Championship boxing comes to SNHU Arena

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November 19, 2021; Manchester, New Hampshire; Sponsor shots for the Andrade versus Quigley fight night at SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH. Mandatory Credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom.

MANCHESTER, N.H. – On Friday night, SNHU Arena was the home of four title boxing bouts.

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November 19, 2021; Manchester, New Hampshire, USA; Kali Reis and Jessica Camara during their Matchroom Boxing bout at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH on November 19, 2021. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.

In the first title fight of the evening, Jessica “The Cobra” Camara sought to dethrone reigning WBA and IBO female light-welterweight champion Kali “K.O. Mequinonoag” Reis.

Both fighters made frequent contact throughout the contest, with Camara suffering what appeared to a cut to the nose early on. By Round 8, the amount of blows reaching Reis appeared to have an impact, as the champion began to look fatigued in comparison to Camara, but neither fighter managed to land a winning blow.

Camara was sent to her corner to clean off blood with just over a minute left in the final round and Reis returned to action looking to force the issue, but neither fighter managed to fall.

In the end, it came down to the judges, with Reis landing 97 punches versus Camara’s 93 on two of the three judges’ cards, retaining her titles, although reaction from the crowd seemed to side toward Camara following the announcement.

Reis (19-7-1, 5 KOs) also won the vacant WBO women’s light-welterweight title and earned the right to challenge Chantelle Cameron (15-0, 8 KOs) at a later date for the WBC, IBF and The Ring female light-welterweight titles after Cameron unified those titles in a bout against Mary McGee (27-4-0-1, 15 KOs) in an Oct. 30 fight in London, England.

Camara is now 8-3-0 on her career, awaiting her first professional knockout.

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November 19, 2021; Manchester, New Hampshire, USA; Murodjon Akhmadaliev (left) and Jose Velasquez during their Matchroom Boxing bout at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH on November 19, 2021. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.

In the second title fight, 2016 Olympic bantamweight bronze medalist Murodjon Akhmadaliev put his WBA and IBF super-bantamweight titles against Chilean Jose Velasquez.

The Uzbek champion forced his opponent to the ropes early, and held momentum throughout most of the contest even if he could not find one final punch to send the challenger to the canvas for good, although Velasquez did drop to the floor twice briefly in Round 10. Velazquez saw his best round in the 7th, but even there both men found themselves fairly evenly matched.

Velasquez did a pair of half flips after the 12th and final round as well as a set of push-ups, if only to prove that the champion could not force him down on his own, but all three judges gave Akmadaliev a 119-109 edge.

Akhmadaliev is now 10-0-0 on his professional career with 7 KOs while Velasquez falls to 29-7-2 with 19 KOs.

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November 19, 2021; Manchester, New Hampshire, USA; Julio Cesar Martinez (left) and McWilliams Arroyo during their Matchroom Boxing bout at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH on November 19, 2021. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.

In the third title contest, the WBC flyweight championship was on the line between Mexican Julio Cesar Martinez and Puerto Rican McWilliams Arroyo.

Arroyo (12-4-0, 16 KOs) won the interim championship in February after Martinez (18-1-0, 14 KOs) was unable to defend his title on multiple occasions due to injuries, but Martinez reminded everyone who the official champion is early in the match, sending Arroyo to the mat in the first and second rounds. The second round left Arroyo with a bloody gash above his right eye that would not heal enough in time to begin the third round.

That gash came from what was determined to be an unintentional head butt, leaving the match as a no decision.

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November 19, 2021; Manchester, New Hampshire, USA; Demetrius Andrade and Jason Quigley during their Matchroom Boxing bout at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH on November 19, 2021. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.

The evening concluded with the main event, as challenger Jason Quigley took the stage against WBO middleweight champion of the world Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade.

Quigley successfully defended his title four times after winning it in a bout against Namibian Walter Kautondokwa in 2018 at TD Garden in Boston.

Hailing from Ballbofey, Ireland; Quigley earned the WBO-NABO middleweight title through a mixed decision in May against “Sugar” Shane Mosley Jr.

Both men began the fight tentatively until Andrade saw an opening with just over a minute left in the first round and Boo Boo send the Irishman briefly to the mat.

Quigley attempted to hold off Andrade in the second round but send him to the mat again two minutes into the round and a third time just 30 seconds later, earning a technical knockout.

The defeat was just the second for Quigley’s professional career against 19 wins, 14 of which came through a knockout.

Andrade remains undefeated as a professional with 31 wins, and 19 of them now through a knockout.

Undercard results

In the evening’s first contest, light-heavyweights Khalil “Big Steppa” Coe and Aaron Casper fought to a draw.

This was the second professional fight for Coe (1-0-1), who defeated Nathaniel Tadd by technical knockout in his debut back in May.

Casper (6-4-2) drew his last fight in February as well and is scheduled to face a yet to be determined opponent in Augusta, Ga. on Feb. 5

Like Coe, cruiserweights Mark “Money” Malone and Thomas O’Toole entered the ring for the second professional fights of their career in the second fight of the evening.

O’Toole, a native of Galway, Ireland knocked Malone to the canvass in the first round. He’s now 2-0-0 in his young career, following a knockout of Francisco Ariri Neto in September. Malone is 1-1-0, he had a unanimous decision against Austin Dalworth in July.

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November 19, 2021; Manchester, New Hampshire, USA; Thomas O’Toole following his fight with Mark Malone. They had a Matchroom Boxing bout at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH on November 19, 2021. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.

Two cruiserweights were up next as 140-pound Massachusetts native Nelson Perez dominated Mexican Raymundo Rios.

Perez (5-0-0, 2 KOs) took Rios (3-8-2, 3 KOs) to the canvass in the first and second rounds, and wouldn’t see the last four rounds of the originally eight-round scheduled contest, instead earning a unanimous decision after the fourth round.

This was the second fight on American soil for Rios, who has not scored a knockout since June 2019.

Perez is now 3-0 over the last calendar year following a unanimous decision in Framingham, Mass. against Ryan Venable (2-7-0, 0 KOs) in October and a bout over the summer in Derry through disqualification against DeWayne Wisdom 7-59-2, 3 KOs)

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November 19, 2021; Manchester, New Hampshire, USA; Nelson Perez (left) and Raymundo Rios Cardiel during their Matchroom Boxing bout at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH on November 19, 2021. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.

In the final bout before the four title fights, Australian heavyweight Demsey McKean faced off against New Rochelle, NY native Don Haynesworth.

Heading into the fight Haynesworth held 50 pounds over the reigning WBO Asia-Pacific title holder and neither fighter could force the issue early on, with Haynesworth spending much of the fight with a defensive approach. McKean pushed Haynesworth to the edge just before the end of the fourth round but couldn’t finish the big man off before the bell. Early in the fifth round, the Australian came back swinging and referee Kevin Holt stopped the fight 27 seconds into the sixth round.

McKean made the most of his first performance in America with the TKO, climbing to 20-0-0 on his career, with 12 of those wins coming by knockout. Haynesworth ended the contest 16-8-1 with 14 of his 16 wins coming by knockout.

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November 19, 2021; Manchester, New Hampshire, USA; Demsey McKean (left) and Don Haynesworth during their Matchroom Boxing bout at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH on November 19, 2021. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.

About this Author

Andrew Sylvia

Assistant EditorManchester Ink Link

Born and raised in the Granite State, Andrew Sylvia has written approximately 10,000 pieces over his career for outlets across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. On top of that, he's a licensed notary and licensed to sell property, casualty and life insurance, he's been a USSF trained youth soccer and futsal referee for the past six years and he can name over 60 national flags in under 60 seconds according to that flag game app he has on his phone, which makes sense because he also has a bachelor's degree in geography (like Michael Jordan). He can also type over 100 words a minute on a good day.