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JONES BIG "HIT" IN PORTLAND!
Copyrighted Photos and Story by
Sue TL Fox
(Sept 8) Last night at the Rose
Garden, in Portland, Oregon, in front of a near-full capacity, of over
16,200 boxing fans, light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. fought
WBC mandatory challenger Clinton Woods, 31-1-0 (1 KO). Jones was also
defending his IBA World Title belt.
As Woods entered the ring, the crowd began
to roar---led in by his team that carried the flags of his
country.
Then Roy Jones Jr. made his grand entrance where he literally mesmerized
the entire arena with his showmanship and entertaining demeanor before
even entering the ring!
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Jones first performed
a rap tune, surrounded in a mist of fog, with music blaring,
and dancers dressed in short silk attire, moving in unison as Jones
rapped to the audience. |
After Jones' music number, he made his way
down the stairway and into the ring, but not without making the
crowd feel as if he was personally entertaining each and every one of them
on the way down.
In the first few rounds, Woods gave a
gallant and all-out effort to keep up with the much faster and more
talented Jones. But by the later rounds, Roy was picking Woods apart at
will with clean shots, and bringing out his bag of "tricks" that
included doing the "Bantam rooster" before launching a barrage
of slick and quick combinations. Referee Jay Nady stopped the fight at
1:29 seconds of the six round. Jones retained his IBA Light-Heavyweight
World title belt, and WBC belt.
In the co-feature, the event featured a
12-round IBF Jr. Middleweight World Title fight between Champion, "Winky"
Wright, 153.5, 43-3-0 (25KO) of St. Petersburg, Florida and IBF No. 1
Ranked Challenger, Bronco McKart, 154 3/4, 45-3-0 (25KO), of Monroe,
Mi.
Winky Wright won by an eight-round
disqualification of his opponent Bronco McKart, and Wright retained his
IBF Jr. Middleweight title. McKart had five points taken away from
delivering continued "low blows". The referee stopped
the fight at 2:33 in the eighth round. The title fight was a very
entertaining and action-packed fight up to that point.
An interesting matchup was between two
heavyweights, Joe Gusman, 3-0-0 (2KO), Olympic, Washington, vs. Shane
Harris, 2-7-0 (2KO), Ventura, California. Generally boxers who top the
scales at 336 lbs., do not move too much, but surprisingly, these two
"heavyweights" threw a lot of leather.
Brown was quite an entertainer himself, as he pretended to be
side-tracked by the boxing fans yelling at him, and as he looked out to
the audience he threw a three-four combination pounding away on his
surprised opponent. Brown won this slugfest by a unanimous
decision.
The "Worst Cut of the Night"
fight, came when Lemuel Nelson, 24-5-1 (12KO), Pensacola, Florida, fought
Johnny West, 12-1-1, (11KO), Miami, Florida. 33 seconds of the
seventh round, West received a cut over the right eye, that bled
extensively, and was delivered with a punch, not a headbutt, by
Nelson. The ref stopped the bout after the doctor examined West's
cut.
In a non-stop clash between Jr. Bantamweights Vernie Torres, 22-4-0
(13KO), Pensacola, Florida, vs. Julio Cesar Oyuela, 7-6-2 (2KO), Miami,
Florida, Torres won by a six-round unanimous decision. There were no
knockdowns but a lot of action throughout the six rounds of fighting.
Celebrities present at the event included George Foreman, who
was commentating for HBO; Maurice Lucas, David Izon, Clifford Robinson,
Kevin Kelly, David Izon, Stevie Forbes, Ray Lampkin, and more.
Historical Trivia Tidbit:
The last Championship fight to be held in Portland, Oregon, was in 1962,
when Denny Moyer fought against and defeated Joey Giambra in a scheduled
15-rounder for the world junior middleweight championship. In the
past, Oregon has had such greats as Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky
Marciano, Floyd Patterson, and Archie Moore. (Source: Oregonian)
Hot Links to
other stories about the event!
| Round
by Round - Maxboxing - Sept. 8, 2002 |
| Low
blows keep Wright a champion - Sept. 8, 2002 |
| Jones
turns fight into showtime -
Sept. 8, 2002 |
| A
festival before the fight - Sept. 7, 2002 |
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