Fight Club Series

It was a fantastic start to the Eye of the Tiger Management boxing series, “Fight Club,” with a sold out inaugural event at The Metropolis theater in downtown Montreal. Boxing fans were seen outside the venue clamouring in vain for extra tickets, while inside the atmosphere was electric with boxing luminaries Bermane Stiverne, David Lemieux, Dierry Jean, Abe Pervin and Gaetan Hart all on hand to watch the fights. This was a great showcase event, with all but one of the Eye of the Tiger boxers victorious.

The card opened with a crowd-pleasing slugfest as Louisbert Altidor and Michel Tsalla waged war for four hectic rounds. Every round was close and hard-fought and in the end Altidor won a unanimous decision in his pro debut.

Next up, another competitive and entertaining match, as New York’s Will Madera (6-0) won a unanimous decision over game Abraham Gomez.

Mathieu Germain (4-0) dominated Oscar Barajas, scoring a fourth round TKO and in a mismatch, heavyweight Alex Nicholson of Florida was overwhelmed by Simon Kean and stopped in the opening round.

Michael Gadbois injured his hand in the second round but fought valiantly before dropping a very close decision to eccentric African super featherweight Jesus Singwancha.

In one of the more impressive performances of the night, Ayaz Hussain used his considerable punching power to control Daniel Attah. Continually applying pressure, Hussain eventually stopped the out-gunned Attah in round four. Schiller Hyppolite took some heavy shots from Cedric Bellais before stopping his man, also in round four.

And finally, in the main event, 20-year-old, red-hot prospect Steven Butler (13-0-1) knocked out Teemu Tuominen (10-2) in round one, scoring three knockdowns, the final one courtesy of a laser right hand set up by a little showboating. It may have been short, but it was spectacular and it capped off the card with dramatic flair.

Photos by Robert Levesque.