TalkingBoxing Articles
Taking Care of Business | Tarver, Forrest & Donaire Score KO Wins
MON December 3, ANDRES ANTONIO CARRIEDO - We, in the boxing public, have been spoiled by a string of scintillating superfights throughout the past year. Last night at the Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut we were treated to a tripleheader of boxing action. The problem was that the Showtime televised event lacked the pizzazz most of us would have liked. Antonio Tarver easily KO’d Danny Santiago in his tune up fight, Vernon Forrest impressively dispatched mandatory challenger Michele Piccirillo and Nonito Donaire thoroughly dominated his mandatory challenger Luis Maldonado.
Forrest and Donaire fought the opponents they did because they had to fulfill mandatory obligations. Tarver fought Santiago both because Danny Green decided to fight WBA 175 lb. titlist Stipe Drews instead and because Tarver’s team determined he needed a tune up before stepping back in with a top fighter.
Donaire began the evening with his IBF 112 lb. title defense against Maldonado. Maldonado is a southpaw fighter who splits time between the 112/115 lb. divisions. He earned his shot at Donaire on the basis of his unanimous decision victory over Sergio Espinoza two months ago. In 2006, he drew with current WBC 115 lb. titlist Christian Mijares in an eliminator for the belt Mijares now holds and suffered a KO loss against former IBF 112 lb. titlist Vic Darchinyan in a title challenge. So, though he boasted no notable wins he did figure to give Donaire a bit of a test. He did not.
From round one Donaire worked behind a smooth and stiff left jab to set up his two fisted attack. In round 2, Donaire opened a cut on Maldonado’s left eye at the end of a right cross. In the next round, a left hook had the same effect on Maldonado’s right eye. The fourth round was Maldonado’s best of the fight. He snapped Donaire’s head back several times and found his most success with his straight left cross while Donaire stalked in a southpaw stance.
In rounds five and six, Donaire stuck with the orthodox stance and continued to wear his Mexican challenger out. The seventh round saw more of the same and Donaire finally dropped his bloodied, battered and bruised foe with a looping left hook near the end of the round. A hard right cross pushed Maldonado into the ropes in the eighth and Donaire finished the job with a punishing left uppercut that landed square on the chin while Maldonado slumped into the ropes. At the 1:16 mark of round eight, referee Charles Dwyer had seen enough and “The Filipino Flash” had retained his title.
Vernon Forrest followed Donaire with an impressive display of controlled aggression, defense and body punching. He won every round the same way. He fought tall, controlled range and landed hard right cross-left hook combos behind his left jab. When Piccirillo got in close or was stuck on the ropes Forrest ripped body shots. A couple of his harder body shots including one in the eighth round strayed below the belt line, but for the most part Forrest kept it clean.
Highlights of this fight were the knockdowns in rounds six, nine and eleven. All of the knockdowns were scored by Forrest’s powerful right cross. In round six the punch looked as though it landed on the back of Piccirillo’s head as the Italian leaned forward. The knockdown in the ninth was pure beauty. Forrest feinted a jab and when Piccirillo noticed the left hand was not coming he stuck his left jab out meekly and appeared ready to move away. Before he could move though Forrest caught him with a counter right cross right on the cheek and put him down.
Piccirillo showed a great deal of courage in getting up and continuing to fight after that knockdown and perhaps he regrets it now. In the eleventh, while stuck on the ropes, he caught a hard right cross that caused his right leg to contort in such a way that he almost certainly broke his ankle on the way down. He grimaced in pain and referee Arthur Mercante Jr. waived off the 10 count at 2:21 of the round.
Antonio Tarver closed the show with a workman like fourth round dismantling of fringe contender Danny Santiago. Fights like these are no win situations for Tarver. As a former king of the Light Heavyweight division we expect him to compete against higher level opposition. Last night he took care of business and knocked Santiago out like he was supposed to. Al Bernstein accurately described it as “an uneven effort,” but Tarver won every round, clearly outclassed his opponent and got rid of him when he had him ready to go.
To make matters worse for Tarver, the man most boxing fans would like to see him fight, WBC 175 lb. titlist Chad Dawson, had a ringside seat and was interviewed during the fight. Showtime, apparently, has plans to match Tarver with the winner of next week’s Jeff Lacy-Peter Manfredo fight and place Dawson-Glen Johnson on the undercard. Especially if Jeff Lacy wins, that’s a definite step in the right direction for Tarver and the Light Heavyweight division.
Patience is a virtue. Last night’s card did not produce the megafights we were hoping for. In their place, we were treated to mostly impressive one-sided showcase fights by three fighters who have now set themselves up to do big things in their next few fights.
Two Rounds of ShoBox 154 lb. prospects James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo fought a combined total of two rounds in the season finale of ShoBox on Friday night at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California. Kirkland suffered a knockdown 30 seconds into his bout with Allen Conyers, but that only seemed to motivate him to punish Conyers even more. He knocked Conyers down a few seconds later and finally finished the rubber legged fighter from New York with four second left in the first round.
Angulo opened the show with a one minute and 19 second demolition of former prospect and current journeyman Archak TerMeliksetian. Both Kirkland and Angulo will be back. Hopefully they get some good rounds in future fights. Their power is impressive, but both (especially Kirkland) have holes in their defense that need to be worked out.
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