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'K.O.' Thurman Knocks Out Bell In First Round

By EDDIE DANIELS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 16, 2008

TAMPA - Entering the ring Friday night at the A La Carte Pavilion, Clearwater welterweight Keith Thurman was announced as "K.O." by ring announcer Mark Beiro.

It's not Thurman's official moniker, but why not? Thurman's unforgiving left hook dropped a seventh consecutive opponent in Montego Bay's Omar Bell (6-1, 4 KOs) 2:01 into the first round.

A right sent Bell into the ropes, and when he came off, Thurman (7-0, 7 KOs) was waiting.

"Once he bounced off those ropes, I saw his right hand was down, and that was an opportunity for my left hook," Thurman said. "I threw it, it connected, he dropped."

In the main event, Port Richey's Carlos Rivera (14-3-2, 5 KOs) used relentless pressure, forcing Juan Cruz (5-4, 1 KO) to succumb via a seventh-round technical knockout.

In the Starfight Productions' Fight Night at the Pavilion, Ahsandi Gibbs (9-0, 3 KOs) survived a first-round knockdown and cuts over each eye to claim a 57-55 unanimous decision against Marvin Blair (2-1-1) in a fight that could be classified as career-defining.

He fought through Blair's reach advantage and began to land effective jabs, eventually dropping Blair in the sixth with a hammering left to the head.

"I guess that's just a testament to my training and me as a fighter," Gibbs said. "To be able to just push through that."

In his professional debut, Reynaldo Cepeda earned a knockout of Brandon Reid (0-2) 40 seconds into the first round. The first knockdown came with a brutal left hook to the body, followed seconds later with the final punch, a copycat left hook to the body.

Julio Fleming (1-1-2) and Manny Cortessis (2-0-1, 1 KO) fought to a four-round majority draw.

Crowd favorite Nicholas Iannuzzi (8-0, 5 KOs) dropped Troy Griffin (2-1, 1 KO) twice in the first round, the final blow - a shortened left hook - ended the fight at the 2:53 mark of the first round.

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