Main Event fighters Mike Gavronski & Dashon Johnson throw down!

An excellent evening of professional boxing went down January 9th at the Emerald Queen Casino as Halquist Productions kicked off their 2015 fight year with Battle at the Boat 99. Six professional bouts were contested in front of full house, including hometown favorite Mike "Imagine Me" Gavronski taking on last minute replacement Dashon "Flyboy" Johnson in a Light Heavyweight matchup. This Fight of the Night went 10 rounds and was characterized by the high-volume output of Gavronski as compared to the less-frequent big power punches from Johnson. Towards the end of the fight, Gavronski had a point deducted for pushing Johnson, something he had been warned of earlier in their somewhat chippy encounter. But in the end the deduction was moot as all 3 judges saw the fight for Gavronski, 98-91, 98-91, 95-94. Gavronski moves to 16-1-1 with 10 knockouts, and is on a two fight winning streak. Look for this rising star to headline Battle at the Boat 100.

The Semi-main event was a 6-round Super Lightweight bout between local fighter Will Hughes and Virgil Green of Vancouver WA. Hughes was busy in the first but Green ended the round connecting with a couple hard punches that wobbled Hughes. In the 2nd, the taller Green started to take over, utilizing his reach and jab to pepper Hughes and open a cut on his face. Hughes tried working his way back into the fight, but Green's skill was too much, outworking Hughes over the final 4 rounds to garner the unanimous decision 60-54, 59-55, 58-56. Green's record is now 10-3.

Buckley WA prospect Jeremy McCleary remains unbeaten after going all 4 rounds with a tough Damen Wood out of Portland OR. The first couple of rounds saw McCleary's speed and punching accuracy carry him through, while Wood started to come on strong as the fight progressed, landing some big shots in the final two frames. Wood had a point deducted from a ruled knockdown that was more of slip. The scores were added up after 4 rounds and all three judges favored McCleary 40-35, 39-36, 38-37, who is now 6-0 as a pro.

A cruiserweight bout between Tacoma's Marquice Weston and Sacramentos's Lamont Williams ended in a draw. The crowd-favorite Weston clearly won the first two rounds with his aggressiveness and higher offensive output. But Williams stayed in the fight in the third by effectively minimizing Weston's shots and sneaking in a number of his own. The final round was fairly even as both fighters scored as they pushed the pace. In the end, one judge had 3 rounds for Weston, while the other two judges saw it even at 2 rounds apiece for the final 39-37, 38-38, 38-38 majority draw tally.

Sunnyside WA's Antonio Neal took home a 1st round TKO win over BC fighter Ron Pryce in a middleweight matchup. The pair traded punches in the first before a not-very hard punch from Neal backed up Pryce and unfortunately Pryce caught his foot on the canvas and severely twisted his knee, ending the fight at 1:51 of the round. Neal moves to 4-1 with the victory.

Lightweights Andres Reyes of Yakima and Benny Vinson of Portland opened the night of fights, going all four rounds in a high-paced entertaining battle. Fairly even through the first two rounds, Reyes started to pull away in rounds 3 and 4 with his power and accuracy, while Vinson started to fade. Vinson though gritted it out to the final bell. After 12 minutes of action, the judges all agreed at 40-36 for the winner Andres Reyes.

Halquist Productions is back at the casino on March 28th for what promises to be a very special evening of boxing as the promotion celebrates its 100th Battle at the Boat. More information at Halquistproductions.com