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The Madison Square Garden Undercard
OPENING BOUT
Argentina's Alejandro Lavorante extended his winning streak to three fights with a majority decision victory against Chicago's Phil Scott (58-56, 57-57, 58-56). The bout was not really as close as those scores indicate as, with the exception of round five, Lavorante was always in command.
After going winless through his first four bouts it looked like prolonging his stay in the federation would be an impossible task but the Argentine's 3-3-1 record will be more than good enough to win him a berth in the Continental Americas Championship tournament. At 0-7, Scott has very likely stepped into a HBF ring for the last time.
PRELIMINARY 1
Jersey Pride member Harlod Carter fell to his second disappointing defeat in a row, dropping a unanimous decision to the World Championship tournament 127th seed Nick Barone (59-55, 58-57, 59-57). It was an uninspiring contest, to say the least, with neither fighter doing much to distinguish themselves.
Carter's upset 1st round TKO of Michael Dokes was only four months ago but looking at his form since, it may aswell be four years ago. He falls to 2-5(1) while Barone improves to 3-4, the win his third in four fights.
PRELIMINARY 2
After an at times difficult World Championship tournament campaign, Akron's Michael Dokes will be taking some good form into the American tournament after he was victorious via hard-earned unanimous decision against Minnesota's Charley Retzlaff (57-56 on all three cards). Dokes was behind by a single point going into the final round but produced a smashing combination midway through to send Retzlaff to the canvas. He almost had the referee calling it all over with a series of crunching lefts and rights on the follow-up but Retzlaff survived only to find that the knockdown had cost him dearly.
It was the fourth consecutive loss for Retzlaff (all by unanimous decision). Considering the fact that he received a couple of gift victories early in the tournament, many might look at it as justice being done. Dokes improves to 4-2-1(2), the win coming after a dynamite 2nd round KO of Lou Nova back in June and a brave showing against Sonny Liston last month. He might have failed to reach stage two of the WC tourney but there's little doubt that Dokes will be one of the favourites in the Continental Americas Championship tournament...
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