Bull-dozed: Giuriceo clobbers Rodas

The Campbell native had a happy homecoming, scoring a second round TKO in the Steel Valley Rumble at the Memorial Field House.

By JOE SCALZO

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

CAMPBELL — Jake “The Bull” Giuriceo lived up to his nickname on Saturday night.

Wearing bright red trunks with black Michael Jordan-brand boxing shoes, Giuriceo stalked his opponent, Lucas Rodas, and battered him repeatedly against the ropes before Rodas’ corner threw in the towel late in the second round in the co-feature of the Steel Valley Rumble at Memorial Field House.

“They call me ‘The Bull’ for a reason,” Giuriceo said. “I’m an aggressive fighter.”

Giuriceo (3-0, 2 KOs), who was fighting in his former high school gymnasium, was aggressive from the start.

At first, Rodas (3-6) seemed to shake off Giuriceo’s blows, but late in the first round, he got backed up into a neutral corner as Giuriceo unloaded on him as if the Indianapolis native were a speed bag.

The second round was more of the same and by the midpoint, it seemed to be a matter of when the four-round welterweight bout would be stopped, not if. At the 2:31 mark, Rodas’ trainer had finally seen enough, tossing the white towel.

“I felt like it went perfect,” said Giuriceo, a Campbell native who now lives in Struthers and trains at the Burnside Boxing Club. “I felt like I threw good combinations, paced myself and controlled the fight.

“He [Rodas] took a good punch. I didn’t think he’d take so many.”

Giuriceo made his pro debut on the undercard of Kelly Pavlik’s middleweight title fight at the Covelli Centre on Feb. 21, winning by knockout. He scored a unanimous decision victory in early May in his second bout.

“I’ll be even better next fight,” he said.

In an earlier bout, St. Louis native “Dangerous” Dannie Williams (11-0, 9 KOs) scored a brutal knockout over Toledo’s Eric Ricker, flooring him with a vicious body shot at the 2:27 mark of the first round. When Ricker went down, Williams retreated to a neutral corner and made a slashing motion across his throat.

His trainer, Jack Loew, merely smirked and said, “He can punch.”

Williams, a lightweight, drew laughs from the crowd when he was asked afterward if he was looking for a knockout win.

He paused for a second, smiled and said, “Um, yeah.”

Cleveland’s Dante Moore (4-0, 2 KOs) also earned a first-round knockout with a brutal body shot, defeating Philadelphia’s Vince Burkhalter (0-2) at the 1:02 mark.

Henry White Jr. (9-0, 9 KOs) of the Dominican Republic handed Cleveland welterweight Cortez Bay (8-1) his first career loss when the referee stopped the bout after three rounds. Bay did not appear to want to leave his corner for the start of the fourth and refused to meet the referee in the middle of the ring.

In the first pro bout of the night, Cleveland’s Julius Leegrand earned a unanimous decision over Aaron Anderson (0-7) in his pro debut.

The main event, a six-round cruiserweight bout between Johnstown, Pa., native Andres Taylor (8-0-1, 4 KOs) and Great Falls, Mt., native Leo Bercier, was not completed in time for this edition.

scalzo@vindy.com