WPCNR RINGSIDE. By KO Johnny. November 23, 2005: The traffic was still streaming in at 8:15 into the parking lots surrounding the County Center as fight fans swarmed to the fifth and final Westchester County Boxing Card of the season. They were rewarded with four excellent fights highlighted by Welterweight Danbury Del Rodriguez's 6 Round TKO of Sugarfoot McClendon on Rodriguez's  combinations to die for  on him against the ropes in the last round. The relentless and patient Rodriguez boxed the Colombus (Ohio) brawler superbly, caught him with a series in the fifth started by a left jab and right cross, then finished him off in the sixth with an overhand right and a followup left from way down underneath  that put McClendon on the ropes where Rodriguez (17-1-1, 10 KOs) took him apart with a left, right, right,left driving him to his knees, and Referee Michael Ortega stopped the fight.

Delvin Rodriguez clocks Sugarfoot McClendon with an express right with everything on it in Round 6 to begin the finish to the Main Event. Photo, WPCNR Sports

The most rousing fight of the evening before 2,500 buzzing serious fans (who stayed until the end) saw Joey "Mr" Rios (12-0, 5 KOs) outbox the PitBull from Denver, Larry Gonzalez (8-2, 2 KOS), defeating him in a unanimous 8-round decision, 80-74, 78-74, 78-74. This tense battle of lightning fast fighters had speed, finesse, strategy and intelligent boxing was in doubt to the final gong.

Joey "Mr." Rios, left and Larry Gonzalez of Denver, going at it in the lates. You can see Rios is cut above his right eye, and Gonzalez nose is caked with blood. Rios' poise and ability to protect his cut through the fight carried him to the win against the explosive Gonzalez who could not finish his punches. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

Rios got away on points in the first two rounds covering up from Gonzalez blows to his head and punishing Gonzalez with his left jab, bloodying Gonzalez's nose by the end of round Two.

Gonzalez struck back a minute into Round 3 opening a nasty cut to the left of Joey's eye. Joey was forced to avoid coming inside against Gonzalez throughout the fight due to the eye problem, but still punished Gonzalez with his lightning jab enough to take round four. Rios rallied jabbing away with Gonzalez unable to land his punches soon enough and Rios dancing away and dancing in, took the pivotal round five with a solid left hook in the final seconds to steal the fifth. We saw it 3-2 going to the sixth. Gonzalez took it to Rios in Round sixth but was unable to do serious damage. Rios held on controlling the fight jabbing and tying Gonzalez up while still being aggressive in the final two rounds. You got the feeling watching this one that at any moment Gonzalez could land one and hand Rios his first defeat. But Mr. Rios held on to go to 12-0, showing his right arm is solid after surgery seven months ago.

A left uppercut from Battle Hill's Tony Grano  coming up out of the canvus waist high has just landed flush to Ruben Bracera's jaw and Reuben is down at 47 seconds of Round 2, Tony had his first professional win by knockout. Photo, WPCNR Sports

Tony Grano, the heavyweight from Battle Hill showed he could box and move fast in his first fight, holding off free swinging Ruben Bracera (2-5-1) from the Bronx staggering and dropping Rueben in the corner with a massive right at the end of the first round. In the second round a left from down below caught Bracera flush in the face staggering him to his knees, and he fell back to the canvas, for a second round knockout at 47 seconds.

Hurricane Saccurato tearing Tanya Gallegos apart. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

Ann Marie Saccurato (10-1-2)returned to her winning ways, defeating  Tanya Gallegos of Denver (now 3-4, 2 KOs) on a TKO at 1:38. Ann Marie was sky high for this one, jumping up and down with more pep than usual before the first bell. She litterally whirled into this fight, and Gallegos never knew what hit her. Ann Marie landed combinations at will in round two and the referee stopped the fight after Saccurato was pummeling her into the end ropes. Leo Fortyz of the Bronx Journal at ringside chatted with the referee who said she stopped it because Gallegos was obviously outclassed, was going to lose anyway and she did not want to see Gallegos hurt.

In the preliminaries, Richard Pearson (2-0, 1 KO) of Patterson, N.J. defeated Curtis Spice Jones of Brooklyn (2-1), stopping Jones with a solid right in the first round, and keeping Jones at bay the rest of the fight. Pearson told Fortyz in an interview he was fight with a muscle pull and could not throw his left hand. Ray Dominguez (0-1), making his pro debut, lost to Cory Jones of Brooklyn (1-1) who outboxed him and tired Ray out. But Dominguez came alive in the fourth round to give Jones a bit of a scare.