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A "King-Sized" Card Returns To Chicago
MON August 15, COYOTE DURAN, Ringside - Say what you will about Don King. Love him or hate him for whatever reason, he's brought the fight game back to Chi-Town in full
force.
Even if the results did bring a mixed level of entertainment.
The event entitled Global Glory: Battle For Pride & Country was a Windy City first due to being a major pay-per-view telecast for the Showtime network. What really made the evening such a success, however, was aided by what the at-home audience didn't see: a pretty groovy undercard.
Sure, a deserted island suburb has a greater population than the United Center did during the walk-in bouts but for the most part, they kept me from taking too many restroom breaks which is a good thing. I guess.
If there was a busiest guy in the arena on Saturday, it had to be Yoel Judah. Yoel who trains son/Undisputed Welterweight World Champion Zab Judah as well as light heavyweight Daniel Judah had triple duty while training son/middleweight prospect Josiah Judah, Ugandan Robert Kamya and wild-but-entertaining Nicaraguan Ricardo Mayorga. Tagging along was Zab and from the looks of his frenetic demeanor, he can't wait to step into a ring again.
Josiah (4-0 with 1 KO), a young strong 160 pounder, looked the nervous rookie as he tentatively approached opponent and Chicagoan Adam Stewart (2-10-2 with 2 KOs). Stewart refused to roll over and be taken by Judah and gave him a good test which ultimately resulted in a split decision win for Judah, although the fight realistically could've gone either way.
In a very entertaining meeting, Ukrainian heavyweight prospect Volodia Lazebnik (9-0 with 6 KOs) celebrated his first fight in America by stopping resilient trialhorse Michael Middleton (11-15-1 with 5 KOs) in 2:23 of the second heat.
Not unlike Lazebnik, Polish lightweight contender Matt Zegan (despite boasting a nice 36-1 with 21 KOs record) celebrated his first win on American soil with a TKO win over Jesus Perez (25-14-3 with 15 KOs) when Perez wouldn't come out for the seventh round. It isn't any surprise that Perez couldn't stand up to Zegan since the Pole seemed much larger than Perez whose previous successes were achieved as a bantamweight.
What I suppose would be a major upset occurred when Robert "Doctor" Kamya (15-5 with 4 KOs), despite being dropped once in the fight, would gain an important majority decision win over junior middleweight contender Alex "The Technician" Bunema (26-5-2 with 12 KOs) for the WBC Continental Americas Super Welterweight title. Where this leaves Bunema, whose most notable fights include a draw with Carlos Bojorquez, a win over Vince Phillips and a TKO loss to current World Middleweight Champion Jermain Taylor, is anyone's guess and it's certainly too soon to declare Kamya a player in the 154 pound class just yet. We'll just have to keep our eyes on him.
My award for Best Performance Without A Win goes to Italian Junior Middleweight Champion Luca Messi (28-6-1 with 11 KOs) for giving WBA "Regular" Super Welterweight titlist Alex "Terra" Garcia (25-1 with 24 KOs) all he could handle en route to a unanimous decision loss. Messi who utilized a pretty solid jab, suffered a knockdown in the seventh round but remained undeterred and gutsy, leaving the ring after the fight to the cheers of a supportive Italian section of the crowd. Messi would return three fights later, looking dapper in a nice suit and ready to take in the Ricardo Mayorga-Michele Piccirillo fight. Major points also to Messi for being the only man to go the distance with the Tijuana native in his entire career.
You say you want "wildly popular with a charismatic bent"? Then "Regular" WBA Welterweight titlist Luis Collazo (26-1 with 12 KOs) is your guy. The Brooklyn-based Puerto Rican would make veteran Miguel Angel Gonzalez' (49-5-1 with 39 KOs) corner call a halt to the battle at the top of the eighth round. Gonzalez, who defended the WBC Lightweight title a very respectable 10 times during his reign from 1992 to 1995 looked a shadow of his former contentious self but quizzically would declare after the fight, "He (Collazo) never hurt me during the fight but he was the busier fighter."
Coulda fooled me.
What should've been the "Polish Fight of the Century" turned out to be a "Halfway-Polish Fight of the.........uh,....evening?" when former WBC Heavyweight titlist Oliver McCall (45-8 with 32 KOs) would return to his birthplace to replace Andrew Golota in a 10 round attraction against Przemyslaw Saleta (42-7 with 21 KOs). McCall, whose countenance always seems molded in a perennial frown, had a reason to smile after almost taking off Saleta's head en route to a stunning right hand technical knockout. A very gracious McCall showed major thanks shortly after the fight and at the post-fight presser by giving props to his fans, Don King and his hometown.
"His jab wasn't hard. I trained hard for the fight and it paid off. I am in my city with my friends and family and this is a great night for me." McCall would go on to say.
While many would wonder if McCall's win would answer any questions as to where he stands in the heavyweight mix, I believe the more burning curiosity would be whether or not Saleta's girlfriend, Polish Playboy Playmate Kasia Kraszewska was wearing a bra. I'm sure the chilly temp inside the United Center helped but, Great Spirit, you could hang wet towels off those nipples..........
Uh.......that was out loud? Damn. I apologize. I defy anyone else who saw such a lovely creature to disagree, though.
Now that my slack-jawed musings have subsided, I return to the business of satisfying another curiosity: How does former World Welterweight Champion Ricardo Mayorga's (28-5-1 with 23 KOs) game plan change with Yoel Judah assisting Luis Leon in the Nicaraguan's corner? He adopts a jab, that's how. No, this isn't a misprint or a lapse in the reliability of my own vision. It's true. Mayorga would come out jabbing against former IBF Welterweight titlist Michele Piccirillo (44-3 with 28 KOs) on more than one occasion! As per usual, the lumberjack-stylings of Mayorga would emerge more often than not in attempts to lure the Italian into a slugfest. When it worked, Mayorga would connect, scoring knockdowns twice in the second round and once in the fourth. Mostly, Piccirillo would backpedal to distance himself from the wacky, blue-collar Managuan. Mayorga would go on to win comfortably on all three judges scorecards to gain the WBC Super Welterweight title, which had been very wrongly stripped from Javier Castillejo (who fights Fernando Vargas next Saturday in Rosemont).
"Before I make a decision for my next opponent, I need to drink some water and have a cigarette, but I want Vargas next. I want to be back in the ring in November." said Mayorga.
"Water"? What, were you out of Budweiser? Someone give this man a beer, dammit!
Sadly, the fun kind of died out afterwards. For the main event was main indeed, but hardly an event.
With something called the "WBC Interim Heavyweight title" on the line, WBC #1 contender Hasim "The Rock" Rahman (41-5-1 with 3 KOs) faced off against #2 contender Monte "Two Gunz" Barrett (31-4 with 17 KOs) in order to determine a bona fide challenger to World Heavyweight Champion Vitali Klitschko's crown. Both men, who were in line for a shot at Klitschko's Ring Magazine World and WBC title belts had been understandably frustrated about their residence on the backburner while Klitschko catered to cancellations attributed to various reasons from surgery to wanting to take another voluntary defense.
If you're looking for a unique perspective on the fight......well.......that's sort of difficult because I don't really have one and I reckon many other writers could agree. Save for a few choice shots here and there, there was a helluva lot of grappling on the inside that extracted a cacophony of boos from the crowd of 15,101 fans in attendance.
With all the wrestling that was going on, it wasn't no surprise that no one could smell what "The Rock" was cooking and that Barrett's "Two Gunz" seemed empty. Perhaps if famed wrestlemaniac John Ruiz and Norman Stone slid under the bottom rope with steel chairs to whack the main eventers making way to a riotous tag team match, we might've been in business. But we persevered along with Rahman and Barrett to see Rahman gain his interim title by unanimous decision.
All joking aside, it was hard for me to make a decisive prediction on a winner prior to the fight. As I was telling a very knowledgeable fan and friend of mine before the fight, I did pick Rahman slightly because he had a busier past two years, albeit against limited competition but Barrett was an excellent test due to his solid performances and wins over Owen Beck and Dominick Guinn and even his loss against Joe Mesi.
With that in mind, major credit goes to both men for being in no less than spectacular shape, especially to Rahman who was 23 pounds less than his career-high weight in his rematch against David Tua two years ago. In defense of their somewhat tentative performances, I can only attribute this to what I would call DeMarcus Corley-Randall Bailey Syndrome. Those of you who can recall the would-be "Fight of the Year" potential between the two a little more than two years ago were ultimately Sominex-ed by the two very close friends know what I'm talking about. I understand that. What true friends want to beat the shit out of each other? Such is the tale of Rahman-Barrett.
"It was a tough fight in a different way. He had a good game plan. He tried to move around but I was in good shape. I got dinged and Monte is a good puncher." Rahman would go on to say. "I don't think Klitschko will move around as much as Monte did, but tonight I showed I can go twelve rounds."
When asked about his own performance, Barrett would declare, "I only give myself a 'B' for performance but I think I did enough to me. It is what it is. I felt like I hurt him a couple of times. He hit me with some good shots but he never hurt me. When someone is hurt, he gets panicky. I never panicked."
With this in mind, it's now "decision time" for Vitali Klitschko. Defend against Hasim Rahman or be stripped of his WBC strap. Of course, this doesn't dilute his status as genuine world champion per The Ring's championship policy but it certainly can slightly (and rightfully) mar his reputation if he chooses not to accept the challenge of a genuine Top 5 contender.
Because you can only take on the Danny Williamses of the world for so long.
Coyote Duran can be reached at coyoteduran@talkingboxing.com
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