POPLAR BLUFF -- Mississippi County Boxing traveled to Poplar Bluff recently to compete at a show held at the Holiday Inn.
Competing first for Mississippi County Boxing was Billy Mace, fighting in the 85 lb. weight class against Armondo Reeves of Jefferson City. This was a well-
fought match by Mace. In what appeared to be a good win for Mace ended up being a close split decision for Reeves.
"I definitely thought Billy won, but, I guess the judges saw it a different way," said coach Brad Wick about the matchup.
Next up for Mississippi County was Phillip Latamondeer, fighting in the 95 lb. weight class against Amante McCain of Jefferson City. Latamondeer did not look like himself in this match as McCain took control of the match early on in the first round and came away with the decision.
Kenny Woods stepped into the ring against Casey Hadden of the North County Boxing Gym. Hadden appeared to outsize and clearly outweigh the smaller Woods, but Woods would not back down, going after Hadden for three straight rounds. Hadden would come away with the decision.
"Kenny is one of the toughest guys I have ever met, people just cant see how he can go in with these bigger guys like he does. Its the shock he gives that bigger guy when he hits them that makes them know they are in for a fight," said Wick.
Mike Warren would see action against Mitchell Pearson of the KO Fight Gym in the 132 lb. weight class. Warren was stopped early in the first round after getting caught with a flurry of punches by Pearson.
In what most called the best fight of the evening, Matt Gephart stepped into the ring against Chris Epply of the North County Boxing Gym at the 178 lb. weight class.
The two fighters met at the center of the ring when the bell rang and let go some of the most precise and hard-hitting punches the crowd would see the whole evening. Clearly Gephart was ahead on the cards in the first round. Coming into the second, Gephart seemed to take a small break, letting Epply catch up on the cards. The third round woke the crowd up as these two fighters just let it all hang out till the final bell rang. Gephart lost a close split decision of 3-2.
"I looked at Matt when he came to the corner and told him that he just won that fight and of course, to my amazement, I was wrong again," said Wick.
Mississippi County Boxing's last chance at a win came down to Kafern Williams going up against Robert Warren from Jefferson City.
Williams took the match after being notified two days before when Chris Gephart had to pull out due to an injury sustained in training.
Going into the first round Williams was nervous, but started getting comfortable after landing several jabs and clean right hands against Warren. Both fighters were throwing very clean punches and both looked very tired by the end of the second round. Coming into the third round, Warren looked to have a little bit more control of the match, but Williams was clearly trying to make him think differently about that by landing some hard right hands on Warren.
Warren came away with the win by a 3-2 split decision.
"I was very pleased with Kafern's fight this evening," said Wick. "This was his first and he listened well and fought hard. He has a good future ahead of him if he keeps up the hard work."
Mississippi County Boxing's next scheduled fights are going to be on March 18, 2006 at the Dexter Eagles Club on Highway 25 in Dexter where a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Eagles State President's Project for Alzheimers Research. The Main event will be a match up between the Dexter Eagles President, Tom Sanders and the Dexter Eagles Vice-President Barry Blevins. For Ticket Information contact the Dexter Eagles at 573-624-8114 or Brad Wick at 573-380-0383.