{"id":6825,"date":"2014-07-26T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2014-07-26T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=6825"},"modified":"2014-07-25T10:56:14","modified_gmt":"2014-07-25T14:56:14","slug":"kennett-boxer-fights-at-msg-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=6825","title":{"rendered":"Kennett boxer fights at MSG tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"

A win could mean a shot at the cruiserweight title<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Denny Dyroff<\/strong>,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"CaputoSmith\"<\/a>

Kennett’s Anthony Caputo Smith (second from left) fights Ola \u201cKryptonite\u201d Afolabi in a 10-round cruiserweight bout tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York.<\/p><\/div>\n

There are many great venues for boxing matches but none as great as Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

The Garden, which is located a few blocks away from Times Square in Manhattan, has been home to some of the boxing world\u2019s most legendary fights including the first\u00a0Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier\u00a0bout, the Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Henry Armstrong classic and, more recently, the\u00a0WBA welterweight title\u00a0fight between\u00a0Miguel Cotto\u00a0and\u00a0Zab Judah.<\/p>\n

Tonight, Kennett Square\u2019s Anthony \u201cThe Bull\u201d Caputo Smith will join the ranks of top-flight boxers who have fought at the Garden.<\/p>\n

Caputo Smith will fight Ola \u201cKryptonite\u201d Afolabi in a 10-round cruiserweight bout. The fight will on the undercard of a six-bout event that features Gennady Golovkin defending his IBO and WBO middleweight titles against Daniel Geale in the main event.<\/p>\n

For Caputo Smith, it will be his second fight in less than a month. The 29-year-old fighter, who is 15-3 with 10 KOs, suffered an eight-round unanimous decision loss to B.J. Flores (29-1-1) on June 27 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Casino in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do better when I fight frequently,\u201d said Caputo-Smith. \u201cI stayed in the gym and kept training ever since that fight. So, I\u2019m ready. Fisticuffs, my promoters, got a call for me to be in this fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was short notice but that\u2019s all right. We said — we\u2019ll take it. It\u2019s the Garden. I never thought I\u2019d get a shot at fighting in the Garden. When you get an opportunity like this, you\u2019ve got to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caputo Smith won the first 13 fights of his career — most of which were fought at the Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Dover, Delaware. The venue was also the site of his first loss — a TKO by Kevin Engel on August 31, 2012.<\/p>\n

In his next fight, Caputo Smith rebounded with a 10-round majority decision over Dhafir Smith to win the USA Pennsylvania State light heavyweight title.<\/p>\n

After that, Caputo Smith traveled to Las Vegas to fight undefeated Sean Monaghan for the WBC Continental Americas light heavyweight title at the Thomas & Mack Center. Unfortunately for the local fighter, he was on the wrong end of a TKO.<\/p>\n

Once again, he returned to this area for a fight against Anthony Ferrante for the vacant USA Pennsylvania State cruiserweight title. Caputo Smith logged a split decision to win the belt in the fight at Harrah\u2019s Philadelphia in Chester.<\/p>\n

After the Dhafir Smith fight, Caputo Smith decided to move up from the light heavyweight class (175 pounds) to the cruiserweight division (200 pounds).<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving up to cruiserweight changed everything,\u201d said Caputo Smith. \u201cI was coming down every fight from 215, 220 to make 175 and that was too much. I was killing myself to make that weight. I went to cruiserweight and won the Pennsylvania State title.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not the first time Caputo Smith won a state title. In 2004, he was part of the Kennett High basketball team that won the PIAA state championship.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Caputo Smith will face Afolabi, a veteran fighter who is 20-3-4 with nine knockouts. The fighter\u2019s full name is Olawale Afolabi. The name Olawale comes from the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria and means \u201cwealth came home.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his last fight, Afolabi faced Poland\u2019s Lukasz Janik for the vacant International Boxing Organization cruiserweight title\u00a0\u00a0and won a 12-round majority decision.<\/p>\n

Prior to that fight, Afolabi fought back-to-back\u00a0WBO cruiserweight title fights against Marco Huck — a draw in May 2012 and a loss in June 2013 — with both fights taking place in Germany. On Saturday, the 6-foot, 3-inch Afolabi will have a definite height and reach advantage over Caputo Smith, who is 5-10.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy (Afolabi) is experienced,\u201d said Caputo Smith. \u201cHe\u2019s fought everybody. He\u2019s tall and he has a long reach. This fight will be a boxer against a slugger. I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll want to trade punches with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Pettiford, who is Caputo Smith\u2019s trainer at the William \u201cHicks\u201d Anderson Community Center in Wilmington, thinks the difference in styles will work to his fighter\u2019s advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Afolabi) is tall and has a boxer\u2019s style,\u201d said Pettiford. \u201cHe\u2019s tailor-made for Anthony. He\u2019s had almost 30 fights and only has nine KOs. Anthony has improved a lot on his defensive skills so he\u2019ll be all right when he takes the fight inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a fighter who is a boxer imposes his will on an opponent, it can be a pretty fight. When a fighter who is a puncher imposes his will on an opponent, it can be an ugly fight. Saturday\u2019s fight should be pretty ugly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be a hard fight but it is also a winnable fight,\u201d said Caputo Smith. \u201cI can\u2019t get careless — but I\u2019m used to this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that I have to get inside and I\u2019ll get hit going in. I can take a beating to get what I want. I\u2019m going to win this fight. I have to make it my kind of fight. It\u2019s going to be an ugly fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afolabi actually has had three bouts against Huck, who is 37-2-1 with 26 KOs. In their first meeting, Huck, a Serbian who now lives in Berlin, won a unanimous decision in December 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cA win against Afolabi should get me a title bout against Huck,\u201d said Caputo Smith. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m really hoping for. I\u2019ll go to Germany to fight him. It would be for a world title so I\u2019ll fight him anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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A win could mean a shot at the cruiserweight title By Denny Dyroff,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times There are many great venues for boxing matches but none as great as Madison Square Garden. The Garden, which is located a few blocks away from Times Square in Manhattan, has been home to some of the boxing world\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[4254,4256,365,4255],"class_list":["post-6825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","tag-anthony-caputo-smith","tag-boxing","tag-kennett-square","tag-madison-square-garden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}