PORTLAND, Maine — Russell Lamour Jr. of the Portland Boxing Club scored an eight-round unanimous decision over Central American middleweight champion Jaime Barboza of San Jose, Costa Rica, on Saturday night in front of a packed house at the Portland Exposition Building.
Lamour, a Deering High School graduate and former North American middleweight champion, looked like he might have a short night after connecting with a vicious right uppercut that dropped Barboza late in the first round.
But Barboza got even a round later, withstanding Lamour’s attack and dropping the hometown fighter with a right hand.
The back-and-forth battle continued, with Lamour outboxing his tough and aggressive foe to win on all three judges’ scorecards. Two judges scored the fight 77-74 and the third had it 78-73.
Lamour is now 15-2, while Barboza fell to 19-10.
In the co-feature, Portland Boxing Club’s super bantamweight Jorge Abiague of Portland (10-2) won a six-round unanimous decision over Basilio Nieves of Puerto Rico by way of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
PBC super welterweight Casey Kramlich of Raymond moved to 6-0-1 with a runaway four-round unanimous decision over Larry Smith of Dallas.
Super lightweight Matt Doherty of Salem, Massachusetts, stopped Josue Rivera of Philadelphia by way of a technical knockout 46 seconds into the third round.
Super lightweight Rocco Salimbene of Philadelphia scored a four-round unanimous decision over veteran boxer Ian James of Bronx, New York, in his professional debut.
Super welterweight Mike Materkowski of Amesbury, Massachusetts, won a narrow decision over Ricky Ford of Claremont, New Hampshire. Both boxers were making their professional debut.
The show began with bouts involving two rising amateur stars from the Portland Boxing Club. In the first fight, open class lightweight Gabriel “Tito” Morales of Portland outboxed Christian Castro of Red Bank, New Jersey, to win a three-round unanimous decision.
Then PBC open class welterweight Josniel Castro of Portland won a three-round unanimous decision over John DeAngelis of Hazlet, New Jersey.
Special guest for the evening was former world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes.
Local boxers score victories
Two female boxers from the Bangor area scored recent victories at the Rocky Marciano Tournament of Champions in Middleborough, Massachusetts.
Tracey McCue, 42, of Bangor won the New England master’s championship in the 132-pound weight division by scoring a three-round unanimous decision over Dawn Verbois of Fall River, Massachusetts, during competition at the Middleborough Elks Club.
Also winning her bout was 17-year-old Jayda Bailey of Levant, a student at Hermon High School. Bailey defeated Amaris Collazo of Brockton, Massachusetts, by third-round technical knockout in a fight contested in the women’s elite 141-pound class.
McCue and Bailey train at Young’s MMA in Bangor and at Glenn Cugno’s boxing club in Lewiston.