By Sean Reed
Here's some insight into how confident Charles "The Future" Hatley is:
At the official weigh-in for his latest bout (which took place November 5th at the Dallas Petroleum Club), Hatley tipped the scales at 152.3 pounds, put his clothes back on and walked away as his opponent was set to check his own poundage.
As Brandon Oldham stepped on the scale, his trainer said, "Hey Hatley, don't you wanna see how much Brandon weighs?"
Without batting an eyelash or skipping a beat, the 2008 United States Olympic alternate replied, "Nah, it's not gon' matter anyways."
Nostradamus wasn't required to predict that Hatley (7-0, 7 KO's) would use Oldham (1-4, 1 KO) as a piece of gym equipment and dispose of him quickly, but one gets the feeling that Hatley's level of self-belief wouldn't waver regardless of his adversaries record.
Mere seconds into the fight, the game Oldham, 152.1, introduced his face to a counter right hand from Hatley and visibly staggered. Hatley then landed a left hook to the body and a left uppercut, which opened a nick under the left eye of his hapless foe.
Like Tiger Woods on the first hole, it was tee time and Hatley administered punishment with no remorse. By the end of the round, Oldham's eye was swollen with blood now pouring from what used to be a nick and his nose busted up as well. The ribcage couldn't have felt much better either, courtesy of the severe head and body battering he received.
In between rounds, Hatley got more of a fight from the lovely blonde ring card girl, who accidentally bumped into him as he stood in his corner. A counter left began Oldham's demise in round two and the "Future" went left hand crazy until the referee finally intervened.
Famed manager Shelly Finkel flew into Dallas just to watch Hatley fight. Finkel has guided the careers of Mike Tyson, Manny Pacquiao, Pernell Whitaker, Evander Holyfield and Fernando Vargas, among others. That he made the trip from New York just for this bout says something, since it wasnt even the main event or co-feature battle.
What it did support, is the theory that Hatley has become the areas top attraction.
Though Hatley brings the crowd and the attention, top billing for the night actually went to rising undefeated junior middleweight Austin "No Doubt" Trout, who picked up the vacant WBC Continental Americas junior middleweight title with a unanimous decision over Taronze "T-Reezy" Washington.
It was a very business-like performance for the undefeated Trout (21-0, 13 KO's), who even wore a shirt and tie as he got his hands wrapped. Trout was much more impressive in person that he appears on tape and he's a big super welter.
Throughout the contest, he was more aggressive, busier and harder to hit. While Washington waited and waited, looking for the perfect counter, Trout landed southpaw jabs to the body and flurried when Taronze backed to the ropes. Trout opened up in the 9th and 10th rounds, looking to get Washington out of there, but the veteran admirably fought off the advances of his eventual conqueror.
All three judges scored the bout 120-108, Trout had shown that it's going to take world class opposition to beat him and Washington earned respect in defeat.
The co-feature saw Kendrick "The Apostle" Releford (21-13-2, 11 KO's) take a six-round unanimous decision over "Third Ward" Billy Willis (11-18-1, 9 KO's).
Though Releford has been campaigning primarily at crusierweight these days, this was a heavyweight bout. Left jabs to the head and body kept Willis at bay and right hands bloodied his nose.
The end result was a complete sweep for Releford, winning by scores of 60-54 across the board.
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