First Hard Rock Casino Rockford boxing event draws big crowd and big punches
ROCKFORD (WTVO/WQRF) — Hard Rock Casino Rockford promised to deliver to entertainment. It has. Saturday night it delivered the first live sporting event at the venue.Big time boxing was held at the Hard Rock Live venue inside the casino. Promoter Bobby Hitz of Hitz Boxing brought in World Boxing Association action.There were seven fights in all that played out in front of a sold-out crowd. Spectators could see the action in the ring and on two large video screens. The first ever fight there went to Marlon Harrington. He won an eight-round decision in the Super Welterweight Division.Chicago fighters cleaned up. Rani Jalomo, Lukas Moldenhauer and Everett Olivares all won big on TKOs in the first roundThere was also a women's bout. That was no contest either. Amateur World Champion Talia Halvorsen, making her pro debut, destroyed Jina Bynum. Look for Halvorsen to do big things in her career.Between fights, the two men who made this event happen, Hitz and Hard Rock Casino Rockford President Geno Iafrate addressed the crowd.They connected with Rockford's great boxing tradition when they brought into the ring several of Rockford's current and past boxing greats to recognize them. Those men included 1988 Olympic bronze medalist Kenny Gould, and former North American Boxing Federation welterweight champion Pat 'Cat' Coleman.The main event featured 14-0 pro heavyweight Deontae Pettigrew of Chicago. He laid out Richard Lartey in the second round with a big right-left combination. That win gave Pettigrew the vacant WBA Continental Championship.Pettigrew told me he enjoyed his time in Rockford the past few days.'Absolutely. I've had a great time here from the press conference to the weigh-in, to the the fight man. They've been nothing but hospitable. A great team here. A great ambiance, a great everything. I had a ball.'Hitz told me he was very pleased with how the event went.'I think tonight was a smashing success at Hard Rock!'So how long before we see another night of fights at Hard Rock Rockford?'We're going to sit back down. We're going to regroup. We're going to talk about the pluses and the minuses of tonight, and we're going to put together another blockbuster show sometime very soon,' said Hitz.
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