By Mike Indri
Retired Boxers Foundation
(NJ State representative)
May 22, 2003

Yonkers, NY. - With the Yonkers Raceway looming in the background on this dreary, rain drizzled night 1,200 hard core boxing fans filled a make shift boxing arena/warehouse garage. They came to see a Joe DeGuardia promoted Star Boxing Inc. event, which was being televised by the ShowTime network as part of their Shobox series.

After enduring a one-hour delay prior to the start of the show the sold-out crowd was treated to a night filled with non-stop action, knockouts and a main event Jr. Middleweight fight which was reminiscent to Zale vs. Graziano, or Robinson vs. LaMotta during boxing's golden era.

In the first bout of the evening Tim O'Niell, fighting out of Staten Island, improved his record to 2-1-1 with a 4th round knockout victory over still winless Victor Barnes, now 0-3.

Newton "the Butcher" Kidd followed with a 3rd round TKO over Alexandra Nikolic. Kidd, now 3-1 with 3 KO's came out throwing bombs and was looking for a quick knockout. In round three a big right hand finally caught Nikolic, who was hurt and slouched over the ropes. After a continued assault against the defenseless fighter the bout was stopped.

Craig Salamone upped his record to 15-2-1 with a majority decision over John Battle, now 9-8-1. After a brief intermission the featured, televised bouts began.

Two-time Olympic challenger Ruslan Chagaev, a Uzbekistan native now fighting out of Las Vegas, looked impressive in his 3rd round TKO win over formerly unbeaten heavyweight Zakeem Graham, now 9-1 with 7KO's. Ruslan dominated from the opening bell, landing several power shots which hurt Graham. This relentless attack continued throughout the bout and left Graham bleeding profusely from his nose and in serious pain.

The main event followed and the capacity crowd did not know what it was in store for as Kuvanych "Kuna" Toygonbayev, also from Uzbekista, fighting out of Las Vegas, and local favorite Andre Tsurkan, originally from Russia now a Bronx, NY resident both entered the ring.

From the opening bell "Kuna" pressed the attack with strong, accurate punchs to the head and body of Tsurkan. Tsurkan responded with his own assault and the war was on. For ten rounds neither fighter took a step back nor stopped throwing punches. The fight's pace was unbelievable and the crowd's roars of "Andre, Andre, Andre" were deafening.

In round three Kuna hurt Tsurkan, and the effectiveness and superior power of his punches were becoming more evident. By the end of round four Tsurkan's right eye was badly swollen and both fighters were bleeding. Tsutkan came on strong in round five and backed Kuna into the ropes. Both fighters exchanged damaging punches. With the crowd roaring both fighters stood toe-to-toe. Kuna was winning the battle and continually hurt Tsurkan with punches coming from all angles. By the tenth round Tsurkan knew he needed a knockout to win. With the hearts of champions both fighters had to be pried apart by referee Michael Ortega at the sound of the final bell. Tsurkan nearly collapsed, his face swollen, right eye shut. Kuna was bruised and battered as well.

Judges Steve Weisfeld scored it 97-93, Oscar Perez saw it 96-94 and Joe Dwyer had it 99-92, a unanimous decision victory for Kvanych Toygonbayev whose record improves to 21-1 while Andre Tsurkan slips to 19-2.

A great night of boxing presented by Joe DeGuardia and Star boxing in association with the ShowTime cable network. Star Boxing's next venue will be on June 12, 2003. More information can be found at the Star Boxing website.