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Joey Dwejko fights Natu Visinia in a battle of up and coming heavyweight contenders on Shobox.
Transcript
02:30Deontay Wilder has come along.
02:32He does have a share of the heavyweight championship now.
02:34And the guy that we're going to be watching tonight has a simple philosophy.
02:37Why not me up next?
02:39Is Trevor Bryan the next one?
02:42Too early to tell, Barry.
02:44But we do know this about Bryan.
02:45He spent the last four years building a record.
02:48Now, tonight, he begins to try to build a reputation.
02:52He's big.
02:52He's young.
02:53And very important, he has a very big, strong amateur background.
02:56Think about the three best heavyweights in the world today.
02:58With Yedkin, Wilder, Klitschko, not only strong amateur backgrounds, they're all Olympic medalists.
03:03So, Bryan's got a lot going for him.
03:05Tonight, he plays the Vegas stage.
03:07Let's see what he does with it.
03:08Four years ago, Trevor Bryan was ready to capitalize on a strong amateur career by turning pro.
03:16But he weighed 300 pounds.
03:18So, he dropped 70 pounds in two months.
03:21Won his pro debut weighing 229.
03:23And now, 15 wins later, he's ready to move up in class.
03:26The fact that the once-blubbery Bryan weighs 227 tonight speaks volumes about his dedication.
03:32Let's see if he has the talent to match.
03:36Derek Rossi used to be a lot bigger, too.
03:38He weighed 275 when he played defensive end at Boston College.
03:42He now fights at 235.
03:44Why has Rossi done better in the ring than most football players turned boxers?
03:48He said he was willing to ride out the bad stretches.
03:51Did put some good stretches, too.
03:52And he's hoping to build on the latest one by scoring an upset tonight.
04:00And with that, we meet the third member of our broadcast team.
04:02He is the birthday boy tonight.
04:04El Diamante, Raul Marquez, the former junior middleweight champion of the world.
04:07And, yes, he's accepting gifts.
04:09We're going to be watching a heavyweight tonight.
04:11Young guy by the name of Trevor Bryant, who is not only taking a step up in class of opposition,
04:15he's taking a giant leap up in class of opposition.
04:18So, how does he deal with the experience that Rossi brings?
04:21Well, he shows us that experience through the veteran tactics.
04:24I mean, he's a guy that will stay in the pocket.
04:26He'll feign.
04:26He'll block.
04:27And then he tries to lure you in and then he counters you with his right hand.
04:31And he's also good at stopping your rhythm, your momentum.
04:34He'll do that little subtle step to the right, to the left.
04:37He'll step back.
04:37And when he does that, it messes up your balance.
04:40So, you have to restart all over again.
04:41And, you know, he's a guy that's been in there with some really good, good fighters.
04:45He's gone the rounds.
04:47And, you know, he's got a lot of veteran tricks that could pose a lot of problems for the young Brian tonight.
04:53Yeah, big test for a very young guy.
04:55So, from here at the D Las Vegas, we are set to get underway.
04:58Our first fight of the evening.
05:00It is in the heavyweight division and it features, not to, the Samoan Truth, Vicinia, and Joey the Tank, DeVeco.
05:16And Joey DeVeco, a native of Philadelphia, so you know he's a tough guy.
05:20Started boxing at the tender age of 10 years after his grandfather took him to the legendary Blue Horizon for a local Golden Glove show.
05:27He had 68 amateur fights.
05:30He won the Junior World Championships and he claims to have won 14 national titles as well.
05:37DeVeco is a five-year professional at the still young age of 25.
05:41Good skills and good movement, but only eight knockouts in his 21 fights.
05:45Steve, take us behind the numbers.
05:48I will do, Barry.
05:49Losing to winners.
05:50True, DeVeco has lost four of his last 13.
05:53But the four fighters who beat him had only one loss between them.
05:57Winning versus losers.
06:00DeVeco's five most recent wins, all first-round KOs.
06:03But don't get too excited.
06:04Four of the five victims had losing records.
06:06And on the scale, DeVeco's physique won't remind anybody of Charles Atlas, but he's been consistent in terms of weight.
06:13Tonight, 236 and three quarters.
06:15And here is a look at 30-year-old Natu Vicenia.
06:21He was a football player at Southern Illinois University where he earned a degree in criminal justice.
06:25He had no amateur boxing experience, but he came to the sport after five professional MMA fights.
06:31He has built his boxing record on very limited opposition.
06:36Though he'd never been more than six rounds, he stepped way up in class to fight Steve Cunningham last October.
06:41But the lack of experience showed he was stopped in round seven.
06:45He's a big guy, big punching power, and he has stopped nine of his overmatched 12 opponents.
06:53So, Steve, once more, let's go behind the numbers with Natu Vicenia.
06:57Well, you mentioned Big Barry, size XL.
07:00Weight-wise, Vicenia's gone from 258 to 268 to 278.
07:05Tonight, he's 273.
07:06Can we presume he's in top shape?
07:08Green heavy.
07:09Vicenia, five years older than DeVeco, yet far less experience.
07:14He's never been past seven rounds, and he's scored a total of 32 rounds to DeVeco's 87.
07:20And one big one.
07:21Two fights ago, as Barry mentioned, Vicenia took on Cunningham,
07:24who's about 100 times better than anyone else the big Samoan has faced.
07:28Given his experience level, Vicenia was reasonably competitive.
07:32And I think he's a triple XL.
07:35All right, let's get started then from here at the D Las Vegas.
07:38To do that, we go to the center of the ring for the introduction of the fighters
07:41with the ring announcer tonight, Mark Lichtenfield.
07:45Mark.
07:45Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Downtown Las Vegas Event Center
07:54here in Las Vegas, Nevada, for Showbox, the new generation.
08:00Brought to you by Don King Productions, the D Las Vegas,
08:05Downtown Las Vegas Event Center, and Showtime.
08:08This bout is scheduled for eight rounds in the heavyweight division.
08:14Your judges for this bout, Lisa Giampa, Patricia Morse Jarman, and Glenn Trowbridge.
08:22Your referee in charge is Russell Mora.
08:26And now, introducing to you first, fighting out of the blue corner,
08:30wearing the purple with gold.
08:32He weighed in at 236 and three-quarters pounds.
08:36With a record of 15 wins, four losses, two draws, eight wins by knockout.
08:41From the great fighting city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
08:45please welcome Joey, the tanked of Vanko.
08:53And his opponent fighting out of the red corner, wearing the black with silver.
08:57He weighed in at 273 pounds.
09:01With a record of 11 wins, one loss, nine wins coming by way of knockout.
09:06From Clinton, Illinois, he is not to.
09:09The Samoan Truth, Vicinia!
09:20Okay, gentlemen, trunks here are good, trunks here are good.
09:23I want to remind you, protect yourself at all times, obey my commands at all times.
09:28God bless, touch up.
09:33As we take a look at the numbers, what stands out, the Vanko's height and reach.
09:38In today's boxing world, a heavyweight with a 70-inch reach is like a relief pitcher
09:42with only an 85-mile-an-hour fastball.
09:44The Vanko must compensate.
09:46Rules here are the unified rules.
09:47No standing eight, no three-knockdown rule.
09:48Only the ref can stop the fight.
09:50You can't be saved by the bell in any round.
09:51And if there's an accidental foul that ends the fight, before the end of round four,
09:54no decision.
09:55After that, we go to the cards, Barry.
09:56All right.
09:58Let's get to the fight, then.
10:00Natu coming in at 273 pounds.
10:02Bigger than he expressed to us that he thought he would be.
10:07Let's go.
10:07This could really be a tactical kind of fight, I think, Steve.
10:11Well, the Vanko sometimes doesn't throw too many punches.
10:15You'd think, given his lack of height and reach, he'd be a pressure-come-forward kind of guy.
10:19He's not.
10:20He likes to counterpunch.
10:21So let's see what he does when Vicinia jabs.
10:24And Vicinia said that normally he likes to attack, but that he was very much aware of DeVanko.
10:30As a matter of fact, they're very good friends.
10:33Amateur experience.
10:34Vicinia zero.
10:35That's because he had five pro MMA bouts before he took up boxing.
10:39And DeVanko, as Barry said, a lot of amateur titles.
10:42Pro experience.
10:42You see they turned pro the same year.
10:44Yet DeVanko's been far more active.
10:46A lot more fights.
10:47A lot more rounds.
10:48They were both in the Klitschko camp, a chopping right hand by DeVanko, almost dropped Vicinia.
10:55Vicinia's in big trouble, and another big right hand, and another one.
10:58And he's all but down, and that's it.
11:02Well, I thought he stopped the fight.
11:04Four, five, six, seven, eight.
11:10Come here.
11:12Good?
11:13Yes, sir.
11:13And he's still, I think, in some trouble.
11:14And a long way to go here in this first round.
11:16DeVanko right back on top of him with a right hand.
11:19And another right hand.
11:20And he's in trouble again.
11:22And that's it.
11:22Fight's over.
11:24Dominant performance for DeVanko.
11:26Very impressive.
11:28Very impressive for DeVanko.
11:29I didn't expect that that quick.
11:31Vicinia said he was going to use his reach advantage.
11:34Look at DeVanko.
11:35He's pumped up.
11:36I don't blame him.
11:38I know what it is to be a fighter and feel that way.
11:40I mean, I don't think he expected that.
11:42He's cornered it.
11:42I'm surprised that he got him out of there that quick.
11:45Because Vicinia did say he was going to use his reach and height advantage.
11:49And you know what?
11:51He was baiting him in.
11:52He was baiting him in.
11:53He was sitting back.
11:54DeVanko.
11:55I think it was the overhand right that started everything for DeVanko.
11:59And that's a very impressive win for this young heavyweight.
12:04Not too big, guys.
12:05He's not big, but he could crack.
12:07Yeah, he could crack.
12:08When you're knocking out a big guy like Vicinia in the first round like that, Steve,
12:13I think that's telling you something.
12:15No doubt.
12:16And Vicinia never down before.
12:20And DeVanko, his last knockout was in 31 seconds in the first round.
12:24The one before that was 27 seconds in the first round.
12:26So this is a long fight for him.
12:27Long fight for him.
12:28It's great that he stood up in the heat.
12:30Buddy McGirt didn't get a chance to say anything to him.
12:32But very impressive.
12:34And I guess you could say he's a fast starter.
12:38So we get a chance to watch, well, the entire fight once again.
12:41It was a chopping right hand.
12:42Not once, but several times that was the difference.
12:46We see Russell Morris starting the action.
12:48And we thought that Vicinia would try to get his jab going.
12:53See, DeVanko is very relaxed in the ring.
12:54He's actually a very experienced fighter for a guy that you may not know about.
12:58A legit top 25 heavyweight.
13:00But again, 5'10", in fighter meetings he told us,
13:04I very rarely fail to surprise my opponent
13:07because they think I'm going to fight one way.
13:08And he's a lot more tactical and more of a counterpuncher.
13:11And that first left hook actually shook Vicinia a little bit.
13:14But here comes the overhand right then.
13:15I think that's what started everything.
13:17Look how poised he is, very relaxed.
13:19He's waiting for him to come in.
13:23And this actually, the first punch he lands,
13:25the first big punch was almost a knockdown by itself
13:27because Vicinia's glove almost touched.
13:28There he goes, there it was, yeah.
13:29Yeah, the right glove almost touched.
13:35And right here, I thought the referee was going to stop the fight.
13:40Yeah, it looked that way.
13:41Three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
13:48Come here.
13:49You see Vicinia banging his gloves together.
13:51He seemed to have his wits about him after that knockdown,
13:53but clearly he had no idea what to do.
13:56No attempt to hold, not punching back.
14:01He might have had his wits about him, but he didn't have his legs about him.
14:04And when you have a short reach like DeVeco,
14:07it doesn't matter if you're getting free shots.
14:09That was the near knockdown, chopping right hand, as Raul said.
14:13And then there's another one right behind it.
14:15Nice body shot, too.
14:16He worked him on top and the body.
14:18And I still, you know, Vicinia's a big, strong dude, heavy.
14:22He must have been really hurt because he didn't even try to hold onto Joey.
14:25Take a look at it again, overhand, right to the ear.
14:32A shot like that can affect your equilibrium.
14:34Then it was just target practice.
14:36I mean, he mixed in a body shot there, which was really nice.
14:38And again, Vicinia looked like a fighter who had never been through this before.
14:42He did get stopped by Steve Cunningham.
14:45And guys, not for nothing, but Cunningham's from Philly.
14:47DeVeco's from Philly.
14:49Why not?
14:50Yeah.
14:50Tough Philly fighters in power.
14:53Smoking Joe Frazier.
14:55And it didn't take long for things to end after that first knockdown.
14:59No, Russell Morris saw that Vicinia was not offering anything back.
15:02Standing target.
15:04Well stopped.
15:05Well stopped.
15:06And you know what?
15:06DeVeco, you know, that's so inexperienced.
15:08You know, he saw that he heard him.
15:10He capitalized on that.
15:11Look how he's putting his punches together.
15:13Combinations, not just single punches.
15:18Look at that.
15:19He was gone.
15:20Yeah, it's amazing, actually.
15:21Well, he starts to go down there.
15:22It's amazing that he stood on his feet as long as he did.
15:25Well, I guess they can go back to being friends now, huh?
15:29That's a...
15:31All right, let's take it to the center of the ring.
15:32Mark Lichtenfelton will make it all official.
15:39Ladies and gentlemen, referee Russell Moore halts this contest
15:43at one minute, 15 seconds of the first round.
15:46Your winner by technical knockout, Joey, the Tank, DeVeco!
15:56Well, a minute and 15 seconds is all it took for Joey DeVeco,
16:00and he proved he's worthy.
16:02Well, you know, when you perform like this and you score a knockout like this,
16:06the public wants to see more of you.
16:07Now, DeVeco's been on TV before, sometimes in losing efforts,
16:10but he's been in with some of the better heavyweights in the world.
16:14He's a legit top 25 guy.
16:15He's going to get more fights and maybe more meaningful fights.
16:19So we move to our second fight of the evening.
16:22This one is in the middleweight division.
16:24It's scheduled for 10 rounds or less.
16:25Between...

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