Photos by Tony Mangia
On Wednesday night, DiBella Entertainment staged another installment of its popular Broadway Boxing series at New York City's famed B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in midtown Manhattan in front of a enthusiastic sold-out crowd.
In the evening's main event of the six-bout card, Bronx southpaw
Chris "Golden" Galeano met Queens product
Devaun "Unique" Lee in a back-and-forth battle of the local middleweights. Heading into the fight, both Galeano and Lee were coming off impressive victories over previously undefeated prospects — and had an out-of-ring social media grudge to settle.
In the end, the formally unbeaten Galeano (10-1, 1 KO) was upset by Lee (7-2, 3 KOs) after the fight was initially declared a draw. But an error on the scorecards was soon corrected and Lee tabbed a split decision winner via scores of 97-93, 96-94 and 94-96.
Official scores were 96-94 and 97-93 in favor of Lee, with the dissenting judge scoring the bout 96-94 in favor of Galeano after a
closed door discussion. The original scorecards read 96-94 Galeano, 98-92 Lee and an even 95-95 — until the New York State Athletic Commission discovered a scoring error.
Galeano had his hands full with the more aggressive Lee during their fight and it wound up being a battle of Galeano’s speed versus Lee’s power. Lee had a big round in the tenth when he appeared to attack Galeano's swollen face to pull out the upset.
World-ranked super featherweight contender Tevin Farmer had some trouble with Gamaliel Diaz but in the end he still won his fight. Farmer (21-4-1, 5 KO’s) defeated Diaz via ten-round unanimous decision by scores of 97-90 (twice) and 95-92.
A left hook up the middle dropped Diaz hard in the first round. Diaz just smiled and by the fourth he was connecting with straight punches of his own.
He rocked Farmer in the sixth with a right after the two fighters engaged in some heated back and forth verbal sparring. Farmer sat back down on his punches at the end of the round and a straight left dropped Diaz in his corner at the sound of the bell.
Farmer continually knocked out Diaz’s mouthpiece during the fight and in the tenth and final round, Farmer cut Diaz over the eye and the Mexican fighter hit the canvas shortly afterward. Diaz disputed the call, however, and when he got back up both men engaged in a series of exchanges up until the final bell.
Female lightweight Cindy Serrano defeated Renata Domsodi via a lopsided six-round unanimous decision. After Domsodi was cut over the left eye in the second, she continued to come forward and continue to take a beating. Serrano easily outboxed Domsodi, who danced in her corner in between rounds to earn three shut-out scores of 60-54. Serrano is now 24-5-3 with 10 KO’s.
Junior welterweight prospect Shemuel Pagan got rocked and dropped but fought back hard to score a well-earned six round unanimous decision against Ryan Picou. Judges scored the fight 58-56 and 57-56 (twice) for the still unbeaten Pagan (8-0, 4 KO’s).
World-ranked Russian southpaw Artur Akavov beat Todd Manuel all around the ring before stopping him with a body shot in the sixth round of a scheduled eight rounds. Ranked number five by the WBO in the middleweight division, Akavov (16-1, 7 KO’s) stunned Manuel toward the end of the second and dropped him twice with body punches in the fifth.
Manuel (11-11-1, 1 KO) complained of head pain at the start of the sixth round and was inspected by the ringside physician but allowed to continue anyway. As soon as the fight resumed Akavov again connected with a hard body punch, prompting Manuel to hit the canvas yet again. The third time was more than enough and referee Harvey Dock properly called the fight off at the 37-second mark of the frame.
Unbeaten cruiserweight Travis Peterkin (16-0-1, 7 KO’s) defeated Larry Pryor in the first fight of the evening. Peterkin, fighting for the first time since August, was aggressive throughout the eight-rounder. Pryor (9-13, 5 KO’s) was careful and was able to elude many of the Brooklynite's big shots. Peterkin won after earning three identical shutout scores of 80-72.
