Stanionis, Kent Cruz, and Booker Stay Undefeated on a Midweek Show in L.A.

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By Arne K. Lang

Mid-week shows are becoming more common in boxing as impatient promoters clear up a backlog of postponed fights without waiting for the lockout to be lifted. Tonight, Premier Boxing Champions commandeered LA’s Microsoft Theater for a little card headlined by a 10-round welterweight match between Eimantas Stanionis (pictured) and Justin DeLoach – a fight originally set down on March 14 at Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Stanionis, a 2016 Olympian from Lithuania who now resides in the LA area and had Freddie Roach in his corner, was stepping up in class, but proved to be too strong for Georgia’s DeLoach (19-5) who at 6-foot-1 had a five-inch height and five-inch reach advantage. The aggressor throughout, Stanionis (11-0, 8 KOs) eventually broke DeLoach down and took him out in the ninth, knocking him down twice before referee Ray Corona stepped in and halted it.

A barrage of punches climaxed by a left hook to the body sent DeLoach to the canvas for the first time. The Lithuanian went for the kill and felled DeLoach again with an assortment of punches. The official time was 2:53.

Other Bouts

Undefeated junior welterweight Kent Cruz barely broke a sweat against Erik Humberto Castillo whose corner pulled him out after the second round. Cruz, who is of Puerto Rican descent but was born in Rhode Island and spent most of his teen years in St. Louis, improved to 16-0-1 with his 10^th stoppage. Castillo, who came in five pounds overweight and was soft in the bread basket, brought a 9-2 record but had fought exclusively at sawdust joints in Tijuana where the opposition, to put it mildly, was raggedy. Cruz was credited with landing 13 of 85 punches but the punch-counter was obviously over-caffeinated.

In the TV opener, Connecticut southpaw Chordale Booker returned to the ring after a 17-month absence elongated by a torn Achilles tendon and won a split decision over Florida’s Sonny Duversonne in an 8-round junior middleweight contest. Booker, who improved to 16-0 (7), faded late as Duversonne (11-2-2) came on strong in rounds six and seven, but two of the judges were out to lunch and Booker maintained his undefeated record. The scores were 77-75, 77-75, and 75-77.

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