Munsen outlasts Shocks for win
WORLEY, Idaho – Tim Shocks came to play; Luke Munsen showed up to work.
As a result, it was the Spokane cruiserweight who won the main event on Thursday’s boxing card at the Coeur d’Alene Casino’s House of Fury.
Munsen, now 19-5, avenged an earlier loss to Shocks by being patient and working steadily to Shocks’ body and not falling for any of the Seattle boxer’s games in Shocks’ final professional fight.
Just prior to the announcement of Munsen’s unanimous decision, Shocks (26-23-4) announced his retirement.
Shocks started the fight full of confidence – bordering on downright cocky. He played rope-a-dope with the younger Munsen. He tried playing possum. He danced and he taunted. None of it worked.
Munsen built a substantial lead, winning eight of the 10 rounds, losing only the final round, when Shocks scored frequently and inflicted a bloody nose.
Sandpoint’s Favio Medina turned in a smart performance against a wily veteran, scoring a unanimous, eight-round decision over Gig Harbor’s Rudy Lovato, 21-35-4.
Medina, 11-1-2, who has had a tendency to throw wild lefts and rights when he senses an opponent is hurt, resisted. Where in the past he wore himself out through four rounds, this time he stayed strong through all eight rounds, winning seven on two of the three judge’s scorecards.
No one was more surprised by Skyler “Baby Boy” Anderson’s second-round knockout of Jerry Simpson than Anderson.
“I told my dad just before I went out for round two that I didn’t think I was going to be able to knock this guy out,” the 19-year-old said. “He said, ‘You don’t have to.’ Knockouts come when you work hard.”
Anderson, now 4-1 with three wins by knockout, came into the fight with a height advantage of almost a foot over Simpson and outweighing his opponent by 19 pounds.
Anderson previously has fought older heavyweights who have tried to intimidate the teenager. Simpson, 1-5-1, did not.
“I think, for the first time, he was intimidated by me,” Anderson said.
Carson Jones, 10-2-1, scored a third-round victory over Jeff Carpenter, 11-15-1, when referee Jerry Armstrong stopped the fight at the 1:17 mark.
One of the most entertaining bouts of the night was an exhibition between Portland’s David Banks and Spokane’s Dewey Welliver. Banks’ original opponent dropped out at the last minute and Welliver stepped in for four unscored rounds.
In the opener, Post Falls middleweight Raphael Cansino earned his first professional win, scoring a unanimous decision over Worley’s Frank Bybee. Cansino caught his opponent with a short right hand midway through the first round to drop Bybee, who got up from the canvas and fought gamely.