Braidwood victorious in his return to the ring
Nothing was going to stop Adam Braidwood from a victory on Friday night.
He wanted to dedicate his fight to Tim Hague, and he came through with a big fourth-round TKO victory over Mexico’s Christian Larrondo in the co-main event of KO 80 at the Shaw Conference Centre.
“He’s very tough and I got away from my game plan and it’s something I have to do better. It turned into a street fight. He hit me just as many times as him, I just hit a little harder,” said Braidwood moments after the victory to improve to 10-1.
Braidwood was looking for the big knockout in the opening two rounds, but wasn’t able to land the big punch on Larrondo.
He even fell into some trouble in the third round after Larrondo landed a couple of big combos that had Braidwood staggered, but Braidwood had enough the fourth round and ended it 1:34 into the fourth round.
“He was waiting for me to tire out a little bit, and he got some good punches on me in that third round, but in that fourth round, I had enough. I unloaded on him and when I hit you with my punches, you’re going to sleep,” said Braidwood. “It felt so good to get back in there. What an amazing response from the crowd. I can gain a lot of momentum from this fight. This is my 10th win, and I learned a lot.”
Raffaelle Santoro, 20, made his pro debut by beating Edmonton’s Patrick Lafleur with a fourth round TKO, while his 17-year-old brother Carlietto improved to 2-0 after a majority decision victory over Mexico’s Hugo Agular.
“I can’t even explain the feeling. So many emotions were running through me. There were nerves, anger, excitement and exhaustion. It was such an incredible experience for me,” said Raffaelle. “I’ve worked so hard to come to this point. I thought it would’ve taken way longer to get to this point, but I’ve reached a pretty big goal in my life to debut for the first time as a professional.”
Raffaelle took on a tough opponent in Lafleur, who was has mixed martial arts experience and was previously undefeated in the boxing ring.
But Raffaelle used his speed and took advantage of Lafleur’s misses and finished Lafleur with a devastating right hook at the 2:09 mark of the fourth round.
“Being it was my debut against him, I’m not going to lie, I was a bit scared, but for my professional debut I didn’t want it to be easy. This will only make me better for my next fight,” said Raffaelle.
Carlietto faced a stiff test against Agular and relied on his stellar defence to counter Agular’s attack.
“I heard he was tough, and I like tough opponents, I don’t like cherry picking,” said Carlietto.
The Santoros certainly have a bright future in boxing and the fact they get to chase their big boxing dreams together makes it extra special.
“It makes it a lot easier, and I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty bad ass. It’s nice having that brotherly connection in the ring,” said Raffaelle. BIG KNOCKOUT: Edmonton’s Eric Taylor improved to 7-1-1 after a devastating first round knockout over Mexico’s Laramie Carmona. STAN’S THE MAN: Stan Surmacz Ahumada earned a unanimous decision victory over Cold Lake’s Tim Chemelli. It’s the third time the two heavyweights have fought.
Ahumada knocked out Chemelli last year in Chemelli’s pro debut and then Chemelli got revenge in March handing Ahumada his first-career loss with a first-round knockout.
Ahumada lost over 30 pounds for this rematch and it paid off as Ahumada used his elusiveness to his advantage in the victory.