Esho Comes from Behind to Stop Abbruzzese In Three Exciting Rounds

Warrior’s Boxing’s revived “Windy City Fight Night” continued its growth on Saturday night in Chicago, as the largest crowd yet watched a seven-bout card at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago.

In the thrilling main event, Chicago junior middleweight Achour Esho (13-0, 8 KOs) had to survive a nearly disastrous first round to stop crosstown rival Anthony Abbruzzese (4-6, 3 KOs) in three.

Abbruzzese came out blazing in the first, culminating in a sustained barrage of punches that could have easily led to a stoppage. To Esho’s credit, he survived and walked wearily to his stool.

The fight changed, however, in round two, as a miraculously revived Esho bit down on his mouthpiece and started throwing hard shots. One of them dropped a surprised Abbruzzese, who arose on shaky legs, only to be dropped again before round’s end.

Smelling blood, Esho pounced on Abbruzzese in round three, dropping him again with a left hook and for the final time with a right uppercut. The time was :58.

Esho, now the newly formed ABO Junior Middleweight Champion, took the opportunity of his post-fight interview to call out MMA star Connor McGregor.

Two more Warriors Boxing prospects were in action that night, as undefeated Josh Hernandez (5-0, 4 KOs) of Chicago figured out the puzzle that is Thomas Smith (3-3-1, 2 KOs) of Dallas over six calculating featherweight rounds. Finding it difficult to trap the elusive Smith, Hernandez still did enough to win a clear unanimous decision by scores of 60-54 twice and 59-55.

And in another scorching slugfest, Chicago lightweight Jessica McCaskill (3-1, 2 KOs) pounded out an exciting unanimous decision over battle-hardened Puerto Rican Carla Torres (5-4), now fighting out of Cleveland. McCaskill’s advantages in size, strength and power eventually took over the back-and-forth battle. In the end, the scores were 39-37 by all three judges.

In a very impressive “Windy City Fight Night” debut, Chicago bantamweight Shawn Simpson remained undefeated by clearly outclassing Mexico’s Leonardo Reyes (5-12, 2 KOs) over four rounds. The scores were 40-36 twice and 40-35. At this level, Simpson appears to be one to keep an eye on.

Other Results:

Ruben Schobitz (2-0, 1 KO) UD 4 Joel Blair (1-3)
Scores: 40-35 X 3

Cesar Ruiz (3-4, 2 KOs) TKO 1 Martez McGregor (3-1, 3 KOs)
Time: 2:59

Yousif Saleh (2-0), 1 KO) TKO 1 Luis Ramos
Time: 2:16