Good small venue fight cards need to be encouraged if the sport of boxing is going to thrive. MMA seems to have little trouble with this, but lately boxing is struggling to put on the smaller cards that get local fight fans abuzz about seeing boxing. Thankfully, people like Diane Fischer and her Dee Lee Promotions company out of New Jersey have been working to turn this tide. The Virginia Beach Fieldhouse, a venue better known for youth soccer leagues and amateur basketball tournaments, was host to a couple hundred fight fans and a card full of up-and-comers, part-timers, and one former star of NBC’s The Contender. The “star” in question was Jimmy Lange, who has thus far made a nice following for himself in northern Virginia since losing to Joey Gilbert on that show six years ago. However, he was just a small part of what made this fight card shine. It began with a four rounder between Kenneth Moody (2-2-1, 1 KO) and Damion Reed (2-6-1, 1 KO). The fight started slow, as Moody was happy to box at a distance and won on activity more than anything else. Reed’s trainer was yelling for him to do something as Moody “don’t want to fight.” Reed finally got the message in round three as this boxing exhibition turned into a brawl. Reed was repeatedly throwing fast combos and forcing Moody into the ropes and the turnbuckles. Moody seemed as hard-pressed to find an answer as he lost to Omar Sims at the Virginia Beach Convention Center less than a year ago. Reed’s trainer was yelling for him to take the final round if he even wanted a draw, and that was what Reed ended up with. Even so, one judge thought Reed won a shutout and you could have argued that as the first two rounds were not that decisive. Normally, these guys would be a quick one round KO for someone on the way up, so it was nice to see guys of the same level put it out there, particularly Reed. Read more: http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=28449&more=1
