By Dylan Butler
For two months, the adrenaline pumped through Vinny Maddalone’s veins. The Bayside heavyweight couldn’t wait to enter the ring at Yonkers Raceway. Sure he’s fought there before, but never in a scheduled 10-round bout. Never in the main event.
The 28-year-old Holy Cross grad was clearly not the only one excited about his fight against Joey Guy last Wednesday as a standing-room-only crowd roared and chanted, “Vinny, Vinny,” throughout the fight.
And while Maddalone didn’t disappoint, stopping Guy, a last-minute replacement for Clarence Goins, at 1:25 of the second round, he did let himself get carried away with some of the hoopla, especially in the first round.
“I didn’t do what we were working on. I got caught up with the crowd,” he said. “That’s great now that I got away with it but later with a guy who will be in the top 10-15, you can’t swing those wild punches because guys are going to go right up the middle.”
Despite knocking down Guy with a hard overhand right midway through the first round, Maddalone got quite the tough lashing by trainer Bob Jackson when he returned to his corner between rounds.
“In the first round, he tore into the guy. When he got back to the corner, he got … chewed out,” Jackson said. “I told him to calm down, hold your hips, make your punches tighter, and look where they’re going, cut your angles. Case closed.”
The game plan coming into the fight was to work the body more. And even though Maddalone hurt Guy with a vicious body shot in the second round, most of Maddalone’s punches went upstairs.
“I wish I could have been to the body a little more, but his head was wide open,” said Maddalone, who outweighed Guy by 31 pounds. “I think I was connecting a lot to the head so I think it was just a matter of time before I got to him.”
When Guy tried to tie up Maddalone, which was often, Maddalone did a great job of stepping to the side and nailing Guy, who has also been knocked out by Clifford Etienne, Joe Mesi and Francois Botha. The maneuver, perfected by Mike Tyson, is a rarity in the heavyweight division.
On one occasion in the second round, Maddalone, who improved to 14-0 with nine knockouts, connected with another overhand right and a left hook that sent Guy (29-8) to the canvas for a second time.
“He was holding on. That’s what we work on a lot, when a guy is coming to grab you, step to the side so he can’t grab you,” Maddalone said. “He had a lot of experience. I knew he had a lot of fights so I knew he was going to grab, do some tricks. I tried to overpower him and that’s what I did.”
After the second knockdown, Maddalone pounced on Guy with a flurry of punches along the ropes. Even though Guy blocked most of the punches, referee Mike Ortega decided he had taken enough punishment and stopped the fight.
“While I’m sure it was exciting to the fans, I’m sure they loved the second round better because he finished him,” Jackson said. “The crowd had him in the first round but I had him in the second round.”
Maddalone will await word from manager Joe DeGuardia about his next bout, but he expects to be back in the ring as soon as next month, possibly as a headliner at Turning Stone Casino in upstate Verona.
Also on the Star Boxing card, Queens middleweight Peter Kaljenvic fell to 0-2 as Dex Pejinovic won by technical knockout at 2:50 of the second round of a scheduled four-round bout.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
