlier had the 37-year-old Wawrzyk, 34-5 (20 KOs), of Warsaw, Poland given them extra to work with.
“[Wawrzyk] got here in very defensive, he simply had a defensive thoughts. We might have gotten him out of there earlier. We might have knocked him out within the first spherical if he had tried to win,” stated George, who can be the coach for high heavyweight Zhilei Zhang.
The struggle was the second for Knyba – who now resides in Warren, New Jersey – at Prudential Heart, a venue that served because the non secular residence of Polish boxing from 2008 to 2012, when former champion Tomasz Adamek routinely bought out the house of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. It was little coincidence that the final track performed over the audio system after Knyba’s win was “Pamietaj,” which was Adamek’s entrance theme.
Supervisor Lukasz Kownacki says the plan is to talk with Knyba’s promoter Prime Rank about what comes subsequent, however says he’d ideally wish to see Knyba return to the ring by early summer season.
“I believe it’s one other stepping stone in the fitting course. Clearly that is good for 2 issues, being right here as the principle occasion at Prudential Heart, the primary one I hope of many, after which we simply have a lot room to develop from right here. We had an amazing exhibiting the primary time and he carried out nice. He solely goes up from right here,” stated Kownacki.
George provides that he’d wish to see Knyba take a step-up struggle within the close to future, with Prime Rank stablemate Richard Torrez Jnr being named as an opponent of curiosity.
“We all know we’re this near changing into a high contender in heavyweight,” stated George.
The ten-round scheduled struggle headlined a card promoted by Prime Time Promotions.
Within the co-main occasion bout, Fiodor Czerkaszyn, 26-1 (16 KOs), had little bother dispatching Patrick Allottey (44-8, 34 KOs), sending him down 3 times within the second spherical to power the stoppage. Czerkaszyn, 29, of Warsaw, Poland is rated No. 13 by the IBF, No. 9 by the WBC and No. 3 by the WBO at 160 kilos.
Former two-division champion Miyo Yoshida obtained again to profitable methods, outworking Beata Dudek to win a unanimous choice of their eight-round bantamweight struggle. Two judges scored the struggle 79-73, whereas the third had it 78-74, all in favor of Yoshida, 18-5, a New York resident from Kagoshima, Japan.
Yoshida, a former two-time WBO tremendous flyweight and one time IBF bantamweight champion, was the aggressor from the opening bell, backing up her Hungarian opponent and sporting her down with nonstop exercise and stress. Dudek, a Hungarian with a 5-6 (4 KOs) file, is now 0-6 in fights outdoors of her residence nation.
“Miyo goes to take time to relaxation and revel in this victory however there’s no query she deserves a shot at a title subsequent,” stated Andrew Fiori, Yoshida’s agent, after the struggle.
Lorenzo “Truck” Simpson, 15-2 (9 KOs), barely obtained the possibility to get began in his six-round tremendous middleweight struggle, dropping Trevon Smith, 2-6 (1 KO), within the opening spherical earlier than Smith opted to remain on his stool after the primary spherical, citing a left shoulder damage. Simpson, 24, of Baltimore, Maryland was preventing for the primary time since shedding his second contest in three bouts in opposition to Raiko Santana final June.
Arjan Iseni, 3-0 (3 KOs), of Staten Island, New York made fast work of the overmatched Nathan Trepagnier, 2-6 (2 KOs), of Norman, Oklahoma, knocking him out a minute into the primary spherical of their cruiserweight bout with a physique punch. The 22-year-old southpaw Iseni is managed by fellow Staten Island-based Albanian-American boxer Reshat Mati. Iseni had a powerful newbie background, profitable the 2021 USA Nationwide Championships, on high of different nationwide titles within the junior ranks, and he fought the world over on the U.S. nationwide group.
Ghandi Romain of Irvington, New Jersey scored a powerful victory in his six-round welterweight struggle, dropping Benjamin Lamptey twice to win by second spherical stoppage on the 2:52 mark.
Romain, now 7-1-1 (5 KOs), seemed assured from the outset, strolling his opponent down with a pointy jab earlier than his energy pictures started to interrupt him down. The 27-year-old Romain, who was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, has had an uncommon profession thus far, shedding his professional debut in July of 2023 after knocking his opponent down a number of instances earlier than punching himself out and being stopped later in the identical spherical. Romain has seemed in a lot better type since then, profitable all of his fights save for a controversial draw in opposition to the unbeaten Nimal Farmer final October in a struggle during which he ought to have earned the choice.
Lamptey, 17-15-4 (13 KOs), of Accra, Ghana sees his three-fight profitable streak snapped with the loss.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Day by day Information, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring journal. He holds a Grasp’s diploma in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate College of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Affiliation of America. He might be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
