The Winter Wallop, Integrity Fighter Management’s annual late winter club pro boxing show at the Grand Hall at The Priory in Pittsburgh continued the Integrity legacy of gritty fights in Western Pennsylvania.
The show featured both local and regional talent from the Pittsburgh, New York, and Indiana areas as well as from as far as the Congo and Ukraine.
In the six-round main event, heavy-handed Pittsburgh area police officer Devon Siegfried took on the tireless Justin “Superman” Maggi of Frederick MD. Maggi came out of the gates fast and tried to establish a rhythm, but the hard hitting Siegfried held his ground. Midway through the first, Maggi walked into a jab that momentarily buckled his knees, but he regained control. In the second, both fighters exchanged evenly, but Siegfried landed the heavier shots.
At the end of the second, Siegfried landed a left hook that dropped Maggi hard to the canvas. Staggered, Maggi rose to beat the count but referee Chris Riskus did not like what he saw, halting the action at 0:07 of the second. Siegfried’s KO streak continues to 4-0 (4 KOs) and the rugged Maggi drops to 1-2-1.
In the four-round co-main, local lightweight Teddy Mrkonja moved up to junior welterweight to stop Yulee Florida’s Christopher Wingate. Mrkonja dominated the MMA fighter turned boxer Wingate from ring post to post. A Mrkonja left to the body stopped Wingate at 1:22 of the first. Mrkonja moves to 2-0 (2KO) while Wingate slides to 0-4.
With the success of his No. 2 ranked WBA super bantamweight Oleg “The Ukrainian Pitbull” Dovhun and cruiserweight contender (14-4-2) Lyubomyr “The Demolition Man” Pinchuk, The Conn-Greb Boxing Club’s trainer Michael McSorley was at the helm for another Ukrainian.
This time it was junior middleweight prospect Ivan Dancha. Before moving to America, Dancha was a decorated amateur in Ukraine winning the gold medal at the 2015 Ukrainian national championships. His skills overwhelmed Phoenix Arizona’s Kevin Spraags and a straight right KO’d Spraags at 2:06 of the first. The undefeated Dancha received his third win in the professional ranks, all by knockout.
Joel “The Warrior” Mutombo, from The Congo by way of Indianapolis, a 1-0 cruiserweight took on East Stroudsburg PA’s (2-11) Glenn Thomas. Thomas was coming off of an October 22 victory over (8-2) Bill Yates of Ashland KY. The 32-year-old Motombu landed the harder shots in a competitive first round, and surprisingly the corner of Thomas stopped the fight between rounds, which handed Mutombo victory.
In other fights, Indianapolis area fireman (1-0) Johnny “Iron Sides” Morrison stopped Cleveland’s (4-8-1) Latiss “No Love” Norman at 0:29 of the second round. In the upset of the night, pro debutant Denzel Villar of Yonkers, New York, lost by TKO with two seconds remaining in the fourth to 0-1 Kevin Hicks of Tazwell, Virginia. After sustaining two knockdowns, Hicks had to get off the canvas in both the first and third rounds. He applied a non-stop attack of arm punches to overwhelm the smaller Villar.
Photographer: Brett Rothmeyer