ESPN2's Friday Night Fights, in association with Peltz Promotions from the Ritacco Center in Toms River New Jersey put on an excellent night of boxing. Although the main event featured Charles Brewer vs. Freeman Barr, the majority of the crowd came to see their hometown guys, Toms River's own Darren Maciunski and Bear Sanders.

The action started early with undefeated junior lightweight Jason Litzau, 5-0 who fights out of St. Paul, Minnesota. Litzau kept his undefeated all knockout record intact when he knocked out Rodney Jones, 1-1, 1 KO, from Rochester, New York. The next bout was a competitive fight that featured junior welterweights Andre Eason, 13-2, 5 KO's, from Brooklyn, New York winning a close but unanimous decision (95-93, 95-93, 96-93) over Alberto Santiago 16-4-1, 10 KO's, Mt. Laurel, NJ.

The main event came quick, and ended pretty quickly too, as former IBF super middleweight champ, Philadelphia's Charles "The Hatchet" Brewer, 40-9, 27 KO's was too much for Freeman Barr 25-4, 13 KO's, a Bahamian who fights out of Fort Meyers, Florida. Brewer stalked Barr for most of the fight, and entertained the ringside observers with various noises and his rapper Busta Rhymes impersonation, yelling "Gimme Some More" at Barr, before he finally ended matters when referee Randy Newman jumped in at 1:49 of the 5th round and stopped the fight.

Brewer, who seems like he has been around forever, but is only 33, should stay in the world title mix after this performance. Barr, who was riding an eight fight winning streak while ranked #1 by the WBO for 25 months, and in their top 10 for seven years, has now been stopped twice in the last five months.

At the conclusion of the main event, the Toms River crowd was ready to see their two guys in the next two bouts, Bear Sanders and Darren Maciuinski. The Toms river people are big sports fans who show great support for their athletes. They even named the road that leads to the Ritacco Center after their team a few years back, "Little League World Champions Boulevard." However they would be in for an unpleasant surprise.

Previously undefeated middleweight Bear Sanders, now 4-1, 3 KO's was dropped twice and stopped by TKO at 1:02 of the second round by the Bear hunting Clarence Taylor 5-2-2, 2 KO's, from Wilmington Delaware. Sanders had a lot of fans on hand who were shocked to see this stunning upset. I have seen Sanders score an impressive knockout on the Gatti-Ward III undercard, and then an unimpressive performance in a decision win, at the RexPlex in Elizabeth New Jersey. It will be tough to rebound from this type of loss this early in his career.

Junior middleweight Darren Maciunski, 18-8, 6 KO's cheered up the local fans in the next bout as he won a unanimous decision (58-55, 59-54, 59-55) over Philadelphia's Leo Edwards, 14-11-2, 8 KO's in the next bout. Maciunski who hasn't fought in a few years, looked decent and his friends were glad to see him back in the ring. Maciunski has beaten former world champions Meldrick Taylor and James 'Buddy' McGirt late in their careers, two big names to have on the Win column of your resume.

To close out the card, Russian turned Philadelphian junior middleweight, Aslanbek Kodzoev, 9-1-1, 5 KO's, who is ranked in the top 10 by the WBC, and has recently signed an exclusive promotional agreement with Peltz Promotions, won by TKO at 2:15 of the second round over Baltimore's, Charles Clark 1-17-1, 5 KO's. In the final bout, New Haven Connecticut's middleweight Elvin Ayala, making his pro debut, looked good and scored a unanimous decision (40-35, three times) over LaPata Maryland's Michael Gutrick 0-2.

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