Written by Jude Young
| Friday, 08 May 2009 21:13
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Other Local Sports
KENNER - In a night where fighters sought to improve their standings, no one did more to impress than Alphonso Lopez. The up-and-comer from Cut and Shoot, Texas, shined in winning a unanimous decision over New Orleanian Ronald "The Cobra" Weaver in the 10-round light heavyweight main event from the Ponchartrain Center on Friday night.
Lopez (14-0, 11 KO's) managed to overcome a cut above the eye from an incidental headbutt in the 9th round to secure the win. Using a combination of speed and power to keep Weaver (29-18-2, 17 KO's) at bay, Lopez proved his unbeaten mark was no fluke.
The 3 judges ringside scored the fight 100-89, 99-91 and 98-92 respectively. Most onlookers would agree that Lopez dominated the fight.
On the undercard, local middleweight Marcus McDaniel won his professional debut by taking a unanimous decision over Baton Rouge's Tommy Manning in a fight scheduled for 4 rounds.
McDaniel pitched a shutout of sorts, winning every round on all three judges' scorecards (40-36). Manning has his mouthpiece knocked out 3 times in the bout.
And Ricky Kinney of Baton Rouge improved to 4-1 by knocking out Gulfport's Bobby Hill at the 2:24 makr of the 3rd round in a welterweight match. Hill (1-2) was knocked down 3 times in the final round before the fight was stopped.
In the MMA main event, Metairie's Charlie Rader defeated Brad Nordquist of New Mexico when the welterweight fight was stopped at the 4:06 mark of the 1st round.
Rader, the USA-MMA Welterweight Champion improved to 8-2 after taking down Nordquist less than 30 seconds into the fight. with an extensive wrestling background, Rader was able to control and pummel the Desert Extreme Welterweight Champion on the canvas.
Nordquist fell to 9-8 overall.
