FIGHTNEWS.COM
13
Jul
2010 Abell wants revenge
Joey “Minnesota Ice” Abell was once a can’t miss heavyweight prospect. The 6’4 240 lb power punching phenom viciously stopped eight of his first nine victims inside of two rounds, emphatically stamping his ticket as one of boxing’s most exciting up and comers in the process. Abell, who literally knocked opponents out of the ring, was undoubtedly on the fast track to success; this was until he met Arron Lyons. Lyons was expected to be another opponent the Coon Rapids native would walk right through, but Abell’s night it wasn’t. The New Mexico product scored a shocking first round stoppage, leaving the crowd at Philadelphia’s Legendary Blue Horizon in disbelief.
The defeat was also disheartening for Abell and an experience he still remembers to this day.
“The loss hit me pretty quickly and it was painful”, said Abell, who was stopped on his feet. “I felt like I disappointed a lot of people that night. It was a major let down to myself and my loyal fans.”
This Saturday night at the St. Paul Armory, Abell will have his crack at redemption when he meets Lyons, 11-8 (8 KO’s), over long awaited ten rounds. The rematch is four years in the making and finalizing the deal was not an easy task. Lyons was also overzealous after the victory and boasted to local media, so Abell knows he must capitalize on the opportunity.
“Of all the fighters to defeat me, I wanted a rematch with Lyons the most because he was a real piece of garbage” emphatically stated Abell, whose current record is 26-4 with 25 kayos. “He badmouthed me and was blatantly disrespectful, so I am to prove that the loss was a fluke and its time to shut him up”!
The highly anticipated Abell-Lyons rematch tops ‘The Ice Age”, a seven bout card promoted by Seconds Out Promotions.
Tickets are $25.00 (general admission), or $75.00 (VIP table seating). Tickets are available online at www.ticketweb.com or by calling 612-807-5547.
14
Jun
2009 Abell crushes White!
By Jesse Kelley at ringside
Heavyweight Joey “Minnesota Ice” Abell (25-4, 24 KO’s) stopped Larry “Super King” White (3-7, 3 KO’s) in round two earlier tonight in Mounds View, MN. Abell cleverly landed big left hands to the head in round one while bobbing and weaving away from White’s counter punching attempts. White did a lot of talking and mocking of Abell in round one, inviting the big southpaw to engage him. Abell smiled as he rocked White on several occasions. A big right uppercut from Abell rocked White agsin early in round two. White switched his passive strategy after taking the shot and came forward with heavy punches. A slugfest momentarily broke out as both men looked to land a knockout punch. Abell put an end to White’s KO hopes with a crushing right hand to the head that sent him slumping to the canvas where referee Mark Nelson waived the fight off midway through the round.
18
May
2009 Abell whips Willis!
By Kurt Wolfheimer at ringsideOn Friday night, fans at The Legendary Blue Horizon were once again treated to the unbelievable punching power of Minnesota heavyweight Joey “Minnesota Ice” Abell (24-4, 23 KOs), who scored a third round TKO over Billy “The Kid” Willis (12-14-1, 9 KOs) of Houston, Texas in the six round main event of the evening. In the co-feature of evening, Philly middleweight prospect Gee “Thoroughbred” Cullmer (16-1, 3Kos) won an ugly six round split decision rematch over Clarence “Sonny Bono” Taylor (13-22-3, 6KO’s). The seven bout card was promoted by Vernocha Michael of The Legendary Blue Horizon Promotions Inc.
Fans at the Blue Horizon have become accustomed to falling in love with fighters who can punch and score spectacular knockouts, and rising heavyweight prospect, Joey Abell fits that description to a tee.
Right from the opening bell Abell took control by doubling and tripling up on a new found sharp right jabs that he appeared more confident in using. Late in the opening round Abell began to unload straight left hands behind the jabs, which kept Billy “The Kid” Willis at bay for most of the round. Just before the final bell though, Willis caught Abell as he backed straight out with a big leaping right hand behind the ear. The bell sounded before he could land anything else but Abell didn’t appear fazed by the shot.
Abell changed up and began to switch up on his combinations in round two, incorporating the swishing uppercuts that just missed sending Willis to the canvas. Willis could only fight on the retreat. The crowd “oohed!!!” and “aahed!!!” everytime Abell would barely miss with a big shot that could end it at any minute.
“He was taking a lot of jabs and I knew he couldn’t win the fight by decision and the only way he could catch was to land one of those leaping right hands,” Said Abell afterward. “In the third round, I timed it and caught him with a right hook and it put him on the canvas,” explained Abell. Surprisingly, Willis actually rose to his feet, but another three punch combination had him stumbling to the corner. Referee Blair Talmadge had seen enough and stepped in and waved the fight off at 54 seconds of the third round.
Some at ringside thought it might have been an early stoppage, but it definitely looked like a savage knockout from Abell was soon to follow. It really prevented the game, but overmatched Billy Willis from really getting hurt.
“I have been working on my one two’s and my one two threes and that is really all you need” said Abell. “I haven’t perfected them yet.
“I have learned from my losses and I am not complaining about any of them, but they will not happen again” said Abell
Look for Joey Abell to take his punching power to Atlantic City in July and maybe to Minnesota according to Matchmaker and Advisor Don Elbaum. He will definitely fight in Sweden in September in a rematch against Alfred “Ice” Cole.
Abell against Cole in Sweden!
Thursday, May 29 2008
fightnews.com
By Teddy Stenmark
Minnesota heavyweight Joey Abell, who was on the cover of the latest edition of the Swedish Boxing magazine recently, will get a chance to rebound from that disappointing TKO loss at the hands of Andrew Greely in April, when he faces comebacking former IBF cruiserweight champion Al "Ice" Cole in Karlstad, Sweden on September 5th. Promoter for this card is Pugnus Promotions, who launches their second show of 2008. Also scheduled on the program is former WBO heavyweight champion Ray Mercer against an opponent to be announced, as well as up and coming female welter Anna Ingman, superbantam Reidar Walstad, Romanian light heavyweight Giulian Ilie and Dane Allan Vester. Referee Steve Smoger has also been engaged to referee a few of the bouts on the card, and word out of Pugnus is that former heavyweight champion Michael Moorer will be in Joey Abell's corner. Seven fights in total. The venue isn't the same one as last year when Färjestad’s massive hockey arena Löfbergs Lila Arena harbored the event. Instead this time Pugnus has chosen the smaller Nöjesfabriken.
Abell silences Wheeler!
April 12, 2008
By Kurt Wolfheimer at ringside
Hard-punching heavyweight Joey “Minnesota Ice” Abell (20-1, 19 KOs), once again set the fans out of their seats with a devastating second round knockout of veteran Maurice Wheeler 10-12-1, 1 KO) at the Legendary Blue Horizon on Friday night. It was the 11th straight victory for Abell but this one was sweeter then usual as Wheeler, consistently challenged him at the weigh in, even calling Joey a woman while throwing a box of tampons at him.
The 6’4” Joey Abell continued his steady rise up the heavyweight ladder, showing an impressive display of power and skills with the second round knockout of Wheeler.
The bout began with Abell shooting his piston like right jabs through the tight defense of Wheeler. The cagey veteran would not be deterred and tried to land some jabs of his own but Abell’s defense and footwork allowed him to easily defend anything coming from Wheeler. Late in round one, Wheeler tasted a heavy overhand left from Abell that moved him backward and made him more tentative.
Wheeler changed tactics in round two as he tried to constantly tie up Abell and then land one shot as he released the break. Abell continued to find the range with several heavy jabs, but appeared to get frustrated with the constant holding and actually threw Wheeler to the ground after a long clinch, which forced a warning from referee Wayne Hedgepath.
Wheeler’s punch output slowed as he retreated from the powerful lefts of Abell. The hard punching Minnesotan finally caught Wheeler against the ropes and unloaded a picture perfect left hand on the chin, which dropped Wheeler through the ropes onto the ring apron. Wheeler was severely hurt and made no attempt to get back into the ring as the bout was waved off at 3:00 minutes of round one.
“This was the first knockout in my twenty one fights of my professional career that I didn’t feel sorry for the opponent I knocked out” said a satisfied Abell afterward. "It wasn’t personal but I was actually looking forward to it.”
Abell also commented on the constant holding from Wheeler afterwards: “It was a kind of frustrating, because every time you think you hurt him with a punch, he would hold and not allow me to follow up with anything. He was playing it smart. I think if he were to beat me, that would be the way to do it but I caught him good.
It had been 37 years since professional boxing was seen on Swedish ground, and with Swedish boxing greats George Scott, Anders Eklund and Paolo Roberto along with promoter Bertil Knutsson, who promoted the last Swedish card back in 1969, all at ringside in Gothenburg, the stage was set for a memorable evening.
The historic event wasn’t without highlights, but the main attractions failed to live up to the occasion. Female middleweight Åsa Sandell stopped hugely overmatched Tiffany Carter of the US in what more looked like a farce than anything else, and heavyweight Aldo Colliander, although winning a split point verdict against faded former WBA champ Robert Daniels, seemed to take the whole thing very lightly and didn’t perform to a normal standard. The upset crowed booed him as he left the ring.
In other action, comebacking heavies Michael “Blond Bomber” Lindblad and Johan Thorbjörnsson both scored victories. The latter was lucky to steal a tight split decision over Norwegian, originally out of Russia, Daniel Peret, while Lindblad crashed in a superb overhand right to the head of yank Matt Anderson, followed it up well, and forced the referee to intervene.
Hard-hitting heavyweight Joey Abell also from the US stopped Engin Solmaz of Germany in the second round and received appreciation from the crowd. The corner threw in the towel.
Debutants Rickard Lundby (featherweight) and Daniel Hartvig, (welter) kickstarted the show with two fine victories, especially Hartvig who was presented with the “Bosse Högberg tough man-award “ presented by the late former European champion's wife, Liz Högberg. Hartvig stopped Guney Kandemir of Germany, while Lundby out pointed Finn Tommy Heiniemi.
Skillful welterweight, Benjamin Kalinovic, took home a solid points win over showboating Ukrainian Boris Akopov after a fine disciplined showing. He was never disturbed by Akopov's constant clowning!
The final bout of the evening that had no Swedish interest brought the scariest KO of the card as German Ibrahim Barakat flattened American William Brown with a beautiful punch in the second round.
Croatian Josip Jalusic and Romanian Gjulian Ilie fought to a draw at light heavy.
All bouts except the Sandell-Carter bouts were scheduled for four rounds, the women match was six two minute rounds.
The promotion and the atmosphere was great, ring announcer Olof Johansson did a wonderful job, making it seem as special as it was. Even though promoter New Sweden ran into tough obstacles, they came through with a fairly decent show. TV4 Plus aired it live on TV.