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Salinas simply the best with rapid knockout
By Steve WILAJ
CAMPBELL
Alejandro “Popo” Salinas could get into the technical boxing terms.
But, taking a more basic approach, the Youngstown lightweight simply likes to say, “the best man wins.”
Headlining “Saturday Night at the Fights” at St. Lucy’s presented by the Southside Boxing Club, it took Salinas just 49 seconds to prove he was the best man.
At 135 pounds, he recorded a first-round knockout of Bryant Biveris (Winchester, Va.) to improve to 2-0 in his professional career.
Four other Youngstown fighters also claimed victories at Saturday’s show: heavyweight Wesley Triplett, John Gregory (140 pounds), Lavelle Hadley (156) and Victor Toney (153).
“I thought they all looked good,” Southside Boxing owner Jack Loew said. “It was a great performance by Popo. He took his time and did what we asked him to do.
“At this stage, it’s tough to get people to come in and fight him,” Loew said. “This kid stepped up to the plate, but he was way outmanned.“
Biveris (0-3) replaced Salinas’ originally scheduled opponent Michael Jordan of Fowlerville, Mich. He went down twice in less than a minute.
The first knockdown came on a Salinas overhand right, while the knockout blow that landed Biveris flat on his back was a straight right.
“I kind of just took my shot,” Salinas said. “I was measuring — my coach say’s measure your shots — and when I seen the open shot, I took it. I’m just going to train hard like I always do and hopefully Top Rank or Golden Boy can see me.”
Triplett (2-0) earned a first-round knockout as well. In 1:11, the heavyweight dropped Cleveland’s Frank Barnes (0-1) with a right hook to the jaw.
“I seen he was hurt [by an early left hook],” Triplett said. “So after that, it was over.”
Toney’s fight was stopped before he could land a knockout blow as he defeated Cincinnati’s Dion Meadows (1-1) by a fourth-round technical knockout.
“You can see it all over his face that he knew he wasn’t in shape and he couldn’t contend,” said Toney, who improved to 2-0. “I was going to put him down for sure.”
Meadows danced, dodged and hugged Toney for much of the first three rounds. But he finally dropped in the fourth round before the fight was called with 2:45 remaining.
“When I threw a jab at him, he threw his guard up high,” Toney said. “So towards the third round it caught on and my coaches told me to throw the jab or even fake the jab and go to the body hard.
“I knew he wanted to get out of there so I was gonna end it.”
Hadley (2-0) won by TKO as well, as he defeated Zeatuo Lyon (0-1) of East Lansing, Mich. The fight was stopped with just over a minute remaining in the first round after five solid shots from Hadley.
Gregory (2-0), meanwhile, defeated Kevin Shacks (0-1) of East Lansing, Mich., by unanimous decision.
Youngstown’s Vincent O’Neill (3-2-1) lost a unanimous decision to Cleveland’s Angel Figueroa (4-1-1) at 144 pounds.