Report: Gianluca Di Caro

On Friday evening at the MedAsia Playa in Sliema, Malta, local  promoter Darren Casha pulled all the stops out to present one of the  most exciting nights of Boxing and Music to herald the end of the  summer season on the Islands.

I’ve been to some sensational events over the years, but have never  attended anything like this before.

Firstly the location, which was right on the shores of the  Mediterranean, and seriously I mean right on the shore, as the ring  was set up across one of the swimming pools at the stunning MedAsia  Playa, literally just a couple of meters at most from the shimmering  Mediterranean Sea.

The music, well what can I say, no less than Dance Chart toppers Phats  and Small performed throughout the event and when not actually  performing vocalist Ben Ofoedu MCd the Boxing element.

Talking of which let’s get down to the boxing, well the start of the  boxing element at least, as prior to the actual fights a minutes  silence as well as a Ten Bell Salute were made for the legendary Jake  LaMotta, who passed away just a few days before as well as for former  Polish American Boxer and Kronk Coach Peter Pozyczka who passed away  exactly 12 months to the day.

Peter’s daughter Victoria, who had travelled from California to Malta  for the anniversary of his death, was is attendance as a special guest  and was invited into the ring to talk about her father, who had fought  in Malta back in the 1990s and was so taken with the people and the  beautiful Islands that Victoria felt Malta would be the perfect place  to scatter his ashes on the anniversary of his passing.

OK, now onto the Boxing. The headline bout was a pro Heavyweight  contest between Malta’s own Billy ‘The Hitman’ Corito and Ukrainian  Igor ‘The Beast’ Pylypenko.

Pylypenko received a genuinely warm welcome from the eight hundred or  so revellers in attendance, but when Ben Ofoedu announced the imminent  arrival of local hero Corito the decibel level went off the dial.

Round one see both protagonists go straight on the attack, Pylypenko  throwing out big straight jabs in an effort to stop the hard charging  Corito landing any of his trademarked big swooping shots. As the round  progressed the big Ukrainian used his height and reach advantage to  good effect, stepping in and letting rip with big right and left  combinations before stepping back before Corito could land anything  significant. However that didn’t deter the Hitman, he just walked his  way through, taking the odd shot here and there, before getting his  shots off on the inside. Cracking all action round.

More of the same in the second, although at times the fight turned  into a hybrid form of boxing/MMA with the big Ukrainian tying up  Corito each time he came on the inside, and on the odd occasion  literally hooking his leg round Corito’s as well as rather suspect use  of his head. So it came as no surprise that Corito sustained a rather  nasty cut above his right eye.

The third round wasn’t much different, except Corito stepped up a gear  and was able to find the room and land some sensational shots, one of  which sent Pylypenko to the canvas. It was a very bad round for the  Ukrainian, points wise, as referee also deducted a point after  catching Pylypenko again using his head when in close combat.

The fourth was again a full on war and unfortunately quite early on  there was another clash of heads, not sure if deliberate or not by the  Ukrainian, but the after affect being a serious cut over the left eye  of the Maltese Champ.

With blood covering his face Corito had the appearance of a Gladiator  in full battle at the Colosseum, and the way he fought he would have  fitted right in, clearly realizing there was a chance the bout would  be stopped Corito went to war throwing huge shots, whilst many landed  solidly, the big Ukrainian soon reverted to tying his opponent up and  backing him onto the ropes in a relatively vain attempt to prevent  further big shots landing.

About midway through the round, referee Charlie Cardona called time  out and had Corito’s corner wipe some of the blood from his face. The  fight resumed with Corito very much on the ascendance but a minute or  so later there was another close quarters clash of heads. This time  the referee called time out and signalled for the ringside Doctor to  inspect the cuts, following the inspection the Doctor signalled that  the cuts were way too serious for the contest to continue and Referee  Charlie Cardona waved the contest off on the two minutes and  forty-nine seconds mark of the fourth round and declared the contest a  ‘Technical Draw”.

Prior to the headline Corito-Pylypenko contest were three exhibition  bouts, the first being a Malta Vs UK contest between local lass Marie  Claire Church and Sophie Gelder from Sheffield, which was followed by  an all Maltese contest between Team Corito’s Way boxers Redent Galea  and Paul Zammit and the final exhibition bout see Malta based Former  World Champion Scott Dixon against Bradford’s Chucky Robson, who had  taken time of from his honeymoon to take part.

As I said at the beginning this was one serious special event and the  location was, well what can I say, just phenomenal. I just hope that  Darren Casha does another just like this next year, if he does I’m  booking my flights right away.