'Lass' Vegas: Women's boxing returns
Velez repeats win over Cooper; Santana turns table on Reile

Ringside report & photos by Chris Cozzone

If Las Vegas fight fans left Texas Station disappointed last evening, it wasn’t due to lack of action, but because the hometown girl did not measure up.

There might’ve been a lack of crowd, at Sampson Boxing’s first show, but the three girl fights on the six-bout show provided more than enough proof that women’s boxing is not dead and buried. In two ten-round title bouts and a prelim, six females showed the guys how to fight with a pair of cohones, figuratively speaking, of course.

In the main event, Ada Velez, of Hollywood, Fla., not only duplicated her upset win over once-undefeated Melinda Cooper, but improved upon it, oftentimes, making the Las Vegan look like an amateur.

If there’s been any criticism of Cooper in her nine-year career, it’s been that she’s never fought anyone. That changed in March when Cooper finally took a risk against top veteran Velez, fighting for her first title in Costa Rica. Cooper came home with a split decision loss.

Velez followed Cooper home to Vegas for the rematch. This time around, it wasn’t even close – barring one official’s even scorecard. The 41-year-old veteran Velez not only her retained her IBF super bantam strap, but used it to issue Cooper a spanking.

Velez could not miss. Every time she raised her glove, it collided with Cooper’s face, embarrassingly so. To her credit, though, round after round, Cooper came forward, trying to brawl her way back into a fight completely out of her control.

For the first five rounds, the southpaw Velez made Cooper look clumsy and slow, whether she was trading with the Las Vegas favorite toe-to-toe, or boxing circles around her.

Refusing to quit, Cooper bit down and made the last half of the fight a little closer, forcing Velez to trade and never taking a step back. Picking up one or two rounds for her efforts, Cooper's only success was hurling her smaller foe to the canvas, wrestling-style, in the sixth. Velez continued to pot-shot, outbox and even outslug her in most of the exchanges.

Two judges saw the domination, scoring it 98-92 and 97-93 while the third, somehow, saw an even fight, 95-95, making Velez the winner by majority decision.

“I was very surprised at the draw score,” said Velez, now 20-3-3, 6 KOs. “But it doesn’t matter – I won. I came to her house and I beat her and that’s all that matters.”

Losing her second straight bout against the only top ten fighter she’s yet faced, Cooper falls to 21-2, 11 KOs.

Reile really loses

On that same card in Costa Rica back in March that saw Velez defeat Cooper the first time, Miami’s Stacey Reile edged Dominican Dahiana Santana for the vacant IBF female featherweight title.

Yesterday was payback time for Santana, who not only evened the score and snagged the belt, but roughed up her former conqueror.

That Santana had Reile’s number – the same way that Velez had Cooper’s – was apparent as early as the last ten seconds of round one when the Dominican forced her flashy foe to brawl.

Whether Santana let loose and traded with Reile, or moved on her feet counter-punching, the ring was hers. When a big right floored Reile halfway through the third, and a desperate head butt earned the champion yet another 10-8 round against her, Reile knew she was in for a long night.

Still, she came on, increasingly desperate, increasingly aggressive. Santana wilted in the seventh and pulled back a bit in the last round, but in all others, she reigned.

Round nine saw Reile hit low – just a warning this time by referee Joe Cortez – and when the fight resumed, she pulled out of a clinch, shouting at the ref, “She bit me! She bit me!” Cortez waved ‘em back to action and Santana slugged it out with Reile for yet another round.

After ten, all three judges scored a dominating decision for Santana: 97-90, 97-91 and 98-90. Fightnews scored it 98-90.

Reile loses the belt, falling to 10-4, 4 KOs, while Santana becomes one of the many champs at feather, improving her record to 28-6, 12 KOs.

Titanic TaTina tanks Cisneros

Pulling off what eight world champions – including Holly Holm in two fights and Cecelia Braekhus in one – could not do, pint-sized titanic TaTina “Li’l Tyson” Anderson (5-1-1, 4 KOs) pulled off a third round stoppage of Albuquerque’s Victoria Cisneros (5-13-2, 1 KO).

The two collided in the middle of the ring as the clang of the bell was still echoing off the ceiling, but, showing no defense and a slappy punch, Cisneros made an easy target for Anderson’s overhand rights and can’t-miss hooks.

Anderson showed some footwork in the second, mixing up her toe-to-toe exchanges to show a big following in the crowd that she could waltz when she so desired. She didn’t have to, of course, for Cisneros prefers to stand in one place and duke it out – and for most of the round, that’s what happened. Once again, Anderson’s heftier punches found a home on Cisneros’ mug.

In the third, a big right staggered Cisneros. Tying up – a rarity for the big-hearted New Mexican – then throwing back was a futile effort and Anderson rushed in for the slaughter that saw ref Robert Byrd leaping in at 1:02 to end the bout.

Mago shuts down Power

In an eight-round heavyweight bout, Russian Magomed “Mago” Abdusalmov (12-0, 12 KOs) had little trouble with Rich Power (15-2, 11 KOs), of Keego Harbor, Mich.

The hybrid MMA/boxing fighter tinkered around with the slow-moving-but-patiently-plodding Russian for the first round-and-a-half, hitting on the move, trying to outbox and not stand anywhere too long.

It worked for a bit, but Power quickly lost his juice as Mago closed the gap and let fly straight lefts – apparently the southpaw’s only punch – that weakened, then floored, then shut down Power.

Official time of stoppage was 2:21.

Cosio tears into Torres

In a six-round welter bout, Panama’s Azael Cosio (12-1-2, 9 KOs) scored the best shot of the night with his right-to-the-chin goodnight shot of Michael Torres (14-3, 7 KOs), of Jersey City, N.J.

Cosio stalked early and Torres tore up the track, hitting and running under the heavy glare of the low-hanging ballroom lights. By the third, Cosio closed the gap and was starting to land, and damage Torres, who was also bleeding around the right eye.

In the fifth, Cosio landed his adios shot on Torres’ chinny-chin-chin, and he was stretched out on the canvas a full five minutes.

Brand marks Woods

In the opening bout, Colombian Alexander Brand (15-0, 13 KOs) kept his record clean but had to settle for the unanimous over game Terrance Woods (9-3, 6 KOs), of Bay City, Texas.

Woods gave Brand a fight in the early rounds, playing the aggressor, but the Colombian’s big rights made the difference. After he was cut under his right eye, during the last three stanzas, Woods headed for the hills, Brand chasing and trying to land the kayo shot that never came.

Etcetera

Sampson Boxing returns in December when he teams up with Mexican promoter for a show at the Mandalay Bay, Dec. 16. Also, in January, an all-female show is in the works.

The crowd might’ve been less than capacity, but it was quality over quantity: big names were in attendance, including Sergio Martinez, Mike “The Bodysnatcher” McCallum, undefeated Sharif Bogere, Laura Serrano, Melissa Hernandez, Kaliesha West, Ava Knight, Layla McCarter, Sharon Gaines and Mandy La Pointe. The biggest surprise was sitting front row center: UFC boss Dana White, apparently just off the plane from San Jose the night before, for UFC 139.