By By Tony Krausz/assistant sports editor
November 16, 2003
The Night of Champions boxing matches at the Frank Cochran Center in Highland Park wrapped up in similar fashion to how it started on Saturday night short and sweet.
Dana Kendrick of Hattiesburg, making her professional debut, recorded a TKO 1:48 into the first round of her bout against Marla Roberson of Tupelo, who was also competing in her first bout.
Kendrick recorded the win using a simple array of jabs, and Roberson threw in the towel after being hit by a hard right hook.
The final fight on the seven-bout card was consistent for the evening's event, in which only one match went the full allotted rounds and three bouts were over in the first round.
Jerry Coleman of Laurel set the trend in the first bout of the night in his heavyweight match up against Matt Gann of Tupelo.
Coleman recorded a first round knockout in the opening 52 seconds of the scheduled four-round fight.
The second bout of the night, a super middleweight match between Nelson Browning of Baldwin and Bo Skipper of Laurel, went a little longer than the first fight, but not by much.
Skipper recorded a TKO win over Browning 35 seconds into the second round.
Josh Matthews of Meridian gave his hometown crowd a little more bang for their buck in the third fight of the night in his cruiserweight bout against Hattiesburg's Mike Carlisle.
Matthew recorded a TKO 2:38 into the third round of the two boxer's four-round bout.
The fourth bout of the night was a substitution for an originally scheduled fight.
Greg David of New Orleans recorded a first-round knock out over James Sandoball of Baton Rouge, La. The two fighters replaced Rodney Phillips of Laurel and Southeastern middleweight champion Brad McNeil of Meridian on the card.
Kenny Craven of Laurel, the Midsouth heavyweight championship, made his bout a family affair.
The proud father of four took on Tupelo's Lewis Gilbert in a scheduled six-round fight in front of his entire family.
Craven recorded a first-round knockout over Gilbert 2:13 into a bout that was filled with action.
Clint McNeil of Hattiesburg, who is the Midsouth junior middleweight champion, and Antonio Adams went the distance in their scheduled six-round bout.
McNeil, who hurt his hand in the opening round with a jab that landed on top of Adams' head, won the match by unanimous decision.
McNeil said he thought he hurt Adams in the third round of their fight, but he was unable to land a knockout blow because of his injured right hand, that swelled and turned black and blue after the bout.