August 2006 Boxing report

ESPN Friday Night Fights

Live from Memphis, the world saw Atlantic City native Shamone Alvarez scored one of the best knockouts of the year as he dropped Marteze Logan with a crisp left that landed square on the jaw. Logan, who was in his 50th pro fight despite being only 22 years old, was a game challenger for the undefeated Alvarez. It was a pretty close and entertaining fight throughout. Alvarez relied primarily on the right jab followed by a straight left and also showed the ability to rattle off combinations. Logan was pretty slippery defensively and picked his spots to go on the offensive. I thought it was even down the stretch, then Alvarez crumpled Logan in the 7th leaving the young journeyman KTFO. Alvarez improves to 15 - 0.

Female banger Anne Wolfe was on the card and she handed out a 6 round beating to a tough Lisa Ested. The Big Bad Wolf inched her way closer to a showdown with Layla Ali but she says the promoters are trying to jerk her on the pay. Hopefully this fight will happen soon.

In the Main Event, Anthony Peterson, one half of the (over hyped) Peterson brothers made quick work of yet another last minute replacement. While Anthony is clearly the much easier brother to watch, I am not sold on him either. His 19 - 0 record is very suspect. I am fully supportive of developing fighters but he has been walking through cream puffs. His last three have come against guys with good records but those records are factory made. Boxrec the names Jose Soto, Adan Hernandez and Jermain White and take a look at who they beat. But that is boxing for you. I guarantee that he will be exposed when he steps up the competition.

To cap off the night, Tennessee rockabilly Ira Terry won a unanimous four decision against Natalio Ponce.

ShoBox Super Middleweight Tournament

The second installment of the Showtime Super middleweight tournament was slightly better than the first one but we did get our first look at Anthony Hanshaw who seems to have the boxing ability and power to be a player in the division. His opponent was Esteban "Rocky" Camou, a Mexican fighter with a straight ahead style and a ridiculously tight pair of ring trunks. As it turned out, Camou was made to order for Hanshaw's style. For the first eight rounds, Hanshaw boxed circles around his opponent. In the 8th he turned on the power and showed excellent hand speed. The fight went to the score cards with all three judges scoring every round for Anthony Hanshaw who advances to the second round.

In the opener, LaFarrell Bunteng scored a 5th round TKO against Jose Luis Herrera. Bunteng, a last minute replacement for Sakio Bika, has won all of his fights by knockout against Charmin soft competition. It was still enough for the suits at Showtime to give him a TV slot. Herrera also won all 14 of his pro bouts by knockout. Is it me or does every Columbian fighter have a high KO percentage? Then they fight in the USA and lose. This fight was a stinker, I never seen so much separation between two fighters for such a long period of time. Punches were thrown here and there and not a hell of a lot landed. The action did pick up a bit in the 5th as the fighters got into it along the ropes. Bunteng connected with about 10 straight punches and the ref stepped in to give Herrera a standing 8 count. It was obvious that Herrera just didn't want to fight anymore when he walked away from the ref so the fight was stopped. Bunteng won but it wasn't impressive at all. He is lucky that his fight with Max Alexander fell through last month, he would have gotten smoked.

ESPN Wednesday Night Fights

Russell Peltz brought WNF back to the City of Brotherly Love once again televising live from the New Alahambra (aka the ECW Arena) in my old hood South Philadelphia. The card opened with a crowd pleaser as two of my favorites on the local scene Jose Medina and Clarence "Sonny Bono" Taylor went toe to toe in an 8 round battle. This fight came as advertised, an good old fashioned Philly style fight. No jabs and no dancing as both men fired away. Medina worked primarily on the inside and Bono was head hunting. While Medina was game, Bono was able to land clean head shots which proved to be too much for El Macho. Bono scored a knockdown late in the fight but Medina was able to get up and finish the fight on his feet. In the end, all three judges scored the bout for Clarence Taylor.

In the next fight, former Philly amateur standout Kassim Wilson out boxed NY native Wes Hobbs over four rounds. After the fight Wilson wore a tee shirt dedicated to the memory of former Philly fighter William Boggs who recently passed away. It was a great gesture and I would like to note that the photo on the shirt was taken by phillykeith.com's #1 photographer "TKO" Teek McGuigan. you can get the full round by round of William Boggs final fight here. R.I.P. Bobcat.

In the Main Event, one of the top dogs in Peltz stable Rogers Mtagwa beat the crap out of Alvin Brown and made Teddy Atlas look like Nostradamus by scoring the 4th round knockout that the legend predicted in the pre fight. Mtagwa was close to sealing the deal in the second as he peppered Brown scoring two knockdowns. Brown weathered the storm and actually got brave in the 4th, firing away power punches. This turned out to be his downfall as Mtagwa traded and buried his foe with a right to the head sending Brown under the ropes and down for the count. Mtagawa retained his USBA featherweight title and is all but ready to take on up and comer Jason Litzau which should be a barn burner.

Trenton, NJ native Chucky Cavallo rounded out the card but unfortunately it wasn't against Max Alexander, a fight I have been calling for in the fights I would like to see made board for a while now. Instead he was matched up against Mike Eatmon of North Carolina. The first round was pretty good as both fighters threw hard punches. Eatmon drew first blood by causing a cut over Cavallo's eye. Chucky returned the favor in the second by busting Eatmon's nose. Eatmon was obviously gassed out and ripe for the picking after the 1st round. If Cavallo moved side to side, it might have been an early night but Eatmon was able to clinch his way to a decision loss.

The Contender week 3

In this weeks edition of The Contender we saw Seattle native Walter Wright challenge and convincingly defeat Brooklyn native Andre Eason in their 5 round contest. Looks like Wright made a few enemies in the process because of his cockiness in the ring, in particular pissing off Eason's homie Cornelius. The yellow team has tied the score at two wins a piece and it looks like the Philly Keith favorite Grady Brewer is itching for his shot against Vinroy Barrett. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't but the ball is in the yellow teams corner so they get to choose who fights next week.

Click this link to read the complete career bios for every fighter on this season of The Contender. With this research I have been taking my man Pete's money all season betting these fights.

HBO Boxing After Dark

In the Main Event we witnessed the return of "Vicious" Vivian Harris and possibly the end of Stevie "Lil but Bad" Johnston. Vivian was in control for the majority of the contest but Stevie showed the heart of a champion by pulling himself off the deck three times and taking the fight right back to his younger, stronger foe. Even though he kept getting knocked on his butt, Stevie stayed cool and had spots where he was giving the youngster a bit of a boxing lesson. Harris power was just too much for the 5'5" Johnston who was constantly caught trying to squeeze his way inside. The fight ended in the 6th with both of Stevie's eyes swollen shut. the vision might have been gone but not the desire to fight although the referee had seen enough and called a halt to the contest. Vivian did look very sharp and had some pop in his gloves. I won't be surprised to see him in a major fight soon.

In the opener, Joshua Clottey and Richard Gutierrez ripped off vicious body shots at each other with lots of low blows and clinches mixed in. Points were deducted, Heads were butted, I was waiting for a manager to come running in with a steel chair when the ref wasn't looking. It was like an ECW style boxing match. Not to say it wasn't enjoyable at times but the next time I want to see two guys fight dirty it better be the Sandman vs. Sabu.

Roy Jones boxes the socks off of Prince Badi

I don't know if anyone actually bought this pay per view but all reports say the Roy Jones Jr. gave "The Boxing Prince" a serious lesson in Boise. This leads me to believe that Roy won't hang them up just yet.

ShoBox Super Middleweight Tournament

Showtime out together a tournament of eight unknown Super Middleweights hoping to find a diamond in the rough. The first half of the first round came off with mixed results. In the opener, Henry Buchanan beat Lucas Green Arias by unanimous decision. While it was a clear cut victory, the fighters left the ring to a parade of boo's because of the boring action. In the second fight, Jean-Paul Mendy smoked Dallas Vargas scoring a 1st round stoppage after landing a 8 punch flurry two minutes into the round. Vargas looked totally outclasses from the opening bell and Mendy applied the pressure all round. Next week the opening round comes to a conclusion as Sakio Bika takes on Jose Luis Herrera and Anthony Hanshaw goes head up with Estaban Camou. Hopefully the action will be more lively and competitive.

ESPN Friday Night Fights

I only caught bits and pieces of it and it looked to be a decent fight between Sultan Ibragimov and Ray Austin although it ended up in a draw. Sultan floored Austin in the first but couldn't seal the deal. The winner was supposed to be in the running for a shot at Wladimir Klitschko's IBF title. Now not only are the titles a mess, they can't even get the contender situation in order. I saw boxing needs to get rid of the draw, it sucks. If the cards are even at the end of a fight, bring both guys out for the 13th round. The fans would love it and I would think fighters would give it their all to pull out the victory.

Boxing debuts on OLN

The inaugural segment of OLN's "Fight Night" has come and gone and I have to say overall it was a solid show. The night started with Philly middleweight Anthony "The Messenger" Thompson taking on Mohammed Said. This fight was a real stinker for the first 6 rounds and was dangerously close to putting me to sleep. Something clicked in the 7th as both fighters turned into street brawlers. Thompson's finally let his hands fly and for once was impressive in the ring. He connected with about 20 straight shots. Said took them, backed Thompson into a corner and fired off a few of his own. The 8th round was more banging and Thompson's hand speed was evident. In the 9th, The Messenger landed a three punch combo to Said's chin putting him out for the count.

In the Main Event, NABF Middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik took on boxing fossil Bronco McKart. McKart looks like a real dirtball and is exactly the type of fight Pavlik needed. An old grinder that will bang it out with you for a little while. While the commentators tried to hype McKart up as a potential player, you had to know he was a hand picked opponent. This was a very exciting fight for the first four rounds. Pavlik would bang inside, McKart would fire back. McKart just seemed to give up after that. in the end he just dropped for no apparent reason, maybe exhaustion, maybe something else. Either way he hit the deck in the 6th and didn't return to his feet intil the post fight interview to kiss Pavlik's ass. Can we say McKart did the "job"?

Also on the card was Philly tough guy Omar Pittman who scored one of the best Knockouts of 2006 with a short left to Victor Paz jaw leaving him rolling around the ring unable to get to his feet.

Kid Diamond also punished some scrub for about 6 rounds.


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