Fall Brawl XI Huge Sucess
ZANESVILLE- The PAL gym was the place to be on Saturday night when over 400 spectators witnessed some of the best fights ever in town.
Teams from over three states converged for the annual event to take a crack at this area’s best young boxers. Twenty bouts filled the action-packed card with all divisions represented.
Zanesville’s team was led by national champions Ken Todd Jr., Travis Jerig, Michael Roark and Akeem Mayle making their skills known with victories.
Ken Todd Jr. bested national champion Brandon Morris of Toledo in a 132-pound battle which gave the crowd one of the best technical shows of the night. Todd used fast feet and deadly accurate punching to cancel Morris’ reach advantage for the win on a 4-1 decision by judges.
Travis Jerig got a chance to redeem himself with a rematch of Jeremiah Woodard of Columbus in 114-pound intermediates. Woodard beat Jerig in 2007 in West Virginia with a controversial decision that motivated Jerig to leave no doubt what was going to happen. Jerig opened up aggressively and went right to work behind a wicked jab and punch backing Woodard up. By the second round Jerig added a dangerous hook that stopped Woodard’s ability to move forward at all. The end saw a 4-1 decision in Jerig’s favor on the scorecards.
In interviews after the contest Jerig said, “ The match went real good, I was able to work lots of body shots and I thought I’d be able to stop him but he was stronger than I thought.” When asked what was next, he said, “I want to heal up and be really strong for the next national tournament at Silver Gloves.”
Michael Roark met Joey Dobbins of Lancaster in senior 145 pounds with Roark wasting no time bringing his reach to the chin of his opponent. He backed it up with a “slugging” style of power shots in flurries that stumbled his opponent several times. Roark won on a unanimous decision for the Zanesville team.
Akeem Mayle climbed in with Jermaine Woodard of Columbus in the junior 95 pound division. In his trademark style, Mayle powered through Woodard’s defenses putting him on the ropes without any offense to score. Mayle won the match 4-1 on the cards keeping the team’s national champs all in the win column.
Zakery Rollins made his debut against Walker Leasure of Lancaster in intermediate 95 pounds division. “Ripper” Rollins lived up to the nickname as Leasure learned about southpaw power as he ripped into him with wicked hooks and left hands causing three “8-counts” in the match. Rollins won on unanimous decision 5-0.
Joey Wilson also debuted meeting Shawn Conners of Richmond, Kentucky in men’s novice 165 pounds. Wilson controlled the first round sticking a straight jab and setting solid rights behind them. In the second, Conners dropped his head low allowing Wilson to catch him with uppercuts that caused the referee to stop the match there for Wilson’s tko win over Conners.
Brandon Alexander boxed Georgie Zecevic of Columbus in men’s 178-pounds and ended up fighting two when he also took on a wave of illness coming on during the match. Alexander sucked it up and went all three rounds with a really strong Zecevic but came up short at 1-4 losing to the Columbus fighter.
Jessi Dunlap dropped her first match ever against Tiffany Walker of Dover in girl’s senior 125 pounds division. Dunlap took the lead in the first round landing great shots inside and on the outside but Walker was strong and attacked up the middle in the next two. Dunlap threw from outside and used too much leaving her short at the finish letting Walker win on split decision.
Jeshua Luckett went with Al Sprague of Lima in the 85-pound intermediates starting strong and working hard throughout the match. Sprague was up for it and battled back edging out Luckett on a score of 3-2 at the end.
Austin Hunter made his debut for Zanesville with Dustin Bates of Dover in the 152 pounds division and was unable to continue after overheating in the match in the first round. Hunter was all right afterwards and was looking to rematch Bates in the future.
Josh Hannum was matched up with Mark Reed of Columbus in the 145 pounds intermediates and won by walkover when Reed was unable to compete.
In all, Zanesville PAL went 7-4 for the night and raised over $2,000 for the organization. President Brady Boyden said that the money raised would be used to fund their youth programs. He also thanked the sponsors of the event and the spectators all supporting PAL.
TODD JR. JERIG ROARK
