Ajax boxer now 11-0 after TKO on Brampton boxing card; former Olympian Spencer also big winner

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Published May 31, 2022 at 9:04 am

Canadian Middleweight Champion Sukhdeep Singh is now 11-0 after a sixth-round TKO of Italy's Luca Pasqua Saturday night, the main event on a busy boxing card at Brampton's CAA Centre. Photo courtesy United Promotions

The sweet science returned to Brampton Saturday night with a dynamite United Boxing Promotions card featuring a Canadian champion, a couple of Olympians and plenty of up-an-coming talent for a packed house at the CAA Centre.

The main event was the showcase for Canadian middleweight champion Sukhdeep Chakria Singh, a Punjab-born Sikh-Canadian now fighting out of Ajax, who took on veteran Italian boxer Luca Pasqua in a bout scheduled for eight rounds.

Singh, who was 10-0 heading into the fight, toyed with Pasqua (17-7-1) before referee Donovan Boucher (a former Canadian champion in his own right) put a stop to proceedings 2:39 into the sixth round.

Singh chased Pasqua around the ring for most of the bout and was clearly a class above the Italian, but Pasqua was, for the most part able to escape any real damage. Boucher’s decision to stop the fight was perhaps overly cautious, something of a trend in a couple of other fights as well.

Singh captured the Canadian title February 26 in the same venue after a victory over Jordan Balmir of Drummondville, PQ.

The other much-anticipated fight was between Mary Spencer of Wiarton, Ontario, a two-time Olympian and three-time World Champion as an amateur who is now 5-0 with three KOs since turning pro, and Yamilla Reynoso of Argentina (12-10-3). While there were no knockouts, the fans got their money’s worth when the welterweight bout went the full eight rounds.

Spencer, who now calls Montreal home, stalked Reynosa from the opening bell to the end of the fight and won every round but the Argentine, who gave away eight inches in height, showed plenty of courage and some solid defensive skills to avoid getting tagged by the much more powerful Spencer.

A fighter to watch in the future is Brampton’s own Joshua Frazer, who went to 4-0 with a TKO of Cristian Muruato of Mexico (now 3-2) 1:06 into the second round of a scheduled six.

Frazer showed quick hands and good footwork in dominating Muruato in the super middleweight fight and the fight was stopped with Frazer pummelling Muruato along the ropes, though the Mexican was not in any real danger.

Frazer fights out of his father DeWith Frazer’s club in Mississauga.

Another of DeWith Frazer’s fighters is Ricardo Brown, a former Jamaican heavyweight who boxed for his home country in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The 6’7” Brown, who now lives in Brantford, went to 3-0 as a pro after completely dominating a decidedly portly-looking Santiago Martinez of Mexico (now 5-3) for a round before eventually catching Martinez with a shot early in the second that dropped him immediately to the canvas.

With two no-shows on the card, the promoters had to fit fighters separated by two weight classes into a fight, which turned out to be a one-sided but thoroughly entertaining bout between highly regarded super welterweight Josh Wagner of Orangeville (now 11-0) and super lightweight Dylan Rushton of Stoney Creek (2-7-3).

Wagner was the aggressor for the entire fight but Rushton was game in the catch-all weight class and did an excellent job staying out of trouble, while getting in a few shots against the bigger man. The four-round bout ended with Wagner, who was hunting for the knockout during most of the fight, earning a unanimous decision.

One of the early fights on the card was one of the most entertaining, with Karl Hess of Brantford (now 4-2) earning a hard-fought unanimous decision over Jamaica’s Gregory Miller, who is now 0-4 but showed plenty of skill and speed in the fight.

The judges scored the middleweight bout, which went six rounds, 58-55, 58-56 and 57-56.

Javon Blackstock-Sewell, another Jamaican fighter, won his second career pro fight with a four-round majority decision over Drake Olchowecki of Hamilton, who was making his pro debut. Blackstock-Sewell was the aggressor in the light-heavyweight bout and earned the decision on two of the three scorekeeper’s cards. The other had the fight even.

The opening match of the evening featured another professional debut, that of Matt ‘Mayhem’ Dionne of Toronto, a former InSauga reporter who went up against Haider Ali Khan of Toronto (0-1).

Khan took the fight to Dionne and pressured him enough that the referee stopped the fight nine seconds before the end of the first round, much to the dissatisfaction of Dionne, who was not in any serious trouble.

Overly cautious once more, but a theme that is common on many boxing cards in Ontario where fighter safety is number one.

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