Portland, Oregon -Thursday, Jan. 30, 03
By Katherine Dunn
Promoter: Golden Boy Promotions
Sponsored by Spirit Mountain Casino
Referees: Jim Erickson, Mike Fisher, Dave Hagen
Judges: Greg Baker, Joe Bonaventura, Jim Howard
5,355 in attendance.
In the 10 round heavyweight main event, Jeremy Williams, 36-4, 32 KO’s
(232 lbs), of Long Beach, CA, fought to a majority draw with Al "Ice"
Cole, 32-11, 16 KO’s ( 231 lbs), of Newark, New Jersey. One judge called
it 96-94 for Williams, the other two saw it as 95-95.
The originally advertised main was a potential leatherfest between
bantamweight Hispanics. When this replacement bout was announced earlier
in the week, I was feeling mournful for poor Al Cole, who’s been in the
blue losing zones for a long time and is 38 years old.
Cole was a spritely and
successful IBF champ as a cruiserweight, but his 1996 losing debut
as a heavyweight against Tim Witherspoon tipped him onto the
razorblade bannister.
Jeremy Williams, on the
other hand, started out as a cosseted heavyweight tomato stomper
with the valuable palid complexion and a muscle-popping physique.
His rare encounters with
quality opposition ended badly. Henry Akinwande knocked him out in
3. Williams then reverted to the vegetable diet until his
humiliating fifth round stoppage by a guy known as the "Danish
Pastry," Brian Nielsen in 2000.
But now, at 31, with four victories over
indifferent opposition in the last year, Williams is under the wing of
promoter Cedric Kushner and an obvious favorite to win.
In the Rose Garden on Thursday night, both guys needed sympathy but what
they mostly got was boos. Williams seemed slow and puzzled through the
early rounds.
His glorious physique has sagged and he just
blinked and swallowed the deliberate jabs and occasional combos from Al
Cole. By the fourth, a plodding Williams was cut under the left eye and Cole
was actually moving pretty well.
In the fifth Williams took to over hand
rights followed by grappling and Cole’s mouth began to bleed. In the sixth
Williams whined repeatedly to the ref about low blows and head butts, some
of which were probably real. The tiring Cole was warned for hanging on.
In the seventh Williams danced and ran with
Cole in slogging pursuit, and the eight was all grappling as Cole’s
fatigue became more obvious. The crowd was unimpressed with this whole
sad performance and when Williams hit Cole low at the end of the eighth
he set off a storm of boos that persisted and revived easily through the
rest of the fight. Although Williams seemed heartened and more confident
in the ninth, he didn’t accomplish much. The tenth was a slow rhino
waltz of the exhausted and the boos sounded all the way to the final
bell. A rough crowd six big beers into the evening.
n the six-round semi-main, Jose "Tony"
Martinez, now 12-2-2, 7 KO’s (153 1/2 lbs) of Portland won a unanimous
decision over Ron Pasek, now 12-20-3, 7 KO’s (153 lbs), of Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada.
The judges scores were 60-54, 59-55, 59-55. Word is this was a last
ring outing for the formerly scrappy Pasek.
Martinez hadn’t fought in eight months and looked rusty-- not his usual
crispy and feisty self—he blasted the poorly conditioned Pasek in the
corners and on the ropes with no real response. Pasek has always been
tougher than is quite good for him, and his head was taking on the weird
swollen shapes of a rotting jack-o-lantern by the final bell. He said he
was retiring last summer after a bad loss. Now he’ says he’s hanging
them up for good.
The 38 year-old Pasek is a cement cutter up in Canada, with a wife and a
couple of kids. But it’s thirty below right now in those regions and there’s
no cement to be cut. No work. Of course you can’t run to train in that
weather either, but he accepted this short notice fight. His local
cornermen say he was heart broken at his poor performance. As this is being
written he’s probably still sitting on a long-distance bus, with his
neighbors looking sideways at his cuts and bruises. But he’s got a thousand
U.S. dollars in his pocket. He tried to pay the cornermen after the fight,
but they all refused the money. He’s a sweet guy, they say, and he was
always a warrior.
In the four-round opener, Billy David Thompson, now 5-2,3 KO’s (168 lbs),
of Lubbock, Texas won a unanimous decision over Vic Branson, now 3-4-1, 3
KO’s (169 lbs), of Willamina, Oregon. The scores were 39-38, 39-37, 39-37.
Greg Piper, now 6-1, 2 KO’s (128 1/2 lbs), of Portland, Oregon won a
four-round unanimous decision over Christian "El Kangaroo" Lopez, now 4-3, 3
KO’s (128 1/4 lbs) of Seattle, WA. The judges ruled it 39-37, 39-37, 40-36.
A four-round heavyweight match ended with Joe Gusman, now 5-0, 2 KO’s
(200 lbs) winning a unanimous decision over Troy Beets, now 3-2-1, 1 KO (220
lbs) of Biloxi, Mississippi. All three judges saw it as 38-37 for Gusman.
