Griffin dominates Cockerham!

Mark Ortega

It was a successful night at the Red Lion Hotel for Sacramento as all four of it’s local fighters won fights. Leading the way were veterans Otis Griffin and Michael Simms, who both won by unanimous decision in their co-main events.

Otis Griffin picked up a win in the light heavyweight division by battering journeyman Carl Cockerham over six rounds en route to a unanimous decision. Griffin [19-3-2] had Cockerham hurt and nearly out a few times, most notably in the second round right before the bell. The referee went to break the action as if he was stopping the fight, even to the point of holding the hurt fighter, but the bell rang and he then dismissed it and allowed the fight to go on. Cockerham [12-18-3] took many punishing shots and was there to land quite a few good blows himself. “Carl is a tough guy. I mean, Mario Veit couldn’t even knock him out so that says something. He also doesn’t throw enough shots to get knocked out. It is hard to knockout a guy who is always coming in with his guard up.” He had his moments throughout the fight but was unable to put much together in terms of winning rounds. Griffin landed the straighter punches, while Cockerham was more looking for the one big shot throughout the fight.

This is Griffin’s first win since losing to Jesse Brinkley in February, in a fight where he came in totally weight drained. “I want to get three wins here in Sacramento, and then start getting in the mix with the bigger names. I want to take my time, it should happen this year. When I had my belt, I should have sat there and waited,” Griffin said. “I am gonna stay at light heavyweight and get all those belts. Right now I would like to fight Tavoris Cloud, who has my old (WBO NABO) belt that I never lost. He has the belt, but I think he should give me that chance. He didn’t beat the man; he beat the man next to the man.”

Michael Simms ended his career long five fight losing streak by winning a unanimous decision over former Roy Jones, Jr. opponent Derrick Harmon in six rounds. Simms [20-9-1] was able to drop Harmon in the first round and had him badly hurt, but did not jump on him and wasn’t able to finish him. Harmon [25-7] outworked Simms over the next five rounds, but the judges believed that Simms must have been more effective with his shots. There were some sparks with twenty seconds left in the sixth as both fighters knew that whoever won the sixth round likely won the fight. Simms ended up winning by a wider margin than the fight would make you believe, with scores of 58-55 (x2) and 57-56. Harmon was coming off of a nearly two year layoff, and seemed upset at the result of the fight. “He dropped me in the first, but then I feel I won the next five rounds.”

Brandon Gonzales got his fourth straight knockout in four professional fights over Mike Alexander, but not before having to deal with his first taste of adversity. Gonzales [4-0] was dropped by Alexander from a glancing blow in the first round, but then got up and won the rest of the round. Alexander [1-2-2] was having some problems with his hand somewhere along the bout, and Gonzales was able to put his combinations together before finally walking Alexander down and dropping him with a vicious left body blow. Alexander didn’t beat the count and the bout was stopped at the 2:50 mark. “It was a good fight, you know first round I came out kinda sleeping and be got me but then I got him out of there in the second round. Gonzales also added, “I knew I needed to go to the body, he had his ear muffs on. He has a long torso so there was a lot of opportunities to get him downstairs, and that is how we finished him.” Gonzales will also be July card in Sacramento.

In the opening bout, Stan Martyniouk scored his first professional knockout as he was able to finish Matt Mahler at the thirty second mark of the opening round with a flury of punches followed by a right hook. Mahler [0-1] started off swarming Martyniouk, but his superb defense wasted all of Mahler’s shots. Martyniouk worked patiently behind his combinations and scored a devastating knockout near the ropes. “It was his pro debut, I knew he was going to jump on me. I knew I just had to be patient,” Martyniouk said. Stan moves to 3-0 and will definitely be fighting on the next Sacramento card in July, but he hopes to fit in a fight before then as well.
A bout was scrapped at the last minute between Geraldo Lopez and Tyrone Scott. Lopez will likely be fighting on the July Sacramento card, as well.

The card was promoted by Uppercut Promotions and was held at the Red Lion Hotel in Sacramento.