MAYFLOWER MADNESS
RECAP
By:Michael Parente
Photos By: Emily Harney

PLYMOUTH, Mass. – Time will not stand still for Jason Pires in his quest to win a world title.
The 34-year-old welterweight from New Bedford, Mass., spent five of the best years of his life chasing his dream of becoming a police officer in his hometown.
Having accomplished the first of two goals, Pires is now back in the ring chasing the much more elusive quest of capturing boxing immortality despite the fact he’s admittedly closer to the end of his career than the beginning.
“I’m 34,” Pires said Friday night after thoroughly beating Louie Leija by unanimous decision in the main event of Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment & Sports’ “Mayflower Madness” s how at Memorial Hall. “Time is running out, but I’ll take my time and see what happens.”
Considering the way he fought against Leija, perhaps Father Time will grant Pires one last shot.
Looking much sharper and fresher than he did in his comeback fight four months ago, Pires punished Leija (21-10-1) for eight rounds to score an 80-72, 80-72, 80-71 victory and improve his record to 22-3. Although he absorbed a few clean shots from Leija as well, Pires never appeared hurt and displayed remarkable stamina well into the final round in the exciting finale of CES’ first show in Plymouth.

“Mayflower Madness” also featured victories by Andrey Nevsky, Mical Weisberg, Manny Lopes, Kali Reis and Paul Delgado in front of a spirited crowd at historic Memorial Hall – the home of “The Radisson Hotel Plymouth Harbor Fight Series” in 2009.
“Louie Leija’s fought some big guys and that’s what I wanted – no pushover,” Pires said. “He comes to fight and that’s what I wanted.
“I definitely felt less rust. When I fought [in November] I was a little rusty, but in this fight I was able to make my weight and do my thing, work my body shots and head shots and my combinations came together. That’s what I wanted for this fight.”
The two welterweights exchanged blows at point-blank range for most of the first three rounds until Pires – who checked in at a lean 143 ½ pounds for Thursday’s weigh-in – began to dominate the latter half of the fight.
Pires clearly had more stamina than his 35-year-old challenger and it showed toward the end of the bout, particularly in the seventh round when the “School Boy” blistered Leija with a series of combinations in the closing minute to cap his most dominant stretch of the night.
“Conditioning is the No.1 thing I do in training,” Pires said. “My running definitely helped me out for this fight. I felt good. That’s where I want to be.”
Although Pires isn’t ranked near the top of any of the major sanctioning bodies, the sister sanctions such as the NABF [North American Boxing Federation], NABO [North American Boxing Organization] and the USBA [United States Boxing Association] may soon start paying attention to his credentials following Friday’s win.
Burchfield’s goal is to get Pires a title shot sometime in the near future – as long as time continues to wait.
“I’m definitely a guy to be reckoned with and I come to fight,” Pires said. “After this fight, I want better competition and better money. I’ll take my time and see what happens and take it one fight at a time. I don’t want to rush into things right now.”

***

Highlighted by Pires’ exciting victory, Team CES enjoyed a successful night at “Mayflower Madness.”
No knockouts were recorded, but Worcester’s Andrey Nevsky came close in his unanimous decision win over William Deets. The 163-pound Russian dropped Deets (2-10) twice in their four-round super middleweight bout, but the challenger from Omaha, Neb., withstood the pressure long enough to go the distance. His perseverance only delayed the inevitable, however, as Nevsky improved to 6-0 with a 40-34, 40-34, 40-34 victory in his first fight in 11 months.
After a dominant opening round, Nevsky unleashed a looping right hook in the second that sent Deets wobbling into the ropes and followed through with a series of combination to finish the knockdown.
Nevsky floored Deets again in the third, but Deets continued to show remarkable spirit, even taunting his opponent in the closing minutes of the fight.
“I didn’t go really forward because I knew I won this fight and I didn’t want to put myself at risk because I want to fight again maybe next month,” said Nevsky, who withheld from using his left hand after injuring it early in the fight. “I want to fight more fights – as many as I can. I didn’t fight for a year and my career was going slow, but now it’s moving fast again.”

***

Local favorite Manny Lopes of Marshfield stole the show on the undercard in a four-round unanimous decision win over super middleweight Eric Clinton (0-5-1) of Tallahassee, Fla., in front of a raucous fan base that made the trip to watch Lopes’ first fight in his home state.
Back in the ring for the first time in more than a year after injuring his right hand, Lopes remained unbeaten at 5-0-1 despite looking off balance at times due to the 14-month layoff. Lopes wanted to ease his way back into the fire at his own pace, but ultimately found himself in a back-and-forth war with the pesky challenger.
“My plan was to go in and box, but every time I get hit I get excited and I want to go in there and brawl,” Lopes said. “The third round wasn’t a brawl as much, but I came back in the fourth with my jab and I was trying to put the pressure on him because I knew it was close coming into the fourth.”
Clinton buzzed Lopes with a hard right hand in the fourth, but didn’t follow through, allowing Lopes to regain his composure and finish the fight with a flurry to secure the 38-37, 38-37, 40-34 victory.
More importantly, he reported no ill effects from the right hand that caused his long layoff.
“My adrenaline is still going. It could be broken for all I know,” joked Lopes.

***

While Lopes made his Massachusetts debut as a professional on Friday night, veteran welterweight Paul “The Truth” Delgado returned home with a majority decision win over Quebec’s Sebastien Hamel (10-17-1).
Born in Cape Verde and raised in New Bedford, Delgado moved to the south and fought in Georgia for most of his career before returning to Massachusetts on Friday in his first fight in the Bay State since 1999.
“This was definitely exciting. It was a good way to come back,” Delgado said. “I’ve been on the road a lot in my career and this was definitely a change.”
Neither fighter scored a knockdown, but Delgado proved to be the aggressor, which earned him a close 60-54, 58-56, 57-57 victory to improve his record to 20-8-1. Friday’s win was also Delgado’s first fight since 2007, ending a 17-month layoff due to a ruptured drum in his right ear that required surgery.
“I was fighting like that for two years and didn’t know it until this past year,” Delgado said. “Sixty-five percent of my eardrum was missing and they had to go cover it up. It was a major procedure, but it helped my balance a lot.
“I feel a lot more balanced and I feel like my depth perception is a lot better on this side. In the past, all the shots I’d been caught with was left hooks. Now I’m doing a better job protecting myself on this side and it’s been good.”

***

The night began with light heavyweight Mical Weisberg’s win over Pete Guthy by majority decision and ended with a thrilling fight between female junior middleweights Kali Reis of Providence and Alexsandra Magdziak Lopes of Marshfield.
Similar to the match between Delgado and Hamel, Weisberg needed every last point to hold off Guthy, who looked much savvier than his 1-5-2 record indicated. Weisberg’s stamina proved to be the difference as he surged toward the latter half of the fight and held on to secure a 39-37, 39-37, 38-38 decision.
Lopes and Ries staged a similar war, with Ries improving to 2-0 with a 39-37, 39-37, 39-37 victory – the seventh time these two have fought one another, including six amateur bouts.
Reis was decidedly more active throughout the fight, but Lopes – the wife of Manny Lopes’ father and trainer, Wayne Lopes – claims she landed the harder punches and thus deserved to earn at least a draw in her professional debut.
“She was a little busy in terms of the number of punches she threw, but a lot of her punches landed on my arms and were blocked by my gloves,” Lopes said.
“They’re technically not supposed to be scored. I think I landed the cleaner, sharper punches. I landed a lot of uppercuts and a lot of left hooks.”
Though they’ve fought seven times since their amateur careers, Lopes acknowledged that Reis is a much different fighter than the last time they exchanged blows.
“She’s definitely strong and she’s put on some weight, so she feels heavier and stronger,” Lopes said. “Technically, we know each other because I’ve beaten her three times, but the truth is the last time I fought her was a year and a half ago. Since then, we’ve both changed a lot. You really can’t compare this to the last fight.”
“She was a little bit more prepared, but not much has changed,” countered Reis. “She runs a lot, so I already had my game plan and I was ready to fight.”
Conversely, Reis considers herself a much stronger fighter since working with trainer Dr. Roland Estrada, the father of CES heavyweight Jason “Big Six” Estrada.
“I’ve gotten more aggressiveI’m not just punching and getting hit,” she said. “I’m using my angles and trying to be more of a boxer. I feel I wanted it more tonight.”

WEIGHTS FROM PLYMOUTH

Jason Pires 143.5 LBS. Louie Leija 147 LBS.
Paul Delgado 146 LBS. Sebastien Hamel 146.5 LBS.
Manuel Antonio Lopes 165 LBS. Eric Clinton 167.5 LBS.
Mical Weisberg 171.5 LBS. Pete Guthy 172 LBS.
Andrey Nevsky 163 LBS. William Deets 165 LBS.
Kali Reiss 150 LBS. Alexsandra Magdziak Lopes 148.5 LBS.

PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES

Jason Pires: “Tomorrow is going to be an exciting night. I’ve really trained hard, two months strong, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.”

Louie Leija: “I’m not much of a talker. I’ll do my speaking in the ring.”

Manuel Antonio Lopes: “I’m excited to be fighting so close to home. We worked hard in training camp for 6-7 weeks. I’m looking forward to putting on a great show.”

Eric Clinton: “I’m very excited to be here in Massachusetts. I’m looking forward to putting on a good show.”

Kali Reiss: “I’ve trained really hard for a long time. We have a lot of history together; not amateurs this time – no headgear or big gloves.”

Alexsandra Magdziak Lopes: “I graduated in this building from Plymouth South. It seems like a long time. I never thought I’d be making my pro debut here. A lot of my friends will be here tomorrow night. It’s going to be a great fight.”

Special Ceremony: Charles “Babe” Wood will be posthumously inducted into the CES Ring of Honor during a special ceremony. The late Wood trained world champions Rocky Marciano, Sonny Liston and Paul Pender, among the most notable fighters he coached and advised for so many years. Promoter Jimmy Burchfield, president of CES, established the CES Ring of Honor in 2005 to honor inductees for their special accomplishments and contributions to New England boxing. Charter members include 5-time world champion Vinny “The Pazmanian Devil” Paz, former WBA and WBC welterweight title-holder Marlon “Magic Man” Starling, and 3-time The Ring Fighter of the Year (2001-2003) participant “Irish” Micky Ward. Other CES Ring of Honor members include the late, great Rocky Marciano, former 3-time world champion “El Gallo” Jose Antonio Rivera, world light heavyweight contender “Iceman” John Scully, famed Connecticut trainer Johnny Dukes, 2008 U.S. Olympian Demetrious “Boo Boo” Andrade, Gary “Tiger” Balletto, and 4-time national amateur champion Bobby Harris.

Pro Boxing returns to home of original Pilgrims
“Mayflower Madness,” March 6 at Memorial Hall in Plymouth, MA

PROVIDENCE (February 18, 2009) – Professional boxing returns March 6 to historic Plymouth as Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment and Sports, Inc. (CES) promotes “Mayflower Madness” at Memorial Hall.

“Mayflower Madness” is the first in a 4-fight arrangement, “The Radisson Hotel Plymouth Harbor Fight Series,” scheduled in 2009 at Plymouth Memorial Hall and promoted by CES.

“We’re looking at three or four home bases and all we’ve studied had to be interested in wanted us,” CES president Jimmy Burchfield said at today’s press conference held on the steps of Memorial Hall. “We found that management here at Memorial Hall wants CES to promote fights here in Plymouth. We very happy to have signed an exclusive deal here for boxing and now it’s up to Plymouth to show it wants major league boxing here. We’re all confident of making it work here.”

New Bedford police officer Jason “School Boy” Pires, former USBA champion and 1996 U.S. Olympic Team Alternate, headlines in an 8-round welterweight bout against former IBF Intercontinental champion Louie Leija. Pires (21-3, 9 KOs), returning from a 5 ½ year lay-off to complete his education at the U. of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and become a police officer, won a 6-round decision against Frank Houghtaling last November. Leija (21-9-1, 15 KOs), fighting out of San Antonio, has been in against some of the world’s top fighters such as Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Ben Tackie, and Jesus Chavez. Leija’s cousin is former WBC super bantamweight champion Jessie James “The Texas Tornado” Leija.

Former New Bedford fighter Paul “The Truth” Delgado (19-8-1, 4 KOs), now based in Atlanta, returns to Massachusetts for a 6-round welterweight bout versus Troy Smith (6-9-3, 0 KOs), of Brockton. Delgado has faced the iron during his 10-year pro career, including Paulie Malignaggi (twice), Dmitry Salita and Demetrius Hopkins.

Light heavyweights Manuel Antonio Lopes (4-0-1, 1 KO), of Marshfield (MA), and Bridgewater State College graduate Mical Weisberg (1-0, 1 KO), of Stoughton (MA), are fighting in separate 4-round matches against opponents to be determined.

Also fighting on the undercard in 4-round fights are unbeaten Lynn (MA) junior bantamweight Isander “Peachy” Beauchamp (5-0-1, 2 KOs) against Elton Dharry (2-4-1), of Brooklyn, Providence junior middleweight Kali Reiss (1-0, 1 KO) versus pro debuting Alexsandra Magdziak Lopes. Alexsandra is married to Manuel Lopes’ father, Wayne, who’ll be working the corners for his wife and son. All fights and fighters are subject to change.

Tickets for “Mayflower Madness” are priced at $35.00 (Bronze), $45.00 (Silver), $55.00 (Gold), and $75.00 (Jimmy’s Platinum Club). To purchase call CES (401.724.2253/2254), going on line at www.cesboxing.com.

Contact CES (401.724.2253/2254/www.cesboxing.com) for more information. Doors open at 6:15 PM/ET, first bout at 7:15 PM/ET.