Successful debut for "El Ciclon Promotions"

Just like his fifthteen professional bouts “EL Ciclon de Guantanamo” Yuriorkis Gamboa did not disappoint the three hundred or so fans that showed up to witness the 2004 Cuban gold medalist debut as a boxing promoter.

The main attraction from the Miami Beach Resort & Spa was a battle between two local fighters one being Miami native, Cuban American Joey “Twinkle Fingers” Hernandez squaring off against Hollywood, FL resident Ed “The Lion” Paredes.

The fight lived up to all the hype surrounding this clash as it was an emotional night for fans of both fighters. At the end the judges handed in the decision boxing fans dislike most, a draw. Judge Fred Fluty saw the fight 98-90 in favor of Paredes meanwhile Judge Richard Green scored the bout 96-92 for Hernandez. The final verdict rested in the hands of Judge Jean Warring who had it all even at 94-94.

“I feel I did enough to win the fight. I felt I had him from the fourth round on”, said Hernandez.

The emotional confrontation between both 24 year olds seemed to be pretty even throughout the first four frames of the scheduled ten rounder for the vacant WBC Fecarbox Welterweight title. That was until the fifth, when the momentum seemed to shift in the direction of “The Lion” Paredes (22-3-1 13 KO’s). While the Columbus High graduate Hernandez seemed to cruise his way to adding another round in his favor, a costly mistake with less than one minute to go in the round saw all his work diminish as Paredes caught him with a straight right that dropped him to the canvas. “Twinkle Fingers” immediately picked himself off the ring floor in search of the knockdown being ruled a slip but he would have no such luck from referee Jorge Ortiz.

Hernandez would take advantage of Paredes’s composed approach following the knockdown and found himself back in the fight going into the eighth.

But the misfortune of emotions running high proved to be the deciding factor in the fight for Hernandez (15-0-1 8 KO’s). On the road to stealing another round from his opponent both fighters wound up falling back towards the ropes when Hernandez tossed Paredes through the ropes and right out the ring. Ortiz instantly deducted one point from the South Paw Hernandez.

When asked if he thought the point deduction was the deciding factor in the fight. “Twinkle Fingers” replied, “I guess, I still felt I out boxed him and was the busier fighter throughout the fight”.

Going into the tenth and final round Hernandez did enough to convince Judge Warring of awarding him the round. For Joey it was the deciding factor in escaping with out a blemish to his undefeated record as Warring had him trailing going into the final frame.

“Hell yeah I want a rematch”, said Hernandez just moments after the thrilling exchange.

The fight did not take place with out some controversy outside the ring as well. Just twenty four hours before there were rumors of the fight possibly not happening.

Hernandez came into the weigh in at 151.5 for a fight scheduled at 147. Both sides ended up agreeing to allow the fight to go on with undisclosed circumstances.

I asked Joey, did coming in over weight affect you in any way?

“None what so ever”, I felt good I felt healthy”, replied Hernandez.

In other attractions, the brother of the man responsible for the card titled “Battle at the Beach”, Yoelvis Gamboa made a successful pro debut winning a unanimous decision over Noel Garcia. Fellow Cuban Richard Abril improved to (11-1-1 5 KO’s) with a lopsided victory over Hensley Strachan. Meanwhile another native of the island just 90 miles away from Miami remained flawless. Stalin Lopez cruised his way to a shutout win over Jose Roman. One more Cuban tasting victory in his first professional bout was 27 year old Sullivan Barrera.