Hanshaw easily wallops Maciel

The Warren native remains undefeated despite a long layoff.
By BOB ROTH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
CANTON -- Warren native Tony Hanshaw punctuated his comeback from a 15-month ring layoff Friday night at the Civic Center with a power punching knockout of Victor Maciel, from Huatabampo, Mexico, at 1 minute, 19 seconds of the first round.
This was the third consecutive knockout for Hanshaw (18-0, 13 KOs) since April when he returned after a lengthy rehabilitation from a shoulder injury.
Maciel, 11-5-1 coming into the scheduled 10-rounder, weighed 174 pounds to Hanshaw's 168 pounds and came out fast in the opening seconds of the fight, missing with a left-right combination which spurred Hanshaw to a countering attack.
Tony "The Tyger" went to Maciel's body with a left hook-right cross combination as he began to cut off the ring.
Down and out
Then, with a lightning-quick three-punch combination, a straight right, a left hook and a solid right uppercut -- which was the finishing blow -- Hanshaw dropped Maciel to the canvas where he was counted out. Maciel, who had a severe cut above his left eye from Hanshaw's left hook, remained on the canvas until he was attended to by the ring physician.
"I thought this would be a hard fight, but I caught him flush and knew it was over," Hanshaw said. "I felt the left hook to the head that I nailed him with all the way up my arm."
John Russell, Hanshaw's trainer, liked his fighter's patience.
"This was a tough guy and Tony passed this test big. He did just what I asked of him," Russell said.
When asked about his future, Hanshaw, who attended Kelly Pavlik's TKO win over Pedro Ortega in Struthers on July 2, pointed to the unbeaten Austintown fighter.
"Pavlik is a great fighter and we are on a collision course to meet soon," said Hanshaw, who beat Pavlik by decision in the 2000 Olympic trials. "He didn't beat me then and he can't beat me now."
Another view
Pavlik wasn't at Friday's fight, but one of his managers, Tony Scandy, was and sounded like such a fight is ready to come about.
"Kelly was 17 when he fought Hanshaw in the Olympic Trials and Tony was 22 and that battle could have gone either way," Scandy said.
"People in our camp, such as Bruce Trampler and Cameron Dunkin from Top Rank, feel this matchup, with two undefeated boxers from a same region of the country, is a natural and I feel that if Hanshaw wants to fight Kelly, then so be it," Scandy said.
Another good fight on the seven-bout card was an eight-round super middleweight co-feature between Toledo's Dallas Vargas and Christian Cruz from Concord, Calif.
Vargas, managed by Pat Nelson of Youngstown, ran into a very able opponent as the hard-punching Cruz began throwing bombs from the opening bell.
It was a classic matchup of Cruz (8-1-1), the slugger, and the adept boxing Vargas (17-2).
Turning point
The fight turned in the seventh round when Cruz had several good volleys in taking the battle to a quick moving Vargas.
An accidental butt by Vargas created a cut over the left eye of Cruz in the final round when he came on with an all out attack that had Vargas in trouble at the final bell.
One judge voted the fight even at 76-76, but the other two judges, one of which was former heavyweight contender Pete Rademacher, voted 79-73 for Cruz.
Aside from Californian Urbano Antillon (13-0) remaining undefeated with his seventh knockout, at 2:56 of round one over Ramon Ortiz, the remaining four bouts were decided by unanimous decisions.
Chad Wright, from Galion, in a super featherweight four-rounder, won over Broderick Harper from Columbus.
In a female lightweight four-rounder, Mary Jo Sanders, the daughter of former NFL standout Charlie Sanders, went to 10-0 with a hard-fought win over Terri Blair from Louisville, Ky.
Shawn Bailey of Cleveland improved to 6-0 with a four-round lightweight win over Columbus boxer Miguel Alvarez, and Julian Burford (12-0) won a six-round welterweight fight against Francisco Maldanado from Zopopan, Mexico.