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Thomas Earns High Marks For Victory

By EDDIE DANIELS The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 1, 2007

TAMPA - As trainer Dan Birmingham cut away the mass of tape from Lenroy "TNT" Thomas' left hand, he gave the heavyweight a letter grade.

"I'd give him an A for this," Birmingham said.

He earned it.

In the first round of his bout against Wallace McDaniel on Friday, Thomas dropped McDaniel twice, each time the effect of powerful lefts from the Jamaican native. The final left came with 7 seconds left in the first round of the Ballroom Brawl at the Westshore DoubleTree Hotel

"We've just been working it, man," Thomas said. "We were in the gym, I think it was last week and I was throwing my one-two, pop, pop. Tuesday I was hitting the bag again and my trainer was like, 'My left was good,' so that gave me the extra confidence."

In the main event, former WBO light welterweight champion Demarcus Corley, in his first bout in the United State since September 2005, lost a split decision to Dairo Esalas.

In the co-main, Vasyl Tarabarov (18-0-1, 6 KOs) of Smolensk, Russia, collected a victory over Ilido Julio after Julio (35-13-1, 31 KOs) was disqualified 20 seconds into the fifth round for excessive low blows.

In the opening bout, a six-round lightweight fight, John Jackson stopped Marteze Logan 1:29 into the sixth round.

In the second bout, junior middleweight Rahman Yusubov needed few punches to end his fight against Adam Ortiz. After landing a few punches, feeling Ortiz (2-5, 1 KO) out, Yusubov (6-1, 4 KOs) unleashed a furious right hook on Ortiz, sending him to the canvass with 57 seconds left in the opening round.

In the third bout of the night, Brian Meadows and Julio Fleming, each junior middleweight fighting out of St. Petersburg, had to settle for a four-round draw.

Fleming (1-1-1) put together a bull-like effort, coming forward and throwing a flurry of punches nearly every moment of the bout.

Also: heavyweight Kertson Manswell (14-0, 12 KOs) was awarded a unanimous decision against Willie Perryman (9-14, 7 KOs). Sarasota light heavyweight Adam Jaco (5-2, 1 KO) earned a unanimous-decision victory against Mike Rayner (4-9, 3 KOs). Lumberton, N.C., cruiserweight Earl Doe (5-1, 3 KOs) landed a solid right hook to Willie Chisolm's (5-2, 3 KOs) head, knocking him out 1:23 into the first.

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