LORAIN – The celebrity boxing showdown Saturday between Lorain Mayor Tony Krasienko and bar owner Mike Kennedy was technically a draw, but only one of the pugilists was knocked to the canvas.

In the third round, the 39-year-old Krasienko backed Kennedy, 59, into a corner and knocked him down with a series of blows.

“I had an unfair advantage,” Krasienko said after the bout. “I’ve got 20 years and at least 40 pounds on the guy.”

Kennedy, who owns Kennedy’s Broadway Billiards, said he didn’t hold the knockdown against the mayor.

“That was just trying to get through the fight,” he said. “It was a good punch.”

The pair was the last fight on the card Saturday at a fundraiser for the Puerto Rican Cultural Committee, which also featured the final amateur bout for Lorain fighter Wilken Santiago, who lost to Terrell Gausha of Cleveland. Organizers estimated about 450 people came out for the event at the Spartan Building.

Kennedy and Krasienko entered the ring and were quickly awash in chants of “Tony! Tony! Tony!” and “Mike! Mike! Mike!”

When the match began after some good-natured ribbing between the two men and with the crowd, the pair came out swinging, using jabs to test the other. Kennedy even found time to take a playful swipe at the referee during the first round, which went longer than anticipated because neither man stopped throwing punches when told to do so.

Krasienko said he just didn’t hear the announcer call an end to the round.

“You don’t hear anything,” he said. “You zone out everything.”

In the second of the three one-minute rounds, Kennedy landed a solid punch to Krasienko’s head and the pair briefly locked together.

The third round, in which Kennedy briefly went down – and got back up – the boxers also went over the time limit.

The officials then declared that the winner was … “the city of Lorain!” to applause from the crowd.

Kennedy said he lost 36 pounds in boxing training over the past few months, bringing him down to 196 pounds. He said he enjoyed the fight but probably wouldn’t want to get back in the ring with Krasienko again.

Krasienko – whose friends began hassling him about knocking down an older man almost as soon as he stepped out of the ring – said he estimates he weighs between 235 and 238 pounds.

He said he gained a new appreciation for the sport of boxing and may keep practicing to keep in shape. He’s not sure he wants to get back in a ring with Kennedy, either.

“I think I’ll leave the boxing to the boxing athletes,” he said.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

---

Print this story
Report an inappropriate comment

---

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.

---