Rod Salka, the Winner by unanimous Decision
Rod Salka dominated Alexei Collado in the 10-round main event and took the unanimous decision, 96-94, 96-93, 96-93. From the opening bell it was Salka’s superior movement and boxing skills which dictated the tempo of the contest. Salka scored a third-round knockdown and limited his challenger’s offense to looping, clubbing right hands which rarely landed.
“I’m heading to Carson next week to call out the winner of Figueroa-Belmontes (Ed: for the WBC Lightweight World title),” said Salka as he celebrated with his Pittsburgh-area fans after the fight. “I want to fight whoever wins that, doesn’t matter to me. I earned a shot at the title.”
Steve Farhood, ShoBox’s expert analyst said, “You have to love what Salka did and how he did it. Even after scoring a left hook knockdown, Salka stayed with his game, didn’t try to do what he couldn’t do and remained poised and confident in his own abilities. His conditioning was fantastic and even though he did nothing to surprise Collado, the Cuban couldn’t find the answer.”
The evening’s co-feature was more balanced. Undefeated Dominican prospect and Olympic gold medalist Felix Diaz scored a close, eight-round split decision victory over Emmanuel Lartey, 77-75 (Diaz), 77-75 (Lartey), 77-75 (Diaz).
Diaz was aggressive early and was most effective when he utilized combinations. But a third-round right-left combo from Lartey seemed to change the bout’s pace for a few rounds. Diaz recovered and managed to take back control of the fight – doing his best work against the ropes to close.
“It’s disappointing to know it was scored a split decision,” Diaz said. “I think I dominated most of the rounds so I don’t see how the judges scored it that way. “
The opener lasted about as long as it took both fighters to make their way from the dressing rooms to the ring. Undefeated southpaw welterweights Sammy Vasquez and Juan Rodriguez fought for a mere 20 seconds before Rodriguez was knocked down. Less than a minute later, Vasquez dealt Rodriguez a body blow which returned him to the canvas. A third visit followed a barrage of punches thrown by Vasquez which prompted Rodriquez to spit out his mouthpiece. The referee halted the fight at 2:49 into the first.
“It’s not that it was easy, it was that it was well-executed,” said Vasquez, a U.S. Armed Forces veteran who served two tours of duty in Iraq. “We had a game plan, stuck to it and that’s what happened. All the fans, the soldiers watching overseas on AFN (American Forces Network), my family watching on SHOWTIME, that was the biggest part of the night.”
Photo Credit: Stephanie Trapp / SHOWTIME