By Jack Welsh

In the realm of athletics, David facing Goliath has traveled the ultimate in drama but rarely has the dialogue surpassed the way Chris Byrd kept Jameel McCline away from his IBF heavyweight crown on a squeaky split-decision Saturday night in Madison Square Garden.

As if their families being close friends wasn’t enough human interest, Byrd, 214, spotted the hulking McCline 56 pounds and overcame a second round knockdown with a late domination that put the whip cream on Don King’s Battle For Supremacy in New York before a crowd of 12,777.

Making  his  third title defense, Byrd repeatedly proved there is no better chin in the division nor a boxer-puncher who can move adversaries in directions of his choice. In the count down to the first bell, the 34-year-old Flint native now fighting in Las Vegas, told the media keeping McCline, 270, from trapping him on the ropes with his bulk would be paramount.

McCline, out of Port Jefferson, NY, was faster out of the gate, but the agile southpaw took the big guy’s’ heaviest artillery and was still clear-eyed and standing at the bell.

Byrd liked to tell his admirers when he got knocked down, he always got up. And he proved it late in the second round when McCline capped a five-punch salvo with a hard right to the head. “He me right behind the ear. It was a perfect punch.

“I got my eye back in the third round. I didn’t see it happen but he hit me right behind the ear. It was a perfect punch. The way I fought back, I feel like I really had to dig down deep, I definitely did enough to win the fight and prove I am a true champion.”

When dapper Michael Buffer read the first judges; scoring on the 12-round bout, it was 114-112, McCline. Then the decision arrived for Byrd on tabs of 115-112 and 114-113.

McCline dominated the first five rounds, but Byrd began to pick it up in the fourth, keeping his gloves high and using them to smother McCline’s flurries while digging inside off the ropes.

McCline, later admitting Byrd’s turn around took him off his game plan, adding that “Chris has very fast
hands and that was the difference.”

Byrd, lifting his resume to 38-2-1, 27 KOs, is not a knockout puncher in the true since of the word, but he engaged McCline in some heavy punching on and off the ropes.”

In Byrd’s previous outing Apr.17 in New York his second defense with Andrew Golota finished in a controversial 12-round draw, and this heated conflict might have finished he same way if Byrd hadn’t staggered the wearying challenger in the late rounds.

“This fight was not everything I had imagined it would be because I expected to go home with the title. It looked like I fell apart a little towards the end and that  might have cost me.”

Byrd will take sometime off to be with his family during the “Yuletide” holidays, but “I don’t care who I fight early next year---be it world champion , or top contender. But it is up to Don King to make the match, he is the promoter.”

RUIZ LUCKY TO KEEP TITLE ON SPLIT IN BRAWL

Ringsters got what they expected when John Ruiz “defended” his WBA heavyweight crown against the sometimes unpredictable Andrew Golota ---the former retaining the belt on split decision over 12 ugly rounds.

Ruiz, 32, out of Chelsea, MA., was back with his  same old grab and clutch of’ rough-rousing from the opening bell to the frustrating finish in a scenario where Golota,34, Chicago, Ill. rarely lost his temper no matter how crude Ruiz’s antics.

Bad vibes surfaced in the first round when Ruiz started his patented head-down charges, culminating
with a headlock that smothered Golota’s punching room and the fighters came out of a tight-clinch punching after the bell. When referee Randy Neumann finally broke the duo, Norman “Stony” Stone, Ruiz’s trainer, ran across the ring and threw a punch at Golota’s cornerman.

Golota. 238, had his best offensive round in the second when he dropped Ruiz twice, the first time with a short right and again with a half-push. Ruiz charged Golota into the ropes again and then the pair banged heads without incident.

Ruiz,with his raw-boned approach to the sport, was penalized one point for hitting low in the fourth. Twice during the middle rounds, the tape came loose on Ruiz’s right glove and Stone got into a beef with Neumann over procedure. The New York State Athletic Commission ordered the New England conditioner to leave the ring apron and return his fighters’ dressing room for continuing in a dispute with the referee.

Ruiz ditched the unothodox aspect of offensive in the late rounds and wasn’t bulldoging as much. The WBA two-time champion caught Golota with four punches in the ninth round, leaving a cut over his right eye. Golota countered in the 10th round, backing up Ruiz with several right hands and jolted him with a good right at the bell.

In the 11th and 12th rounds, both warriors had their moments with jabs but Golota appeared to prevail in the final three-minutes with a stinging jab.

“I was very disappointed when I saw the officials throw Stoney out. We’ve been together for a long time, so I knew I had to get in there and work. On the knockdowns in the second round,” Ruiz reflected as his resume rose to 41-5-2, 28 KOs.

“I thought I win the fight. I am confused,” said the personable native of Warsaw, Poland, whose record dipped to 38-5-1, 31 KOs.

“ROCK’ WANTS TITLE HE LOST TO LENNOX BACK

Hasim “The Rock” Rahman hasn’t been this exciting since 2001 when he won and lost the world heavyweight championship to Lennox Lewis---seven months apart.

The 32-year-old Baltimore Bomber moved back into contention when he struck like thunder to win the WBC/WBA/IBF heavyweight eliminator by erasing Kali Meehan at the end of four rounds in what was slated for 12-rounds.

This was a shorter trip Rahman, just four full rounds. He needed five rounds when he chilled Lewis Apr.22, 2001 in Johannesburg and four rounds when Lennox got it all back together to regain the title Nov.17, 2001 in Las Vegas.

Rahman wasn’t exaggerating when he promised to be “aggressive against Meehan, 34, a heavy-handed 236 pound, born in New Zealand, living now Australia.

“I didn’t disappoint anybody, did I?. I was going 12 rounds, but I decided to step it up and now it doesn’t matter who we fight. I was totally focused in the gym. I’d like to fight Vitali Klitschko. Meehan is a good young fighter with a good defense. And i wasn’t able to get the kind of shots I wanted at him.”

Rahman didn’t anticipate the full skills of Meehan after watching the WBA/IBF Asia Pacific champion lose a squeaker 12-round decision Sept. 4 against WBO heavyweight king Lamon Brewster in Las Vegas. Meehan’s credentials reads 29-2, 23 KOs.

Rahman was quick showing he wasn’t going to let the “Checkmate” from Down Under enhance his resume.

In round one, the former heavyweight champion rocked Meehan with three combinations, spiced by four left hooks to the head. Meehan spent most of the second heat backed up against the ropes trying to get some relief with his gloves as shields. There were no knockdowns but the pile-driving Rahman was raking Meehan’s muscles with six and seven punch volleys, leaving the valiant ring-man bending to get out of harm’s way. As the fourth round ended, Mark Jansson, Meehan’s trainer, declared there would be no fifth heat. Certainly, not for this courageous athlete who was hopelessly outclassed......

HOLYFIELD: FIGHTING FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

Who would believe this scenario of a four-time former world heavyweight champion opening a boxing card last Saturday against a journeyman on Don King’s Battle for Supremacy in Madison Square Garden?

If you have to do a double take, that’s okay because we are talking about Evander Holyfield who lost a 12-round unanimous to Larry Donald for something called the NABC heavyweight championship.

The erstwhile “Real Deal” from Atlanta has been holding the boxing masses at bay on when he will ever retire from the once Sweet Science.

Now 42, Holyfield’s double victories over Mike Tyson and the classic heavyweight trilogy with Riddick Bowe in the 70-80s are enough for the Hall of Fame even if those were the only fights he ever had.

Even after seeing his record slide to 38-8-2, 32 KOs. here’s a weary warrior with lumps under his eyes in reflection: “It was a tough fight. I did my best and I thought I improved. I might have bit more than I can chew. Larry’s style is difficult. I might have had the wrong fight at the wrong time. In life you have setbacks, but I have never given up on anytime.” said the ring legend.

“In my mind I can’t realistically think that it is over. But I have to look at the possibility that this is a permanent problem. If this is going to happen every fight, I can’t continue to do it. I think any time I go in the ring, people know that I’m not going in there boasting I’m better than anybody. They know I’m going in there for a goal. I have a goal to be world heavyweight champion. It’s not because I need the money, it’s not because I have a bad attitude and I can’t do anything about it. It’s just the fact that I have to finish the right way ---as world heavyweight champion.

And a respectable Larry Donald: “I thank God, Don King and HBO for giving me a chance to fight for this title. Evander Holyfield is still a great champion. I did what I had to do to win.”

(Jack Welsh is a syndicated columnist headquartered in Las Vegas and also a regular contributor to Ringsports.com and other leading sports publications.)