By Cliff Rold
A 2003 Bronze Medalist at the World Amateur championships and a 2004 Olympian, 30-year old Cuban defector Yordanis Despaigne (6-0, 4 KO) made a big professional step up in the Light heavyweight division on Friday night at the Isleta Casino & Resort, Albuquerque, New Mexico, scoring a shutout decision over veteran 38-year old former title challenger Richard Hall (29-8, 27 KO).
Hall, making only second start of 2010 after a lengthy layoff from late 2007 through 2009, has lost four of last six going back to 2004. The older man struggled with the Light Heavyweight limit of 175 lbs., coming into the bout at 177 ½. Despaigne came in under the limit at 173 ¼.
Despaigne started with a jab to the body and quickly he was testing a hard lead left hook, Hall scooting away to safety. A clinch inside allowed Hall a moment to set himself, trying his own southpaw right jab but being popped with a left as he dragged it back. The speed advantage favored Despaigne as he shot quick, single shots, countering off of a sluggish Hall whenever the veteran pawed forward. Despaigne missed with a big right in the closing seconds, content to box and circle into the bell.
Hall just missed with a short right hook early in the second, Despaigne alertly blocking and moving. A string of body shots set up a Despaigne left upstairs but Hall showed no wariness, acting as the aggressor and landing a long right near the midway mark. Despaigne stayed to the body and Hall met him there, firing low and looking for a left cross. Despaigne used the jab to set up and stinging left and right to the head and added a short right uppercut in the final minute.
The contest remained at a building pace in the third, Hall increasingly confident about letting his hands go even as Despaigne remained more accurate. Despaigne appeared to be losing some of the power he intended, squaring up in combination, but the long right was stiff in connection. Slipping the best of Hall’s offense, Despaigne’s right hand landed as a cross and uppercut repeatedly in the final minute of round three.
Round four played out much the same, Despaigne holding the edge but Hall trying hard. It seemed Despaigne might be able to do more if he stepped up his offense but the Cuban seemed content to rack up rounds, including a fifth where his belting right simply didn’t miss down the stretch of the frame.
As the second half of the bout evolved, Despaigne made clear what the first half had suggested. Despaigne’s control had left the bout in a state of sparring; competitive sparring but sparring nonetheless. Potshotting and able to elude Hall’s blows, the Cuban appeared well on his way to a decision victory but a stoppage never seemed within reach because the Cuban wasn’t pressing for it.
Hall’s corner attempted to fire him up before the tenth and final round and he came out firing as Despaigne took a safe, defensive posture in the first half of the round. Down the stretch, Despaigne increased his output, landing the right again almost at will to secure another round on the books. The decision was academic at 100-90, or ten rounds clean, for Despaigne.
The referee was Rocky Burke.
Hall was a shell of his former self on the night but, at only six pro fights, a nice showcase contest for Despaigne. Hall challenged Roy Jones Jr. for Jones’s Light Heavyweight titles in 2000, losing in a memorable Jones performance via eleventh round stoppage. He performed better in two challenges of then-lineal Light Heavyweight king Dariusz Michalczewski in 2001 and 2002, stopped in a pair of competitive wars.
The evening’s fireworks came on the televised undercard with a pair of eye catching knockouts. Hometown Jr. Lightweight Randy Arrellin (4-2, 3 KO), 129, of Albuquerque, New Mexico scored a pair of knockdowns in round three but an errant body shot after the bell to the back of 24-year old Albuquerque rival Willie Villanueva (9-2, 2 KO), 127 ¼, created a moment of wonder as to how the fight would continue. It was the second notable foul of the round after an earlier low blow along the ropes forced a break in the action. Ultimately, it would continue and conclude with round four, a left hook from Arrellin leaving Villanueva hunched over at the waist and turning his back towards the ropes. Referee Rocky Burke leapt in to halt the bout at :31 of round four despite the objections of Villanueva.
In the televised opener, 27-year old Heavyweight Seth Mitchell (17-0, 11 KO), 241 ½, of Brandywine, Maryland, continued to show promise with an easy second round knockout of 25-year old Johnnie White (22-2, 18 KO), 228 ½, of Saint Martinsville, Louisiana. White finished on his feet but a barrage of Mitchell right hands left him in bad sway to draw the stoppage from referee Lorenzo Saiz at 1:18 of round two.
The broadcast was carried in the U.S. on basic cable on ESPN2 as part of its Friday Night Fights series, promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
