One In A Million? I say thee nay! Try Four In A Million
by
Coyote Duran
3/29 - To paraphrase a Kyle Broflovsky quote from
South Park: I learned something this weekend.
I learned that popularity, support and love all act in proportion to your experience and location. I learned this all while attending One In A Million Promotion's Date With Destiny show at the Radisson Hotel in Merrillville, Indiana on Friday night. Scheduled were six potentially entertaining scraps featuring local hot prospects. The fights didn't disappoint the enthusiastic capacity crowd, but as entertained as I was by some good, quality action, I wasn't so much caught up in the action as I was in the talent that delivered the action.
When I first saw middleweight "Marvelous" Shay Mobley back in January fighting on a Telefutura card, I didn't give him much hope against Miguel Hernandez. At the time, Chicago's very own Mobley literally had more than half as many losses as he had wins. That's not great when you've only been fighting less than 3 years. So colored in surprise was I when Mobley (9-4-1 with 3 KOs) pulled off a hard-nosed, unanimous decision win that I was more than delighted when I learned that Mobley would be throwing leather in Merrillville against Mark Hale. Sure, Hale (now 1-9-1) is indeed your run-of-the-mill journeyman template, but sometimes "do overs" are necessary when one finally fights at the weight class he really belongs in. You see, Mobley's first string of fights were zigzags between light heavyweight and super middleweight. Too much instability in the dawn of one's career. So when the solid, stocky Mobley parlayed the workman angle into a fourth round TKO, I figured this was "Marvelous" Shay's way of saying "I'm back!" And he looked damn happy to be here.
If the number of fans wearing his T-shirts were any indication of public status, then"The Fighting School Teacher" Jimmy Holmes was the governor of Indiana. The wildly popular DeMotte, Indiana middleweight delivered a solid landslide ass-kicking to the green Chad Taylor, upping his record to 9-0-1 with 6 KOs. Beating a guy with a record of 0-2 walking in isn't so much spectacular as Holmes' celebratory mood post-fight. With hand wraps still on, Holmes waded past his fans to say hello to an acquaintance by the refreshment vendor's table. Oblivious to his own success of the evening, the cheery, smiling Holmes would rather have said hello to one of his many rabid supporters instead of reveling in his own victory. That being said, it figures that a guy named "The Fighting School Teacher" knows the meaning of the word "class."
You'll understand shortly why I'm a little out of order when I talk about the main eventer before the co-main eventer so bear with me. If Holmes was the "unofficial" guest of honor, then Indiana State Association/Indiana lightweight titlist Johnny Novak was the "official" man of the night. Novak, now 13-1 with 6 KOs, beat down Charles McClellan (6-18) with such gusto en route to a fifth round TKO victory, you'd think he stole something. Well......it also didn't help matters that McClellan was quite game until the fan favorite Novak repeatedly pasted him into submission to the cheers of his home crowd. If there's one thing I could suggest for promoter Octavius James' star pupil of the eve, it would be to step up the competition a speck. Otherwise, his handlers have been moving him well.
Finally, to touch upon the man I skipped. My favorite fighter of the evening, co-main eventer Jermaine "Too Sweet" White. White (7-0 with 4 KOs), in my opinion, had the most charismatic entrance of the evening. Led to the ring with huge American flags unfurled, the young junior welterweight made the night short by making even shorter work of 25 fight veteran John Hoffman in 2 rounds. However, what was more noticeable to me than the cool Apollo Creed-esque trunks and the winning smile was White's power. His punches weren't just hard. They were swift and laser-precise. Long story short, this kid has got it. And I want to see a lot more. ESPN2, anyone?
Such raw talent can only be eclipsed by one thing: The stench of the giant fart of unfairness. To make another long story short, Ryan Maraldo and Jason Smith, after being conquered by Novak and White respectively, both "earned" the "opportunity" to be whipped by the super-hyped Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on separate HBO pay-per-views. I feel that if winners like Johnny Novak and Jermaine White were given those chances, we might've heard much different results come the end bell.
But hey, who knows? Given that one little chance at the big time, these 4 young stars could burn bright. I'm just pleased to see them here during the birth of their galaxy at One In A Million. If you haven't seen 'em yet. Fork out 25 clams for the next show. I think it'll make you smile.
C'mon, I see you smiling.....you know you wanna smile!
Coyote Duran can be reached at coyoteduran@talkingboxing.com
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