Muriqi and Bujas Stop Foes

In front of a near-packed house in Clinton Township (a few miles north and east of Detroit), Albanian boxers veteran Elvir Muriqui and Stivens Bujaj destroyed substitutes Chris Grays and Phillip Jewel in multi-knockdown bouts that had the crowd roaring.

The co-promoters Bad Boy and Clip (Carlos Llinas) put on an eight-bout card in the pleasant venue of The Imperial House, and while the audience, gradually building throughout the evening, sat through a listless undercard, exploded into a party atmosphere when those they had really come to see—Albanians Muriqui and Bujaj—made their appearances.

Former WBO World Title aspirant Muriqui, fighting at slightly above the lightheavyweight level, hammered a game but overmatched Chris Grays, scoring five knockdowns in the two rounds of action, the final three in round two for an automatic TKO. Matchmaker Llinas had to scramble when original opponent, Rubin Williams was disallowed to fight and Bujaj’s opponent, Canadian Frank White, did not show. But neither Grays nor Bujaj’s foe, Phillip Jewel, both heavily outgunned, mailed it in.

A veteran of the Michigan boxing circuit, mostly as an opponent, and heretofore at much lighter weights, lefthander Grays always had a wispy attack, and while he was no match for Muriqui’s forward-ahead aggressiveness, he showed heart in fighting back with what he had—a popgun going against a cannon. The heavily nationalistic Albanian crowd delighted in each of the five knockdowns—amid flagwaving, chanting, and the singing of the Albanian national anthem.

So, too, did the crowd “get into” Bujaj’s dominating performance over the peripatetic Phillip Jewel in the featured bout; Jewel, who rarely fights in Michigan, went down several times (only two declared), but fought back furiously when hurt or cornered. As in the Muriqui bout, it was simply a case of a non-puncher versus a heavyhanded foe. Cruiserweight Bujaj, 6-0, a New Yorker, made his second area appearance and indicated to ring announcer Kara Ro that he saw no reason that he wouldn’t be coming back.

Murqui, 39-5, also indicated that he would not be adverse to returning. He expressed in a post-fight disappointment that he hadn’t given the fans their money’s worth—without criticizing his sub oppon

The undercard had the tenor of a seen-it-before sameness. Indeed, two of the bouts were rematches: Larry Ventis won all seven rounds over a retreating Gabe Morris in a welterweight contest that could have been seen as an extension of their bout the month before in nearby Warren, and middleweight Willie Fortune, 13-0, easily bested the no-fighting Vance Garvey over eight, a virtual repeat of their set-to in Royal Oak in the Fall. Of note in the Ventis match, his seven-rounder was the first bout scheduled for that limit in Michigan—or anywhere else, for that matter—that this reporter is aware of.

The other bouts: Juan Good, 244, Detroit, kayoed the normally durable Cleophis Glover, Bay City; Jafar Kirtley, now a 4-0 junior-featherweight out of Motown, was forced to beat back and stop the advances of a game Chicagoan Greg Dzvibek and stopped him at the end of the second; cruiserweight Michael Harrell of Detroit made a successful pro debut in a first-round TKO that featured two takedowns; and the ubiquitous Guy Packer went a surprising three against undefeated junior-middle Michael Moore.

quelle: fightnews.com, 12.12.2011