Staff photo / Dan Hiner. South Side Boxing Club’s Chris Vass, in red, throws a jab while fighting Pennsylvania’s Maddox Smith in a 135-pound match during the Thanksgiving Feast fights on Saturday night at Penguin City Brewing.

YOUNGSTOWN — Chris Vass of South Side Boxing Club scored a unanimous decision over Ellwood City’s Maddox Smith in the main event of Saturday night’s ‘Thanksgiving Feast’ amateur boxing show at Penguin City Brewing.

Vass, who just completed his freshman season as a member of the Cardinal Mooney football team, was in control from the opening bell and was one of five local fighters to post a victory on the 11-bout card.

For his effort, he was named the Most Outstanding Boxer of the evening. Vass detailed how football helps him in his boxing career, while boxing aids him on the gridiron.

“It’s the toughness and grittiness of both sports that I like,” Vass said after his victory. “He [Smith] had a good right hand and was one heck of a fighter, so the goal was to keep going at him and backing him up. Each round I just gave it my best and that worked out for me in the end.”

Other local winners included Kingsley Wade and Dontrail Burkes, also of Jack Loew’s South Side Boxing Club, Austin Gibson, who represented trainer Keith Burnside of Burnside A.C. and Youseff Hajjawi of Tom Cordell and Sam Calderon’s Golden String Boxing Club.

Wade won his 65-pound pairing over Ashtabula’s Cam Mennecke while Burkes topped Jayvian Adams, of Springfield, Massachusetts, in a 115-pound scrap.

Both boxers won by unanimous decision.

“The goal was to go right after [Jayvian] Adams but he was tough to knock down,” Burkes said. “I just stuck to my game plan.”

Gibson scored a split decision over Pittsburgh’s LaRon Rockymoore at 147 pounds, while Hajjawi topped Cleveland’s Omar Mohammed in a 165-pound battle, also by split decision.

“I came down with a virus or something early Saturday morning, felt sick a good portion of the afternoon and it was hard to breathe in the first round,” Gibson said. “I knew that he [Rockymoore] was fast, so once I saw him backing up, I began to apply more pressure.”

The other split decision of the night went to Pittsburgh’s Xavier Campbell, who defeated SSBC’s Omari Garner, while Carter Bollinger was a first-round winner by abandonment over SSBC’s Isaiah Christian at 145 pounds.

A bloody nose in the first-round didn’t exactly help Keith Burnside of Burnside A.C., who fell by unanimous decision to Kriss Benjamin, of Pittsburgh, in a 147-pound clash.

“The nose was leaking pretty good from the first round,” Burnside said. “It was disappointing to lose, but I trained hard and it was a learning experience. I will head back to the gym now, train harder and come back even stronger.”

In the other three fights, all won by unanimous decision. Detroit’s Xavier Charles stopped Jaden Thompson of Cleveland at 125 pounds, Andierys Baez of Springfield, Massachusetts was a winner over Jordan Bell of Knoxville, Ohio in a 125-pound pairing and Cleveland’s Siddeeg Saber scored a win over Jordan Charles of Detroit in a 126-pound scrap.

RESULTS

125 pounds — Xavier Charles (Detroit) def. Jaden Thompson (Cleveland), unanimous decision.

65 pounds — Kingsley Wade (SSBC) def. Cam Mennecke (Ashtabula), unanimous decision.

125 pounds — Andierys Baez (Springfield, MA) def. Jordan Bell (Knoxville, OH, Board’s Boxing Club), unanimous decision.

126 pounds — Siddeeg Saber (Cleveland) def. Jorden Charles (Detroit), unanimous decision.

115 pounds — Dontrail Burkes (SSBC) def. Jayvian Adams (Springfield, MA), unanimous decision.

147 pounds — Austin Gibson (Burnside A.C.) def. LaRon Rockymoore (Pittsburgh), split decision.

145 pounds — Carter Bollinger (Ellwood City), def. Isaiah Christian (SSBC), Referee stops fight after first-round, abandonment.

147 pounds — Kriss Benjamin (Pittsburgh) def. Keith Burnside (Burnside A.C.), unanimous decision.

115 pounds — Xavier Campbell (Pittsburgh) def. Omari Garner (SSBC), split decision.

165 pounds — Youseff Hajjawi (Golden String Boxing), def. Omar Mohammed (Cleveland), split decision.

135 pounds (Main Event) — Chris Vass (SSBC) def. Maddox Smith (Ellwood City), unanimous decision.