Donovan George received the most thunderous applause on Friday night at the UIC Pavilion when he entered the UIC Pavilion ring with not only Irish and Greek flags but also with an undefeated record.
The Chicago native left with it, too.
In a grueling and entertaining eight-round fight in the super middleweight division that went the distance, George defeated Osumanu Adama by unanimous decision.
“This is like I went to college today and got a degree,” George said of winning the event in front of a Showtime audience.
The two fighters traded blows throughout the evenly matched fight. George (20-0-1) believes he broke his right hand in the second or third round.
“All in a day’s work,” he said.
But George kept punching.
“That’s no excuse for not getting the knockout,” George said. “We heard he was extremely tough and he wasn’t going anywhere. We knew we were in for a grueling fight. We wanted a test on national television and we passed.”
He delivered a knock-down right hook in the seventh round.
Adama (14-2), from Ghana, has fought intermittently throughout a nearly nine-year career.
The fight was scored 79-72, 76-75,77-74 in favor of George, who said he hopes another Showtime fight is in his near future..
Another Chicago native known more for basketball than boxing also earned a victory in front a crowd of 28,017 fans, including actor John Cusack.
Kendall Gill, who played basketball for the “Flyin’ Illini” and for 14 seasons in the NBA including a season with the Bulls, was out to prove his legitimacy. Also a television sports analyst, Gill became a boxer at age 37 in 2005 and will turn 42 next month.
He remains undefeated at 4-0 after a technical knockout against Miles Kelly (1-2-0) with a body shot that ended the fight at the 2 minute 54 seconds mark of the third round in a four-round heavyweight fight.
“I’m using this as a stepping-stone,” Gill said. “Now I’m getting my conditioning together … becoming a better fighter and knowing what it takes. When I first came, I was in basketball shape, not fighting shape.”
With his age and lack of experience, Gill said he tries to learn from each fight but hasn’t determined how long he’ll continue to box. There’s only one reason he’s in the sport, he said.
“I love it,” he said.
In another featured fight other than George-Adama, Edwin Rodriguez (14-0-0) won on a knockout of Kevin Engel (17-3-0).
Engel’s face was bloodied by the end and his left eye nearly swollen shut after a body shot by Rodriguez ended the fight for him on a 10-count.
In a battle for the WBC youth world light heavyweight title, Andrzej Fonfara defeated Roger Cantrell by technical knockout 1:01 in the fourth round of a scheduled 10-round fight. Fonfara (14-2-0), who’s from Poland and lives in Chicago, knocked Cantrell (15-2) against the ropes with a series of jabs and the referee stopped it.
Jaime Herrera, a Chicago native, beat Eric Draper in a unanimous decision in the four-round welterweight fight that opened the night. Herrera was on the attack early against the lengthier Draper (1-3-0) and improved his record to 2-0-0 in front of a hometown crowd that cheered for him.
In a four-round heavyweight fight, Poland’s Krzyztof Zimnoch (2-0-1) and Joey Montoya(1-0-1), from Denver, fought to a draw. One referee favored for Zimnoch, but the other two had a 37-37 draw.
In the main event of the night, Marcus Johnson (19-0-0) beat Derek Edwards (25-1-0) in a 10-round super middleweight fight.
