La. inmates match up at annual WCI boxing show

THE DAILY NEWS

The men of Dixon Correctional Institute swept five of the seven fights they participated in at the Washington Correctional Institute's sixth annual Terry Wood King of Hearts Memorial Boxing Show last night.

The event featured nine championship challenges in nine different weight classes and a total of 14 boxing matches between 28 inmates from throughout the Louisiana penetentiary system.

Three inmates from WCI competed in non-title matches, but none were victorious: light middleweight David Whipple fell to DCI's Brad Soloman, Jamon Bourgeois got a knock-down from Jessie Fair of Avoyelles Correctional Center, and Claude Jones was defeated by the Louisiana State Pen's Jerry Brown. WCI's James Harrison lost his light welterweight title match against Melvin Mingo of the LSP.

AVC's Terrence Taylor took the title in the night's only featherweight bout, but he and his opponent, Ronnie Sparks of Hunt Correctional Center, both left with trophies n theirs was proclaimed the fight of the night.

Super heavyweight Fannon Smith of the LSP was awarded the King of Hearts n the night's most prestigious honor. Though the 251-pound Smith lost to 282-pound DCI powerhouse James Grady in what was arguably the most exciting fight of the night, he was judged to have shown the most spirit, courage and sportsmanship in the ring.

In the heavyweight class, returning champion Kalrick James (198 pounds) of AVC defended his title against the LSP's Michael Lovick (182), winning by unanimous decision.

In other divisions, the results were as follows:

uAVC's Robert Clay defeated DCI's Samson Rubin for the lightweight title

uDCI's Eric Johnson defeated the LSP's Sydney Robinson for the welterweight title

uHCC's Kendrick Mills defeated AVC's George Tobias for the light middleweight title

uThe LSP's Steve Evans defeated DCI's Donald Wesley for the middleweight title

uDCI's Marcus Clay defeated the LSP's Sammy Crawford by split decision to become the new light heavyweight champion

uHCC's Felix Green defeated AVC's Kenny Kendricks for the lightweight title

uDCI's Earl Mayer defeated the LSP's Vu Nguyen by split decision for the light welterweight title

The show at WCI was the first of many Louisiana inmate boxing meets that will take place throughout the state this year. The show's proceeds will be donated to the BHS JROTC program.