NEWARK, New Jersey — Shaun George, who has been the trainer for Damian Knyba for the past two years, has been preaching patience for the 6ft 8in fighter. That’s exactly what the trainer got out of his fighter on Saturday night at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Faced with an opponent who appeared ill-prepared for the task at hand, Knyba allowed his boxing skills to do his talking for him, instead of just using physicality to get the job done. Knyba jabbed and feinted at his fellow Polish big man Andrzej Wawrzyk, using every part of his 86-inch reach to land right hands from distance as Wawrzyk slid across the ropes to avoid contact.
The moment Knyba was looking for finally came midway through the third round when a counter right hand nearly deposited Wawrzyk outside the ring. Wawrzyk beat the count, but his corner threw in the towel moments later, opting to forego unnecessary punishment.
The fight was stopped officially at 2:21 of the third round, bringing an end to a bitter rivalry that saw both fighters trade insults in Polish media circles.
George says the 29-year-old Knyba, 15-0 (8 KOs), of Wydzyn, Poland could have finished the fight earlier had the 37-year-old Wawrzyk, 34-5 (20 KOs), of Warsaw, Poland given them more to work with.
“[Wawrzyk] came in very defensive, he just had a defensive mind. We would have gotten him out of there earlier. We would have knocked him out in the first round if he had tried to win,” said George, who is also the trainer for top heavyweight Zhilei Zhang.
The fight was the second for Knyba – who now resides in Warren, New Jersey – at Prudential Center, a venue that served as the spiritual home of Polish boxing from 2008 to 2012, when former champion Tomasz Adamek routinely sold out the home of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. It was little coincidence that the last song played over the speakers after Knyba’s win was “Pamietaj,” which was Adamek’s entrance theme.
Manager Lukasz Kownacki says the plan is to speak with Knyba’s promoter Top Rank about what comes next, but says he’d ideally like to see Knyba return to the ring by early summer.
“I think it’s another stepping stone in the right direction. Obviously this is good for two things, being here as the main event at Prudential Center, the first one I hope of many, and then we just have so much room to grow from here. We had a great showing the first time and he performed great. He only goes up from here,” said Kownacki.
George adds that he’d like to see Knyba take a step-up fight in the near future, with Top Rank stablemate Richard Torrez Jnr being named as an opponent of interest.
“We know we’re this close to becoming a top contender in heavyweight,” said George.
The 10-round scheduled fight headlined a card promoted by Prime Time Promotions.
In the co-main event bout, Fiodor Czerkaszyn, 26-1 (16 KOs), had little trouble dispatching Patrick Allottey (44-8, 34 KOs), sending him down three times in the second round to force the stoppage. Czerkaszyn, 29, of Warsaw, Poland is rated No. 13 by the IBF, No. 9 by the WBC and No. 3 by the WBO at 160 pounds.
Former two-division champion Miyo Yoshida got back to winning ways, outworking Beata Dudek to win a unanimous decision in their eight-round bantamweight fight. Two judges scored the fight 79-73, while the third had it 78-74, all in favor of Yoshida, 18-5, a New York resident from Kagoshima, Japan.
Yoshida, a former two-time WBO super flyweight and one time IBF bantamweight champion, was the aggressor from the opening bell, backing up her Hungarian opponent and wearing her down with nonstop activity and pressure. Dudek, a Hungarian with a 5-6 (4 KOs) record, is now 0-6 in fights outside of her home country.
“Miyo is going to take time to rest and enjoy this victory but there’s no question she deserves a shot at a title next,” said Andrew Fiori, Yoshida’s agent, after the fight.
Lorenzo “Truck” Simpson, 15-2 (9 KOs), barely got the chance to get started in his six-round super middleweight fight, dropping Trevon Smith, 2-6 (1 KO), in the opening round before Smith opted to stay on his stool after the first round, citing a left shoulder injury. Simpson, 24, of Baltimore, Maryland was fighting for the first time since losing his second contest in three bouts against Raiko Santana last June.
Arjan Iseni, 3-0 (3 KOs), of Staten Island, New York made quick work of the overmatched Nathan Trepagnier, 2-6 (2 KOs), of Norman, Oklahoma, knocking him out a minute into the first round of their cruiserweight bout with a body punch. The 22-year-old southpaw Iseni is managed by fellow Staten Island-based Albanian-American boxer Reshat Mati. Iseni had an impressive amateur background, winning the 2021 USA National Championships, on top of other national titles in the junior ranks, and he fought across the world on the U.S. national team.
Ghandi Romain of Irvington, New Jersey scored an impressive victory in his six-round welterweight fight, dropping Benjamin Lamptey twice to win by second round stoppage at the 2:52 mark.
Romain, now 7-1-1 (5 KOs), looked confident from the outset, walking his opponent down with a sharp jab before his power shots began to break him down. The 27-year-old Romain, who was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, has had an unusual career so far, losing his pro debut in July of 2023 after knocking his opponent down several times before punching himself out and being stopped later in the same round. Romain has looked in much better form since then, winning all of his fights save for a controversial draw against the unbeaten Nimal Farmer last October in a fight in which he should have earned the decision.
Lamptey, 17-15-4 (13 KOs), of Accra, Ghana sees his three-fight winning streak snapped with the loss.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
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