Irish middleweight James Moore red-hot in Franklin Square

It was a big night for Bob Duffy’s Ring Promotions, who in conjunction with Frankie G. Productions put on a sensational show featuring red-hot Irish middleweight James Moore at the historic Plattdeutsche Park restaurant in Franklin Square, Long Island, on February 16.

On the other side of the country, in Miami, Oklahoma, Alan Conyers, who is promoted by Duffy, scored a sensational second round TKO over previously undefeated Derek Ennis on ShoBox.

“This was a great night for Ring Promotions and a great night for a lot of hardworking fighters,” said Duffy, a retired NYPD detective and former director of boxing for the New York State Athletic Commission. “I’m glad to see so many fighters that I’ve worked with have so much success.”

Before a standing room only crowd of more than 1,100, the tremendously popular Moore, a native of County Arklow, Ireland, who now lives in Queens, improved his record to 10-0 (8 KOS) with a third round stoppage of the well-traveled Edson Aguirre, a native of Mexico who fights out of North Carolina.

Moore, who has been training since before Christmas, has never looked sharper. He dropped Aguirre, now 12-6-1 (2 KOS), in the second with a thunderous right hand and finished him off in the next round with a left hook-right hand combination.

Afterwards, an ecstatic Moore said he was happy to have stopped Aguirre quicker than two other undefeated fighters, Richard Guitterez and Mean Joe Greene did. Those two had a collective record of 29-0. The former stopped Aguirre in four while the latter stopped him in five.

Just about everyone crammed into the arena was a James Moore fan. “They give me a great lift,” he said. “When I land a good punch, they cheer. The judges hear that and must think that was a good shot.”

Another middleweight, Henry Crawford of Paterson, New Jersey, also looked sensational against Carlos Aballe of Miami. The very quick and strong Crawford dropped Aballe several times before the referee halted the one-sided beating at 1:06 of round five.

Crawford improved his record to 14-0-1 (6 KOS), while Aballe dropped to 5-5 (3 KOS). Crawford is one to watch. Somewhere down the road, a match between him and Moore would be a natural for New York.

In four rounders:
Luis Sanchez of Ozone Park, New York, won a majority four round decision Daniel Sostre of Puerto Rico. In Sostre’s corner was former world champion Tracy Harris Patterson. Sanchez is now 3-1-1 (1 KO), while Sostre is 2-2 (0 KOS).

Carlos Macias, Ridgewood, New York, who is handled by Nelson Fernandez, improved his record to 2-0 (0 KOS) by winning a split decision over Luis Rodriguez of Puerto Rico. Rodriguez is now 1-1-1 (0 KOS).

Fernandez, who has handled numerous world champions, says that Macias is the hardest working fighter he’s ever dealt with.

Middleweights Patrick Majewski of Atlantic City and Esteban Cordova of Jamestown, New York, knocked each other down in the first round. In the slugfest that followed, Majewski went on to win a decision and improve his record to 3-0 (2 KOS), while Cordova dropped to 3-5 (2 KOS).

Welterweight Dwayne Hall of Rochester, New York, shocked local favorite Wes Hobbs of Corona, New York, by knocking him down several times and winning a decision. Hall’s record improved to 2-1, while Hobbs’ dropped to 4-2-1.

Duffy, who is the busiest grassroots promoter in the New York metropolitan area, next has a show scheduled for March 23 at the Huntington Town House on Long Island.

Featured in separate bouts on that card are undefeated junior middleweight Pawal Wolak, a native of Poland who lives in Brooklyn, and Chicago heavyweight Art Binkowski, who played the role of Corn Griffin in the film “Cinderella Man.”