#venroy july

[onqsports]

"Against The Ropes" with Rich Quinones. Rich catches up with Philly Boxer Anthony Ferrante at the Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington, Maryland before he ta...

[onqsports]

Ferrante backs up guarantee, scores vicious knockout over Venroy July

By: Rich Quiñones (Ringside Commentator)

Anthony "Boom Boom" Ferrante had one message for his doubters and his critics Friday night moments before he stepped into the ring against Venroy "Hardwork" July in the co-main event of a stacked card at Rosecroft Raceway.

"My career is not dead, I am not retiring," was Ferrante's message moments before he faced July.

The talented, but maligned fighter at times, delivered that message when he backed up his KO guarantee earlier in the week, by scoring a brilliant upset win as he caught an unsuspecting July with a gorgeous straight right hand that sent the veteran crashing down onto the canvas in the second round of their slated eight-round cruiserweight affair in front of a jam-packed house at the Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington, Maryland.

Ferrante (14-6, 9 ko's), who earlier in the week predicted he would knockout July was not fazed by the veteran's punching power early on in this one.

It was evident from the opening bell, that July's lack of power would play right into Ferrante's hands, as the native of Philadelphia, PA, would smile and almost goat July into engaging him.

"I told you we were going to be patient and just feel him out," he said after his career-defining win. "I knew the knockout would come, I just saw it, I knew his shots were not hurting me, I knew it was going to come. I told you. I predicted it and I knew it would happen."

Ferrante, who was coming off two awful loses looked focused from the get go. A far cry from when he last stepped into the ring.

The 30-year-old had dropped four of his last five bouts and was coming off two grueling loses, his last one was against Pedro Martinez back in March, when Martinez pulled off the six-round upset by simply being more active then Ferrante.

The bout was ugly to watch and afterwards people wandered if something was physically wrong with Ferrante.

"My last fight was me acting totally unprofessional with stepping in the ring in the condition I was. I was hospitalized 20 days before the Anthony Caputo-Smith fight with bi-lateral pneumonia and thankfully had strong enough meds to help me fight the Caputo fight. I did not take any time off when the Pedro fight came. I went to the fight with a 103 fever from the pneumonia returning," he would say after that defeat."

However, Friday night was a completely different story.

Looking to be in the best shape of his career and more determined, Ferrante never let July get settled into a groove.

In the first round after July tried to pop his jab off to set the tone of the fight, Ferrante countered with some solid body shots that scored as the round came to a close.

A confident Ferrante, smiled and was firing himself up as he walked carefree back to his corner, knowing the inevitable would happen.

Ferrante looked like he was shot out of a cannon, and came right at July in the second round, staggering him with a couple of straight jabs and over powering him with a serious of damaging body shots, before finishing him off with a gorgeous straight right hand that toppled July back-first to the canvas.

The 31-year-old, tried to get to his feet, but couldn't as the bout was waved off at 1:26.

A jubilant Ferrante jumped onto the neutral corner ropes just above the broadcast table and then celebrated in the middle of the ring with his corner.

"I knew this guy had no power, and he never felt power like I have. I told everyone I would knock this guy out and I did, it was a huge win for me, I worked hard man."

July fell to 16-2-3 has been knocked out in two of his last six bouts, leaving many to wander if that was the last time we have seen of him in the ring.

More recap of the night's action to follow....

    Rich Quiñones is an award winning broadcaster and journalist. He is the lead blow-by-blow Boxing voice for GFL.tv and Go Fight Live’s Boxing on Comcast. He has sat ringside calling the action with Monte Barrett, Brian

Adams, Amir Mansour, Danny Garcia, James Kirkland, Mark Breland, Ronnie Shields, Teddy Atlas and Lou DiBella, while broadcasting over 125 bouts for GFL in 2013-2014.

Rich is also a contributor to Ringnews24.com and he has also handled calling the action for Muay Thai and is exclusive lead blow-by-blow voice for CFFC MMA.

You can follow Rich on twitter @ https://twitter.com/RichQonQ and Tumblr.com @ http://onqsports.tumblr.com as well as LinkedIn and instagram.com/richqonq. Subscribe and follow his youtube page

https://plus.google.com/u/0/106138376864900587745/posts

[onqsports]

Ferrante looking to get career back on track, predicts KO win over Venroy July

By: Rich Quinones (Ringside commentator)

Trying to get his career back on track, Anthony Ferrante steps into the ring to take on crafty and talented Venroy July in a slated eight-round cruiserweight affair Friday October 24th at the Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington, Maryland.

The stacked card is being promoted by Keystone Boxing and will have several young hot prospects step into the ring.

"I'm so excited to get back in the ring," said Ferrante exclusively to On "Q" Sports Thursday. "Where this guy is ranked, after I knock him (July) out it will put me right back in the mix."

July (16-1-3, 6 Ko's) has only one setback in his career and that was a 3rd TKO loss to Elvin Sanchez back in February of 2013. He is coming off an eight-round majority draw to Quantis Graves in April, which snapped a three-fight win streak.

Against Sanchez, July took the first two rounds, but Sanchez was able to get inside, working the body and dropping the native of St Catherine, Jamaica with a gorgeous right hook to the head. July was able to get back on his feet, but his legs were shaky, prompting Malik Waleed to halt the action at 2:55 of the round.

The time is now for Ferrante. The 30-year-old has dropped four of his last five bouts and is coming off two grueling loses, his last one was against Pedro Martinez back in March, when Martinez pulled off the six-round upset bysimply being more active then Ferrante.

The bout was ugly to watch and afterwards people wandered if something was physically wrong with Ferrante.

"My last fight was me acting totally unprofessional with stepping in the ring in the condition I was. I was hospitalized 20 days before the Anthony Caputo-Smith fight with bi-lateral pneumonia and thankfully had strong enough meds to help me fight the Caputo fight. I did not take any time off when the Pedro fight came. I went to the fight with a 103 fever from the pneumonia returning."

It showed as he looked sluggish, tired and just not into the fight. 

The loss dropped him to 12-6 in his career and to add insult to injury he was slated to fight for the UBF World Cruiserweight Title against Rico Hoye on June 27th, but that was postponed.

The bout was originally scheduled to take place at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

However, according to Ferrante there were some issues with AG promotions, who co-promoted the card.

"I really do not know what happened to be honest, I was told there was an issue with the two promoters and the whole card is scratched," Ferrante said.

"It really sucks, I trained so hard, and to be honest, that was the best I have ever felt mentally and physically and I do not know why I got picked for that fight, but I was ready man."

Ferrante's career has had its share of ups and downs, especially after he originally defeated Isa Akberbayev two years ago.

"It took a while after a destroyed that punk Isa (Akberbayev) to mentally get back to where I needed to be because basically I was robbed at gunpoint with that fight, with it being changed to a NC for a bullshit steroid test that we proved in court was a lie but it didn't matter because sadly and it's not a hidden truth that boxing is corrupt."

Ferrante took the fight on 21 days’ notice back in 2012 and he was not given much of a chance to win by anyone. He subsequently went into Madison Square Garden and promptly broke down a an undefeated boxer with well over 300 amateur fights. However, after the fight he received a call from the New York State Boxing Commission that he failed his drug test for two injectable steroids.

After being suspended for a year, Ferrante got back into the ring to square off against Smith for the USA Pennsylvania Cruiserweight Title, and his quest to clear his name inside the ring.

Neither happened and he suffered a controversial split-decision loss.

Ferrante scored a gorgeous knockdown in the sixth round and it looked like the bout would be over, but Caputo-Smith beat the count and was saved by the bell.

However, Ferrante and his camp saw it another way. “We watched the fight several times on GFL.tv and he was given a very long count by Steve Smoger. We clocked it at almost 15 seconds, are you kidding me, how can that happen,” an angry Ferrante claimed days after the setback.

“You saw the fight you called it at ringside, and I know you even said you disagreed with the scoring and you scored the fight in favor of me. This is how bad it got. Smith came up to me after the fight and told me that he was sorry, because he knew I won.”

The judges’ scorecards read 95-94 Ferrante, 95-94 Smith and 95-94 for Smith.

No one wants to hear excuses, especially in boxing, but one thing is for sure.

It is all on Ferrante when he steps into the ring against July on the 24th.

"So with that said, I hope when I completely destroy this guy (July) they do not try and pull the same thing," he concluded. 

If he wins he will have earned it. If he loses, rest assure no one will be listening to any more excuses.

   Rich Quiñones is an award winning broadcaster and journalist. He is the lead blow-by-blow Boxing voice for GFL.tv and Go Fight Live’s Boxing on Comcast. He has sat ringside calling the action with Monte Barrett, Brian Adams, Amir Mansour, Danny Garcia, James Kirkland, Mark Breland, Ronnie Shields, Teddy Atlas and Lou DiBella, while broadcasting over 200 bouts for GFL in 2013-2014.

He called the 87th Annual New York Daily News Golden Gloves Finals in April, 2014 for Broadway Boxing, and recently called the first ever all-female pro card in North American history in Canada.

Rich is also the lead blow-by-blow voice for Joe Hand's "Tuesday Night Fights" Boxing series in Philadelphia and created "Against The Ropes" on his sponsored Youtube channel. 

Rich is also a contributor to Ringnews24.com and Boxing Let's Talk. He has also handled calling the action for "Take On" Muay Thai and is exclusive lead blow-by-blow voice for CFFC MMA.

You can follow Rich on twitter @ https://twitter.com/RichQonQ and Tumblr.com @ http://onqsports.tumblr.com as well as LinkedIn and instagram.com/richqonq. Subscribe and follow his youtube page

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[stiffjab]

Elvin Sanchez Stuns Venroy July At D.C. Armory

by Trey Pollard

A wide-open right hook from Danny Sanchez gave him an upset over undefeated DMV cruiserweight prospect Venroy July, who was sent mouth-open and head-back onto the ropes just before the end of the 3rd round. July somehow stumbled to his feet, showing enough guts to justify a complaint about an early stoppage, but it was a safe call and a big win for the the visiting Sanchez.

July initially delivered a pair of solid rounds, sending Sanchez down with a right hand in the second as he tried to move inside. Sanchez was up quickly and survived til the 3rd, when he made his move.

Taking advantage of a lapse by July, Sanchez shook off the slowness that had bugged him for the early minutes and doubled up on left hands, before throwing high and low to stagger July. July's legs teetered ominously, but somehow held him up for a few more moments.

The two fighters swung to the corner, where July was caught by a devastating right. Given the blank look on his face when his back hit the canvas, it was almost as surprising that July got to his feet. But the fight was justly stopped and the upset awarded to the man from Patterson, NJ.