Seahawks’ attire helps win over fans
Note to future boxers:
How to win over Spokane fight fans:
1. Wear a Seahawks football jersey two days before the team plays in its first Super Bowl.
2. Show off impressive skills in a bout carried live on Showtime pay cable.
Two impressive young boxers did just that Friday night in front of a sellout crowd at Northern Quest Casino’s Pend Oreille Pavilion.
Junior middleweight contender Sechew Powell ran his professional record to 19-0 with a unanimous decision over Robert Frazier in the main event of a “ShoBox: The New Generation” card.
It was his fifth appearance on the cable series, all victories.
The Brooklyn-born Powell, who danced around the ring wearing a Shaun Alexander jersey before the fight and yelled, “Go Seahawks!” on the way out of the ring, won nine of the 10 rounds on all three judge’s scorecards.
“Are you kidding? With the football teams we have in New York?” Powell laughed. “We love the Seahawks!”
There was no love for his ring opponent, however. But there was some well-earned respect.
“I came in knowing he (Frazier) was going to have to bring his ‘A’ game,” Powell said. “And he did. At the same time, I don’t think I fought my best fight, but I did what I came here to do: get a win. I’m the young guy in a fight like this, and I had to show I can handle a tough opponent.”
Frazier (31-7-4) came into the fight with a reputation for going the distance with quality opponents.
“It would have been nice to be the first one of those opponents to stop him,” Powell said. “But it didn’t happen.”
Andre Berto, a 2004 Olympian, wore the jersey of the Seahawks’ Lofa Tatupu to the delight of the partisan crowd, then blitzed Jonathan Tubbs to score a third-round technical knockout.
Berto connected with two short right hooks for a pair of second-round knockdowns and followed that dominating round with two more knockdowns in the third before the referee stopped the bout with 16 seconds left in the round.
In a preview of things to come on the Showtime series, Lorenzo Reynolds (12-0, six KOs) made short work of Rasheen Daniels. Reynolds, nicknamed “Explosive,” lived up to that billing, forcing Daniels to take a knee midway through the first round and again in the closing seconds before declining to continue at the 2:58 mark.
Jamelle Hamilton, Powell’s older brother, won his professional debut when referee Darryl Van Note stopped his four-round bout with Worley’s Frank Bybee.
Bybee, whose straight-ahead fighting style most closely resembles a Weeble (the toy that wobbles but won’t fall down), fought gamely throughout the fight, taking punches in order to land punches.
In trouble along the ropes with 15 seconds left in the bout, Van Note jumped between the boxers to protect an increasingly vulnerable Bybee.
In other bouts, Puyallup heavyweight Eric Boose, who scored an impressive victory last month in Worley, earned a four-round unanimous decision over Adam Smith.
Chauncy Welliver of Spokane, ranked No. 16 by the North American Boxing Federation, scored a third-round TKO over Brian McIntyre.