Thunderstorm at The Creek

By Adelsa Williams

COCONUT CREEK — On June 16, Warriors Boxing Promotions, Inc in association with the Seminole Coconut Creek Casino and Golden Boys Promotions brought “Thunderstorm at The Creek,” another successful promotional event for the delight of the boxing fans.

Ironically, there was thunder and lighting that night due to the bad weather causing a major flow of traffic at the casino’s valet and self parking lots, delaying the event for over an hour. The storm also caused a Goodyear Blimp to crash near the casino on Sample Road in early hours of that evening. Luckily no one sustained serious injuries.

Regardless of the pouring rain, the boxing dome especially arranged adjacent to the casino was jammed packed with anxious fans awaiting the start of the first bout.

For starters, there was a four rounder exhibition fight where both boxers wore the usual boxing gear along with an additional head protector. The exhibit warmed up the massive crowd prior to the scheduled thunderstorm in the ring.

The night’s feature was an International Boxing Federation (IBF) Lightweight elimination bout between Puerto Rican Ricky “Showtime” Quiles against Javier Jauregui from Mexico.

During the first few rounds Jauregui took the offensive role chasing Quiles around the ring. Quiles defensively reacted with more uppercuts until the fifth round where he began landing more body shots.

By the sixth round Quiles switched roles by catching Jauregui a few times against the ropes. Quiles sparked up the bout with an exciting and fierce attack on Jauregui at the end of round 10 and during round 11 again against the ropes. Quick-wit Jauregui always managed to make quick bail from Quiles’ against-the-rope attacks successfully preventing any chance of a knockout.

Quiles from Warriors has been training with former Heavyweight Michael Moorer who was in his corner coaching him during the important match.

Quiles defeats Jauregui by unanimous decision as the judge’s cards read 117-111,116-112 and 115-113. With this victory, Quiles steps up to the IBF’s #1 spot and puts himself on the line for a world title shot against present world title champ Lavender Johnson, a match that will take place within the next six months.

Another spectacular show was between Colombian Middleweight Edison Miranda who battled Nicaraguan Jose Varela to the full 12 scheduled rounds. It was Varela’s US debut following Miranda’s own at the Hard Knocks at the Hard Rock series that was held on May 20.

The exciting match between the two newcomers kept the crowd on its toes as the cheers grew louder and louder, as the fighters gave them a high energy show constantly moving inside and out covering the whole ring. Many cheered on for Miranda for a quick knockout to end things early as he did during his last match.

Varela impressively showed strong defense during the second round but was dropped by Miranda’s nasty left jabs near the end of the third round. With hardly any body hits and still strong left uppercuts Miranda drops Varela once again during the fourth round and scores a few sucker punches during round five.

Varela showed much heart hanging on with obvious exhaustion during the last two rounds but still loses to Miranda to a unanimous decision. The judges scored the fight for Miranda, 120-107, 109-108 and 120-107.

In the opening bout Heavyweight Kendrick Releford breaks his hand during the tenth and final round while punching Philadelphia’s Robert Hawkins only to lose to a Judge’s split decision.

The next night of thrilling professional boxing is scheduled for Aug. 19 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood at the newly developed Hard Rock Live! arena a month after its grand opening.

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