Country Box 15
Thunder At the Texas Troubadour
It might have been storming outside, but the thunder and lightning were inside the Texas Troubadour Theater on Tuesday night as Jimmy Adams Promotions put on Country Box 15, bringing its monthly promise of country music and boxing to the assembled crowd.
Leading off the evening and playing throughout entertaining the crowd with her classic country voice, big hair, and a bigger hat was Kinsey Rose. The Voice Season 21 participant is now a regular on the Nashville scene and brought her twist to classics with covers of “9 to 5”, “Jolene”, “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Let’s Give Them Something To Talk About”. She also played some of her fantastic originals, including “When Trucks Fly”.
Live boxing shows are the lifeblood of the sport for local fighters who want to start careers and advance through the ranks. It helps fans connect to the sport as well as provides a chance to see one of the world’s most difficult and exciting sports in an intimate venue.
In the ring, the action started with a bout in the women’s featherweight division. Cara McLaughlin hailed from Ireland to take on Brooklyn NY’s Chiara “Speedy” Dituri. The action was speedy as Dituri showed some solid footwork, strong punches, and a willingness to stay in the pocket and throw shots. McLaughlin was often backing up, but a regular jab was landing on Dituri. However, it was the strong chin and constant pressure of Dituri that proved too much for McLaughlin who typically fights at a lighter weight. “Speedy” took the unanimous decision on all the cards with a score of 60-54, improving her record to 8-1-0 3 KOs.
Next was the first of two heavyweight bouts, this one featuring Vladyslav Sirenko, making his debut in the US after amassing a 19-0 record overseas. His opponent for the evening was Deon Ronny Hale, who brought a lot of weight (307 pounds) to the ring for Sirenko to deal with. He started the bout quickly, brawling with Sirenko. Sirenko had not fought since December of 2021 and needed time to adjust and Hale was determined to make the fight ugly far before that. Hale leaned on and held Sirenko at every possible moment, swinging wild shots when he wasn’t. To his credit, Sirenko was able to maintain his composure in the fight and use his power and superior footwork to begin landing devastating shots. Standing 6’4” and weighing 256 pounds, Sirenko fit the mold of the big, scary, Eastern European destruction that you’d assume from his look.
At the tail end of 2nd round, Hale was deducted a point for shooing away the referee who was attempting to break up a tie-up. In the third round a very tired Hale couldn’t catch and dirty box Sirenko as he previously had, and Sirenko’s accumulated punishment, finishing off with an uppercut and strong cross put Hale on a knee, where he would stay until he was counted out by the official. Sirenko moves to 20-0 and scores his 18th career knockout.
The following heavyweight fight was a hotly contested grudge match between Raphael Carolina (2-4-1 KO) and Erick Arellano (10-0-1 7 KOs). At Country Box 14 they fought to a very entertaining majority draw. Buoyed by the hometown crowd, Arellano was looking to erase that blemish on his record and started fast, moving quickly and firing hard shots at Carolina. He landed consistently but could not find the knockout he was clearly searching for. He took the first few rounds, before fading quickly. It was then Carolina from his southpaw stance landing frequent shots and pushing Arellano around the ring. With the 6th round likely deciding the fight Arellano found something left in the gas tank and fought back, in what could’ve evened the fight.
The judges found themselves scoring the fight a split draw. Two judges awarded narrow 58-56 scores to each fighter and the deciding judge scored a tie of 57-57, possibly tying the pair together for a rubber match. You have to commend both of these fighters who are young in their careers taking on challenges in each other head-on. Based on the quality of the fight it seems as though Carolina (2-4-2 1 KO) and Arellano (10-0-2 7 KOs) found themselves in an iron sharpens iron situation.
For the main event of the evening, local favorite Ryan Shaw (7-0 7 KOs) put his undefeated record on the line against Andre Donovan (7-2 4 KOs) in a bout that was kicked off by the Adams family entering the ring as a united front for the pledge of allegiance by Addie Adams, the daughter of the promoter Jimmy Adams, and a stirring national anthem from local singer Faith Gomez.
Donovan was on Shaw like flies on garbage from the opening bell. The two fighters were putting the term fighting in a phone booth on display for the fans in attendance. Donovan was tying up, throwing punches, moving from side to side, and doing everything in his power to confuse and disorient any attempt at offense from Shaw. At a distance, Shaw’s power was apparent and he stunned Donovan in several moments he was able to create separation. The problem for Shaw was that he took so much punishment in the moments where Donovan was in close and he was near impossible to shake off. At that distance heads clash, elbows hit, shoulders thump, and any number of things in addition to the punches can do damage to a fighter.
Shaw was game but battered entering the 6th round when the doctor at ringside thought better of allowing the fighter to continue. Andre Donovan is awarded the TKO by Doctor’s Stoppage victory (8-2-0 5 KOs) and Ryan Shaw moves to 7-1-0 7 KOs and has the first big hurdle of his career to overcome. He’ll look to do just that in July at Country Box 18.
After the main event were two more fights. In the first Lindsey Ellis, a Cheatham County native who grew up a stone’s throw from the Texas Troubadour Theater, made her pro debut against Shaniqua Fraizer. Her assembled cheering section brought one of the loudest roars of the night, and would soon be roaring again after Ellis’ onslaught stopped the fight in just 47 seconds. Her aggressive start was met by Frazier but soon overwhelmed her. Ellis was a far quicker, more accurate, and stronger fighter. Her 1-0 record with 1 KO stands very shiny and new today.
The closing fight saw New York’s Djibril Diakite (7-0 6 KOs) take on Michael Lemelle (3-16-3) in what was seemly one-sided from the start. Diakite’s strength and athleticism were evident as he moved nimbly around the ring and threw strong punches. Lemelle did his best job to chase down Diakite but was more often than not eating shots trying to catch up. Diakite’s best punch landed in the 2nd, dropping Lemelle to the canvas. While Diakite’s output might’ve left something to be desired, he seemed to be in control of the fight.
The judging told a different story. One judge ruled 60-53 for Diakite, while another ruled the bout 57-56 for Lemelle. The final tally came in 59-54 Diakite got the split decision victory, and improved his record to 8-0 6 KOs, and Lemelle dropped the decision.
The TV audience heard Marc Abrams and former NFL great Albert Haynesworth on the call, and the room was buzzing with excited fans and the top-notch staff at the venue who do a dynamite job of putting on not only a live event but a TV and streaming broadcast that reaches over 100 million homes. The fights were promoted by Jimmy Adams Promotions, and the matchmaking was done by Christy Martin. The judges for the evening were Terry Hogan, David Hudson, and Jacob Nevin. The referees in the ring were Daniel Ziemba and Anthony Bryant. The man bringing the energy as the in ring announcer was Jt Conway.
The next Country Box event is scheduled for Tuesday, May 7th.