Heavyweight aims to KO ALS
By “KO” Ken Caro

INSIDE BOXING (February 14, 2004) - North Carolina heavyweight Paul Marinaccio is on a mission to help cure ALS or other wise known as Lou Gherigs disease. Paul’s father in law Mike Skipper has contracted the disease and through the efforts of friend’s and family they have gathered at Club Gemini in Raleigh N.C. to help raise awareness of ALS and hopefully raise some money to donate towards a cure.

This is Marinaccio’s first venture into promoting a fight card and has enlisted the help of his wife Tracy Silver who is Mike’s daughter. The card featured five bouts with fighter’s coming in from as far away as Atlanta to help out.

Marinaccio was the headliner fight facing the durable Trent Surratt. Surratt was at a distinct height disadvantage giving a six inch’s to Marinaccio. The fight went the full six rounds with Marinaccio keeping Surratt at the end of his jab and pounding his ribs with body shot’s that I could all most feel at ringside. But Surratt was game and kept pressing forward trying to get inside, but it was not to be and all three judges scored the fight for Marinaccio 60-53, 60-51 and 60-51.

“Queen B.” Bonnie Mann took on Michelle Ewing and disposed of her in two short rounds. Mann has markedly improved skills and showed them last night, she knocked down Ewing two times in the first and at 58 seconds of the seconds of the second round finished Ewing off with a flurry of body shots. Mann is on her way to the top of her division and with the help of Coach Tony Bradley, who is the U.S. Olympic coach she will improve with every fight.
Three other bouts were on tap with “Joltin” John Butler taking a unanimous decision over middleweight Harold Cook 40-36 on all three judge’s cards. Butler out worked him throwing punches 3 to 1 over Cook who was also busy on the inside but Butler kept him on the end of his jab and landed at will. Heavyweight Curtis Taylor took on Casey Truesdale and hit him so hard that Truesdale lost his lunch in the ring in the middle of the 4th round. Truesdale was swinging from the fences hoping to score one big shot against the much bigger Taylor. It wasn’t to be and Trusdale left a mess in the middle of the ring, ref Bill Clancy called a stop to the bout at 1:34 of the fourth.

Donna Bigger TKO’ed Lynn Smith in a lightweight bout. Smith was making her pro debut coming from the kick boxing ranks. Bigger’s was just to technical for Smith who needs much more work in the gym before she steps into the ring again. The TKO came at 34 seconds of the second.

A great deal of the thanks goes out to all of the people who made this show possible, Bobby Mitchell of Mitchell Promotions who guided Paul and his wife through the process of putting on a show. Club Gemini for offering the venue and all of the sponsors who want to see this dreaded disease conquered. If you would like to help with next years fund raiser, call Paul Marinaccio at 919-656-2227 for more info.