By Dwjuan Frazier at ringside
Photos: Bob Ryder

The best show of the year — as far as the Detroit area is concerned — took place in downtown Detroit at the Masonic Temple on Saturday night. Dmitriy Salita/Salita promotions, in conjunction with matchmaker Dennis Turner, put together a solid card in their latest installment of the “Detroit Brawl” series.

In the main event, Detroit native James Gordon Smith (11-0, 6 KOs) faced off against former World Amatuer Champion, Asian Champion, and four-time Uzebkistan champion, Olim Nazarov (14-3, 8 KOs ) from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Smith was the aggressor, as he tried (and succeeded) in controlling the fight with his quick jabs, but he couldn’t find a way to dominate Nazarov. Nazarov strategy was to purposefully take some jabs in an effort to land some counters, which he did, but he never hurt Smith the way he wanted to. Smith was most successful when he would double up on his jab and follow up with a right to the head of Nazarov. Nazarov did too much waiting around for Smith to ever gain an upper hand in the fight. Smith isn’t a supreme puncher and he didn’t need to be against Nazarov; he just outboxed him. Smith was declared the winner by unanimous decision. He adds another win to his total and remains undefeated.

The co-main event featured lightweights Muheeb Fazeldin (9-0-1, 3 KOs) from Sheffield, United Kingdom and Michael Gaxiola (4-10) of Modesto, California. Gaxiola snagged the first round from Fazeldin and he must’ve used all of his energy doing so because he looked gassed in the second. Fazeldin noticed Gaxiola’s decline in effort and that triggered Fazeldin to look for the knockout, but he couldn’t get it. In the third round, Gaxiola looked like he caught his second-wind but he wasn’t able to re-establish what he had going in the first. Fazeldin took rounds two through five, but he missed opportunities to hurt the body of Gaxiola because he was looking for the knockout. In a last ditch effort, Gaxiola came out in the sixth round swinging and landing good punches on Fazeldin, but by then it was too late. Frazeldin won with the judges by unanimous decision and stays undefeated.

In arguably the best bout of the night, Giorgi Gelashvili (5-1, 3 KOs) Brooklyn, New York, squared off against Larry Ventus (7-11-1, 3 KOs) of Detroit, Michigan in a super lightweight matchup. There was no meandering by either fighter. They stood in the middle of the ring and traded blows for six rounds. Gelashivili and Ventus were so fixated on destroying each other that the bell to conclude the fifth round didn’t stop them from going at it. They continued to fight until their corners jumped in the ring to separate them. By the sixth round both fighters were bleeding. Gelashvili from his nose, Ventus from his left eye. They continued to swing with meaning behind their punches. In the end, Ventus captured the victory with the judges by way of split-decision. In an interview in the ring following the match, Ventus said he would not be “throwing any more fights.” He followed that up by saying he also “won’t be taking any more dives.” Ventus didn’t expound on what he meant, so the vagueness of his statement is open for interpretation, for now.

Other bouts: Zach Shamoun (4-0-2, 3 KOs) of Royal Oak, Michigan fought Charles Clark (1-1-1, 1 KO) from Dallas, Texas. Shamoun won the first two rounds but he later had trouble combating Clark’s undisciplined style. Clark took the last two rounds and the fight was declared a majority draw by the judges. Wesley Tucker (13-0, 8 KO’s) from Toledo, Ohio knocked out Richard Hall (11-25-3) of Rocky Mount, North Carolina :47 seconds into the first round. Detroiter Ja’Rico O’Quinn (4-0, 3 KO’s) had an easy night as he knocked out his opponent, Robert Allen Jr. (0-2) from North Carolina at the 1:30 mark in the first round. In a four-round welterweight fight, Raphael Sinegal (2-1, 1 KO) from Detroit, defeated Darroyl Humphrey (2-7) of Flint, Michigan by unanimous decision.