Fights at the Fitz Fight Report (4/3/07)
Abron Defeats Benfield for NABO Light Heavy Title!
By: Michael Sheffield See Huge Photo Gallery!


Saturday night’s Fights at the Fitz featured a promising debut, the return of a crowd favorite and the crowning of a new champion.

In the evening’s main event, Prize Fight Boxing’s light heavyweight rising star, DeAndreyy Abron captured the vacant NABO Light Heavyweight championship by outlasting one of his toughest, if not the toughest, opponent of his young career, in Shane Benfield.

By going the distance, the fight eclipsed Abron’s last outing which was a 50 second demolition of Marvin Hunt last month.

The fight started slow with the action in the first two rounds being pushed by the aggressive Benfield. After mocking Abron in early in the third round, the local favorite woke up and landed a series of brutal jabs to Benfield’s nose, which bled profusely throughout the remainder of the fight.
From then on, Benfield fought valiantly through what had to be a broken nose that at times clearly obstructed his vision. Abron dominated the remainder of the fight, despite ignoring his corners, requests for him to commit to throwing to the body. It wouldn’t matter and Abron won the title with a unanimous decision 119-109.

The featured bout of the night was another crowd pleaser that turned out to be more competitive than anyone in attendance could have anticipated. WBO #1 ranked Junior welterweight Anthony Peterson returned to the midsouth to take on Martez Logan in an 8 round showdown.

The outmatched, but willing Logan overcame three low blows from Peterson (which resulted in Peterson losing a point).

Peterson was too quick for Logan early in the fight, but after being frustrated by the low blows, Logan stood toe-to-toe with Peterson for the majority of the fight, but wasn’t in any real trouble until the eighth round. Logan was able to escape the round, but Peterson won on all of the judges’ score cards 79-71, 78-72, 79-71.

The evening got started on a high note with an action packed debut from two fighters, PrizeFight’s Mark Davis taking on Guillermo Alonso in a four round Jr. Lightweight bout.

Davis started the fight off strong and used his quickness to set a dominating tone early. Alonso was a willing opponent but his wild swinging was outmatched by Davis’ precision and speed. Despite a unanimous decision from the judges (40-36), the crowd applauded the effort of both fighters, who should have bright futures ahead of them.

The second fight of the evening featured the first of two appearances by members of the Judah family. Yosef Judah took on Terrance Harris in a 4 round Jr. Welterweight bout in his pro debut.

Judah started out slow, but landed a wild left hook that caught the skill-deficient Harris flush on the temple. Harris was able to survive the first round, and the entire fight as Judah, who either lacked the power or the will to finish him, allowed him to go the distance.

The Judah double feature was broken up by a 4-Round Women’s Welterweight contest with Arkansas’ Kita Watkins taking on Nicole Woods, who would win her debut fight on a unanimous decision (40-36) that featured a lot of brawling and heart, but no knockdowns.

After the interlude, the Judah show continued with a 6 Round Cruiserweight showdown between Daniel Judah and Charles Davis.

Judah dislocated his should in the second round but didn’t quit, fighting the remainder of the bout with the right jab. Davis couldn’t or wouldn’t capitalize during the remaining four rounds and the fight went to the scorecards. The judges awarded the bout to Judah 57-56, 55-57, 57-55 on a controversial split decision.