The "Old Roy Jones, Jr." beats up an old Tito
Trinidad! Golota pounds Mollo in "fight of the Night" co-feature.
By Mike Indri - Retired Boxers Foundation
(JAN 21) New York - Madison Square Garden was not nearly as filled as had
been expected; quite possibly even the most ardent supporter of legendary
five-time World Champion Felix "Tito" Trinidad knew the obvious. Their
Puerto Rican boxing hero, who had not fought since getting thoroughly
dominated nearly three years ago in his embarrassing 12 round unanimous
decision defeat at the hands of Ronald "Winky" Wright, was bought out of
retirement (for the not so embarrassing price of 9 million dollars) to face
a bigger, stronger and faster fighter in Roy Jones, Jr.
While Trinidad tried as best he could, fighting at his heaviest weight ever
only slowed him down. From the early rounds it was clear that Jones was able
to handle Trinidad's biggest punches, while Tito was not able to take Roy's.
Jones methodically began controlling the action, besting Tito jab for jab,
body shot for body shot - essentially beating Trinidad "mentally" before he
began his physical beating of the former boxing superstar who defeated Oscar
De La Hoya, and destroyed Fernando Vargas.
While the crowd was rooting for Tito, by round three or four the
"Roy-Roy-Roy" chants were growing louder. By the time Jones dropped Trinidad
with his first knockdown of the fight in round seven the "Tito - Tito"
chants were silent and the bongo drums had stopped. It was all over.
Being the one-dimensional fighter as he is, Trinidad still came forward and
was getting beaten like the smaller kid at the schoolyard.
Trinidad was getting hurt more often, and Jones was now enjoying his "coming
back party". Tito reverted to backing up and throwing meaningless punches,
which simply delayed the inevitable. A quick, snapping left jab, following
by a grazing right dropped the wounded Puerto Rican fighter as Jones
shuffled, danced and pranced like the untouchable former great champion we
were all so used to seeing, especially as HBO's premier boxer.
Trinidad summoned all his heart and managed to survive the one-sided affair
on his feet. The 12,162 fans that were crazily cheering for their hero did
not even wait for the three judges' scorecards to be read. It was solely
academic as Michael Buffer announced the 117-109 and two 116-110's for Roy
Jones; there would be no rumble tonight. I saw it 118-108.
Jones can now be included with Bernard Hopkins, and the aforementioned
Wright as the fighters to have beaten Trinidad, who also has 42 wins to his
credit; 35 by knockout. With the career enhancing victory, Jones improves to
52-4 (38 KO's) and now is looking to fight "anyone - anytime". Let's just
hope the next one is a fair fight!
In the night's co-feature bout heavyweight contender Andrew Golota made like
Arturo Gatti and fought twelve rounds of no holds barred, old school, back
in the alley-type fighting.
With his left eye bruised and grotesquely closed shut since the sixth round,
Andrew Golota sucked it up and took control of a fight against a confident,
up and coming Mike Mollo; twelve years his junior. Practically an even fight
after eight rounds, Golota withstood a heavy-handed pounding from the
twenty-eight year fighter nicknamed "Merciless" and hurt his fellow Chicago
neighbor with several big right hands in round nine, which had Mollo holding
on to survive. Continuing the assault in the tenth, Golota landed a left
hook, and how Mollo was able to wobble back to his corner amazed the
exhilarated crowd. How Mollo ever finished the bout on his feet is truly a
testament to the heart and fortitude of this young hopeful, who definitely
gained more than he lost in defeat tonight. Golota, unable to see out of his
left eye, smartly turned southpaw at times late, so as to continue the
battle - there surely was no quit in Mr. Golota tonight, and the boxing fans
appreciated the effort from a fighter who always had the tools and talent to
be a champion. At forty years old, Golota fought one of his best fights and
will get another chance to prove his merit. With the spectacular win Golota
improved to 41-6-1 (33 KO's), Mollo, who put up a valiant fight, now is 19-2
(12 KO's). Nothing but great things can be said about both these
giant-hearted fighters, who both left it all in the Madison Square Garden
ring tonight. Afterwards a very bruised and swollen, yet extremely proud
Andrew Golota beamed, "At lease now no one can ever can me a quitter!"
The HBO Pay-Per-View portion of the night began with a twelve round sleeper
between former World Boxing Organization World Champion DeMarcus "Chop Chop"
Corley and the undefeated Devon Alexander.
The twenty-year old Alexander used his used his advantage of youth, beating
Corley to the punch and well as outworking the tough veteran. Even getting
penalized a point by referee Gary Rosato, for low blows, in the final round
did not hamper Alexander "The Great", cruising in the eyes of the judges who
saw it 116-111 and 118-109 twice for the undefeated St. Louis resident.
According to Compu-box numbers, Alexander doubled the production of his
fellow southpaw, out-landing Corley 271-127 in total punches, a main reason
for the decisive decision win which upped Alexander to 14-0 (9 KO's), while
the once-mighty Corley, who has now lost his last four fights, falls to
31-8-1 (17 KO's).
Alexander picked up the vacant WBC Continental Americas super lightweight
Championship title with the victory.
It took a little over eight rounds for a fight to break out between the
dangerous, hard punching Roman "Made in Hell" Karmazin and Alex "The
Technician" Bunema. Scheduled for 12 rounds and fighting for the WBA
Intercontinental Super Welterweight title it was Karmazin who was
controlling the bout, and the limited action going into the ninth round.
Surprisingly it was the "Technician" who was now doing the damage, landing
some big punches late in the round, which had Karmazin holding on. Starting
round ten where he left off, Bunema landed often and caught his Russian foe
with a crippling left hook, dropping the usually steady chinned Karmazin. To
his credit Karmazin bounced up and wanted back in the fight, unfortunately -
he got it!
Another hurtful left hook drove the still dazed Karmazin into his own corner
where he absorbed a tremendous barrage of two-fisted punishment, finished by
a big right hand which sent the heavily favored Karmazin crumpling to the
canvas as Johnny Callas waved off the bout; a moot point as the former IBF
jr. middleweight champion was out cold!
Bunema, a native of Zaire who now calls Atlanta, GA his home, woke up the
Madison Square Garden crowd by putting Karmazin to sleep - the likable
fighter also woke up the boxing world with his big time victory and deserves
a bigger fight, and a bigger payday, in the very near future. Bunema jumps
to 29-5-2 with his impressive fifteenth career knockout win, while the
highly regarded Karmazin, now 36-3-1 (23 KO's), suffers his first stoppage
loss.
On the non-televised portion of the Don King promoted, HBO PPV card:
Former World Boxing Association Welterweight World Champion Luis Collazo
out-boxed Edvan Dos Santos Barros, now 9-5-1 (7 KO's), over ten rounds to
pick up a unanimous decision and get back on the winning track. While
controlling the entire fight through eight uneventful rounds, Collazo hurt
his opponent late in round nine and showed his fast hands and pinpoint
precision the rest of the way, nailing Dos Santos Barros relentlessly until
the end.
After losing to Shane Mosley nearly a year ago (02/10/07), the Brooklyn
native was sidelined with tore tendons and a broken thumb on his left hand;
which required extensive surgery. Now injury free and ready, Collazo, who
dethroned WBA champion Jose Rivera of his title in 2005 and beat up on Ricky
Hatton, only to lose a razor thin decision in 2006, looks to 2008 as his
year to get back to the top of the welterweight division.
Emmanuel N'Wodo made short work of Ezra Sellers, stopping the Maryland
southpaw late in round two of their scheduled eight round heavyweight bout.
N'Wodo, a Baltimore, MD native by way of Nigeria, won the first round and
hurt Sellers with a big two-handed combination towards the end of round two.
Sellers was knocked to the canvas twice and counted out, face down, by
referee Jim Santa with one second left in the round. N'Wodo saw his record
improve to 22-4 (18 KO's), while Sellers, who began his pro career in the
same fashion, suffering a second round knockout at the hands of former world
champion Bruce Seldon over eighteen years ago, dropped to 29-8 (26 KO's).
Cuban lightweight Angelo Santana excited the sparse, early gathering crowd
with his first round technical knockout win. It took the highly touted
Santana a mere 33 seconds to finish off mismatched Kenny Keaton, from
Indianapolis, Indiana. Keaton, now 0-2, never had a chance as the Cuban
defector jumped on him from the opening bell, forcing Keaton to turn his
back before getting blistered to the canvas with a nasty barrage. Referee
Jim Santa did not even bother to start a count, waving off the one-sided
match.
Heavyweight Gabe Brown opened the show in a very "big" way, as the 340lb.
Pensacola, Florida native battled to an eight round majority draw against
forty year-old Paul Marinaccio, from Buffalo, NY. Marinaccio, now 23-3-2 (10
KO's) overcame a one hundred pound weight disadvantage (actually 104!),
winning the last round on all three judge's scorecards to salvage the draw.
Brown, originally from Newark, NJ saw his record move to 18-7-4 (12 KO's).
A big night on boxing, compliments of promoter extraordinaire Don King, in
the most sacred and hallowed venue in all of boxing -the mystical, magical
world of Madison Square Garden! Mike Indri can be contacted at:
rbfnjmike@aol.com
