Photo by Stephanie Trapp/Showtime
Friday, July 25,2014, Showtime’s acclaimed series, ShoBox: The New Generation, aired its 200th episode.
The four-bout telecast started with Tony Luis, from Cornwall, Onatrio, Canada taking on undefeated prospect, Wanzell Ellison, from Newark, New Jersey.
The Lightweight bout scheduled for eight rounds got off to an interesting start, with each man trying to define the fight with his style.
Ellison–the slick boxer who compares himself to Roy Jones and Sugar Ray Leonard–moved swiftly around the ring working behind a good jab.
Luis stalked his opponent, looking to land punches exclusively to the body.
Round 1 was tight, with both men landing 15 punches a piece with perhaps the defining moment coming in the last 10 seconds as Luis unloaded some good shots to the body.
Round 2 saw more of the same with Luis coming forward trying to catch Ellison standing still. Ellison’s quick combo’s were very impressive, but Luis’ body work was equally captivating.
In Round 3, Luis began landing cleanly to Ellison’s body and the young fighter from Jersey began showing his displeasure just a bit.
By Round 4, it became evident that Ellison did not posses the necessary power to keep Luis off of him. Luis held a 48 to 25 advantage in power punches through four rounds with most of those shots being deposited to the body.
Thru 4 rounds of a scheduled 8, Luis is working the left hook. #ShoBox
— SHOWTIME SPORTS (@SHOsports) July 26, 2014
Although he is a slick boxer who entered the fight looking to take advantage of his movement and angles, Ellison changed his style in hopes of switching the pace of the fight.
Ellison began to stand and trade in the middle of the ring with Luis, landing an occasional impressive combination.
Although some of the early rounds were close, Showtime’s commentating team of Steve Farhood, Raul Marquez and Barry Tompkins praised Luis and stated that they had the fight a shutout for the Canadian fighter.
After the fifth round, Ellison’s corner began throwing obscenities at him, obviously unhappy with his performance. Though he was being outworked, Ellison certainly was giving it his all.
In Round 6, Luis continued putting two and three punch combinations together to Ellison’s body, but to his credit, Ellison began coming forward, looking to earn Luis’ respect with his own combinations.
Perhaps a fighter with a bigger punch could have taken Ellison out with the amount of clean connections, but Luis was being effective enough.
Round 7 was brand new territory for Ellison, having never gone past six in 11 career bouts.
Ellison again elected to come forward and took his chances standing and trading with Luis through most of the round–as opposed to sticking and moving which was perhaps a sign of growing fatigue.
While Ellison’s punches were landing, they just didn’t have enough pop on them to deter Luis.
Going into the final round, Luis’ corner–somewhat surprisingly–begged their fighter to win the round, “You’ve gotta win this round big, close the fu—– show.”
Luis did just that as he kept the fight at close quarters, digging more power punches to Ellison’s midsection.
The bout went to the scorecards with Tony Luis winning by unanimous decision over Wanzell Ellison, 77-75, 79-73 and 78-74.
We go to the cards. The winner via unanimous decision (77-75, 79-73, 78-74) is Tony Luis. #ShoBox
— SHOWTIME SPORTS (@SHOsports) July 26, 2014
Although he dropped his first fight, Wanzell Ellison 10-1-1, 5 KO showed that he is tough and has good skills. He will likely get another shot on ShoBox. With the win, Tony Luis moves to 18-2, 7 KOs.
