It was a night to remmeber at the Cajundome Convention Center for Lafayette’s Keon Papillion.
“The Chosen One” participated in the main event of the Ragin Rumble Boxing promotion, fighting for championship gold against Julio Sanchez.
Papillion got a quick knockdown in the early seconds of the fight, but Sanchez recovered well and made the first round very competitive. The second round featured strong blows from both fighters with a good mix of shots to the head and body as they found their footing.
The third round was a testament to blocking as neither Papillion nor Sanchez had much success landing strikes until the final ten seconds when both fighters unleashed a fury of blows.
Round 4 went back to the Lafayette native wearing down his opponent as the younger Papillion landed critical blows late in the round to take a key advantage at the halfway point of the fight. Early in the fifth, Sanchez came out firing and rocked Papillion, returning the favor from the first round.
In the sixth, Papillion bounced around the ring with the swagger of a champion, landing blows and moving away to protect himself in the process. Finally, after a full eight-round contest, “The Chosen One” was declared the winner by unanimous decision and captured championship gold.
“I want to thank God, my family, and everyone who came out for the fight tonight,” Papillion said in the ring. “With it being a fight in my hometown, I wanted to put on a show and I hope I did that for you tonight.”
Other matches on the card included Opelousas native Logan Speyrer picking up a win, Darren Isol taking down Blake “Slaughter House” LaCaze, Waylon Bailey picking up a first-round stoppage victory over Josh Payne, and Rayne native Kyle “Blazin & Amazin” Manuel winning by unanimous decision over Larry “Slow Motion” Smith.