by David P. Greisman
Wladimir Klitschko’s first helping of Lamon Brewster left him with a bad taste in his mouth.
What started with Klitschko serving Brewster a steady diet of damage ended with Klitschko himself eating shots and, ultimately, the canvas. And if that April 2004 loss was a bitter enough pill to swallow, some in Klitschko’s camp laid the blame on a drink of possibly poisoned water, allegedly tainted H2O that left Klitschko gassed out and running on little but fumes.
Years later, Klitschko wanted seconds.
Losses in 1998 and 2003, to Ross Puritty and Corrie Sanders, respectively, were avenged afterward by Wladimir’s older brother Vitali. With Vitali just coming back from retirement, this time it would be Wladimir making up for his earlier defeat by handing Brewster a bruising, roasting a challenger who would end up a sacrificial Lamon.
Brewster was coming out of a 15-month layoff, time spent away from the ring due to a detached retina suffered in a brutal battle last year against Sergei Liakhovich. That bout saw Brewster drop the title he had gained two years earlier by stopping Wladimir Klitschko. Unbeknownst to most, the Liakhovich loss was also the proverbial final straw that led to the disappearance of Brewster’s trademark fighting spirit.
“I definitely want to make him fight,” Brewster said in a pre-fight interview with HBO’s Larry Merchant. “His stamina is good, but he ain’t got dog in him as I feel he do, so I gotta go in there and be the dog.”
Brewster was all bark and no bite.
An opening spurt aside, Brewster came out flat and flat-footed, not fleet, but fleeting. The bobbing and hooking that had laid out Klitschko, Andrew Golota and Luan Krasniqi was largely nonexistent, neutralized by an opponent who imposed distance and a fighter who appeared distant.
“He was just a better man tonight,” Brewster said to Merchant post-fight. “He had an awesome jab, and I tried to get past it, you know, and I couldn’t. Through an accumulation of punches, I knew at some point I couldn’t keep getting hit like that. I have a wife and I have four kids, and I want to be in my right mind to be able to speak to them down the road.
“I thought I was going to be able to slip and slip and slip [Klitschko’s jab], but I wasn’t able to counter it as effectively as I wanted to, and it started building into frustration which made me start getting hit more and more. So when [trainer Buddy McGirt] made the decision [to stop the fight], I thought to myself, ‘Hey man, don’t be a fool. Live to fight another day.’ So I will,” he said.
Brewster had talked to Merchant the day before the fight about his change in trainers from Jesse Reid to McGirt. Under Reid, Brewster would drop rounds until he could drop his foes. Perhaps McGirt would do for Brewster what he did for Arturo Gatti, integrating boxing skills in the hope they would extend his career.
It’s commonly thought that active fighters who speak of retirement have already mentally checked out of the sport. With Brewster no longer willing to dig deep and take three or four punches to land one, the man known as “Relentless” was instead as docile as a lamb.
Klitschko, once made hesitant himself by the Sanders and Brewster losses, went into full wolf mode, stalking his prey behind his long left hand. Hungrily savoring the eventual moment when he could to go in for the kill, Klitschko peppered Brewster with an average of 27 meat tenderizer-like jabs per round.
McGirt implored Brewster to come forward and throw punches, turning up the heat with the type of pressure cooker atmosphere that had bothered Klitschko in the past. But the ingredients just weren’t there, and McGirt wisely waved things off once the one-sided fight hit its halfway point. It was anticlimactic, but it was an outcome far more satisfying and important to the International Boxing Federation titlist than March’s knockout of mis-mandatory Ray Austin.
Try as he might, Klitschko couldn’t brush away that bad taste in his mouth left over from his first helping of Brewster. His second serving, though, was far more palatable, a fine dish of sweet, sweet revenge.
The 10 Count
1. The true star of Saturday, however, was flyweight Nonito Donaire, who upset IBF beltholder Vic Darchinyan by goring the “Raging Bull” with a one-punch technical knockout victory on “Showtime Championship Boxing.”
As with Wladimir Klitschko avenging brother Vitali’s loss to Chris Byrd and Vitali returning the favor with Ross Puritty and Corrie Sanders, Donaire’s fight against Darchinyan was a matter of retaliating for a relative.
Darchinyan had defeated Nonito’s older brother Glenn in October when Glenn quit due to what was said to be a broken jaw caused by an accidental head butt. Although referee Tony Weeks appeared not to have seen any such foul, he sent the bout to the scorecards nonetheless, giving Darchinyan a technical decision win instead of his desired kayo.
Darchinyan sought to rectify that situation by making Nonito finito, but the younger Donaire used his speed, size and a perfect left-hook counter in the fifth round to unseat his rival and exact revenge.
2. Darchinyan’s loss ended his 30-month reign as a flyweight titlist, a span that saw the Armenian southpaw compile six successful defenses while simultaneously gaining a name on American airwaves. The defeat has put to a stop any momentum toward pairing Darchinyan with longtime 112-pound king Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, the biggest possible opponent after a potential Jorge Arce match failed to come to fruition.
Interestingly enough, with Arce having been out-boxed in April by junior bantamweight beltholder Cristian Mijares, Darchinyan-Arce on “Boxing After Dark” or a pay-per-view undercard seems like a bout that could now be easier to make than ever before.
3. The flyweight division is nevertheless easily capable of moving on, with the weight class having provided what may be the best fight of the year to date.
The July 1 rematch between Takefumi Sakata and Roberto Vasquez was exactly as described last week by BoxingScene’s own Cliff Rold: “It was a marvelous, highly skilled effort that colored both men in honor.”
The question is whether both men will be honored when it comes time to vote for 2007’s Fight of the Year. If Sakata-Vasquez 2 remains the year’s top battle, will there be a push for recognizing a foreign fight unseen by most similar to last year’s campaign for the slugfest between Mahyar Monshipour and Somsak Sithchatchawal?
4. In the main event on Showtime, Travis Simms lost his World Boxing Association junior middleweight title to Joachim Alcine via unanimous decision in a bout absent of aesthetics but with ample awkward action.
It was the kind of fight in which someone from the network’s crew began to keep track of the number of times that the orthodox Alcine stepped on the foot of a southpaw Simms. Now Simms must look to rebuild, for any marketability gained from January’s stoppage of Jose Antonio Rivera has been completely squandered. Alcine, meanwhile, should angle himself toward facing either Cory Spinks or the winner of this month’s Vernon Forrest-Carlos Baldomir 154-pound title bout.
5. Former seven-foot professional wrestler Paul “The Big Show” Wight, who claims to have dropped down to 449 pounds from the more than 500 pounds he carried while with World Wrestling Entertainment, is supposedly training to become a pro boxer, Wight told a reporter from the Miami Herald.
All of which begs the question: How many points would Wight be deducted for chokeslamming his opponent?
6. Oh, How the Monte Has Fallen: One-time heavyweight contender Monte Barrett, who had reportedly turned down a June 30 fight with prospect Alexander Povetkin, instead found himself on the ground a week later courtesy of journeyman Cliff Couser.
Couser, whose last couple bouts saw him knocked out in one and stopped in two by Michael Moorer and Rob Calloway, respectively, did his own part to make sure the night ended early, finishing Barrett off less than one minute into the second stanza.
Barrett had earned himself one last shot at the spotlight with a competitive loss in December 2003 to Joe Mesi and a close win three months later over Dominick Guinn. A technical knockout of Owen Beck eventually earned Barrett a fight for an interim heavyweight title, but Barrett stunk it out in a loss to Hasim Rahman and then was stopped late last year by Nicolay Valuev.
Barrett once made the news for his April 2004 appearance “The Price is Right,” in which he won a trip to China. Unfortunately, his career may now be reminiscent of a certain trademark from the long-running television game show – the buzzer is ringing because Barrett is out.
7. Boxers Behaving Badly: Peter Manfredo Jr. was arrested last week and charged with allegedly throwing a rock through the window of a sport-utility vehicle, according to The Providence Journal.
Police said that Manfredo went July 2 to a Rhode Island house he owns to collect past rent from a tenant when the super middleweight saw that the building had a broken window. The tenant told Manfredo that the window was broken because he and his girlfriend had been unable to get inside their apartment, authorities said.
Manfredo, reportedly upset that the tenant didn’t have the rent money, was said to have picked up a rock and thrown it through the window of the tenant’s vehicle after yelling, “You want to break my window, I’m going to break yours,” police said.
The “Contender” first-season runner-up is facing one misdemeanor charge of vandalism/malicious injury to property. He is scheduled to appear in court on July 18.
8. Incidentally, Manfredo’s arrest completes the trinity of “Contender” personalities with recent legal issues – Ahmed Kaddour was arrested last month for allegedly entering his ex-wife’s home illegally, and, in February, Australian customs officials caught executive producer Sylvester Stallone with 48 vials of Jintropin, a brand of human growth hormone.
9. Okay, so the IBF is reportedly pondering an elimination match between Chris Byrd and Calvin Brock for the right to challenge Wladimir Klitschko. This sounds like a desperate pitch from a late-night infomercial: Get knocked out by Klitschko now and we’ll throw in a free mandatory shot at our heavyweight title. No CODs. Shipping and handling charges may apply.
10. Running the IBF: So easy, even a caveman can do it.
David P. Greisman’s weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com