By Jake Donovan
 
When first assembled, the February 14 HBO Boxing After Dark tripleheader began as the must-see card of 2009, with three solid matchups making for a valid alternative to more traditional Valentine’s Day plans.

By night’s end, the card billed “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” instead further accentuated everything that is wrong with the sport of boxing.

From revolving opponents, to fighters missing weight, to Florida officials struggling to prove that they’re up on the boxing rules, it was a night to forget at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida.

The show began without a home until less than a month before fight night, a responsibilty of the event's co-promter Don King. It ended with two disputed decisions coming out of the televised tripleheader, headlined by Nate Campbell taking a majority decision over South African challenger Ali Funeka in a bout that saw the former lose his lightweight alphabet titles on the scales for failure to make weight a day prior.

Fighting for the first time in nearly a year, Campbell wound up missing weight by 2 ½ lb. when all was said and done at Friday’s weigh-in. Both camps agreed to go through with the fight, with the belts on the line only for Funeka.

Despite the mishap on the scales, Campbell vowed to still fight as if he were defending his titles. The soon-to-be 37-year old lived up to his promise in the opening round, easily outworking his challenger despite giving away a considerable height and reach advantage.

Funeka changed up in the second, working behind his jab and shooting his right hand when Campbell attempted to mount an attack. It worked well for about two minutes, until Campbell connected with an overhand right that had visibly rocked the South African. Campbell went in for the kill, with another right hand sending Funeka to the canvas for a nine-count.

The round ended with Campbell cut over the right eye and Funeka still on unsteady legs. The tide quickly turned in the third, when Funeka landed a right hand that slightly wobbled the Jacksonville native. Funeka went on the attack, working Campbell’s body and reestablishing his range.

Campbell kept coming forward in the fourth, but only to the tune of ineffective aggression as Funeka cleanly outworked him over the course of the round. More of the same came in the fifth, with Campbell reduced to one punch at a time while Funeka peppered him with jabs and body shots.

What began as a three-point disadvantage for Funeka appeared to completely dissolve as the fight entered the sixth. Funeka found his groove and was the far busier fighter throughout the middle rounds. In addition to his right hand and body shots, the left hook was also landing with regularity.

Action slowed to a crawl in the seventh and eighth rounds, which could’ve went either way depending on a judge’s preference. Campbell was effective in working his way inside, landing to the body more frequently than had been the case in rounds prior, but was still being outworked overall by Funeka.

Round nine was a return to Funeka’s mix of superior workrate and capitalizing on his height and reach advantage, returning to the jab and keeping Campbell on the outside. The attack came at a price, as Funeka slowed down enough in the tenth to allow Campbell to work his way inside, targeting the body. Funeka recovered in the final minute of the round, returning to the jab and also landing left hooks to the body in heeding the advice of trainer and former junior featherweight king Vuyani Bungu.

With the fight and possibly his career on the line, Campbell dug deep in the championship rounds. Both fighters appeared exhausted, but Funeka spent nearly the entire eleventh round moving in reverse. Campbell capitalized on his challenger’s hesitance, rocking him with a right hand to the ear which caused a delayed-reaction knockdown as Funeka tried and failed to clinch in efforts to remain upright. He beat the count, but left the door wide open for Campbell to snatch victory –or at least a tie – from the jaws of defeat.

Whatever Campbell had left, he left it all in the ring in the final round. Funeka spent nearly the entire frame either clinching or with his hands pinned to his head. Campbell dug to the body and sought further success with his overhand right upstairs. Funeka didn’t give him the chance to land anything big, though at the cost of giving away the round and ultimately the fight when all was said and done.

The first score of 113-113 drew a collective chorus of boos from the crowd, with a similar level of protest coming after hearing tallies of 115-111 and 114-112 go in favor of Campbell, who narrowly escapes with his fifth straight win. He improves overall to 33-5-1 (25KO), but loses his belts and his stay at lightweight in the process thanks to the debacle at the scales.

Upon hearing the scores read, Funeka could offer no other reaction than to bow his head and stand in a corner as he was reduced to tears. A 16-fight win streak comes to a close as Funeka’s record moves to 30-2-2 (25KO). He earned the fight with a fourth-round knockout of Zahir Raheem, though it featured a controversial ending of its own, as the final knockout blow came well after the bell.

A controversial, or at least disputable, decision denies him the chance to bring two lightweight title belts back to South Africa, as he instead heads home with disappointing memories of what could’ve been had he not fallen apart down the stretch.

Disappointing is really the only way to describe the televised co-feature, which saw former Antonio Margarito victims Sergio Martinez and Kermit Cintron battle to a majority draw in their 12-round junior middleweight battle.

The boo birds were out early and often, and for very good reason, as little to nothing in the way of action occurred in the first few rounds. Martinez controlled whatever action took place, with Cintron far too content to clinch and hardly fighting with any fluidity whatsoever.

Martinez went into boxing mode in the third and fourth rounds, circling to his left in the southpaw stance, which left him inside of Cintron’s punching range. The tactic goes against conventional wisdom, but it was up to Cintron to do something about it. He did not, which meant more rounds in the bank for Martinez and curiosity among the crowd as to why they’d instead attend a boxing card than spending the evening at home, or out on the town, with the one they love on Valentine’s Day.

Trainer Ronnie Shields, working with Cintron for the second time, expressed disappointment with his charge after four rounds, demanding he get busier on the inside. It didn’t happen; Cintron instead continued with an attack that consisted of one punch at a time and virtually no clue as to how to cut off the ring and slow down the mobile Martinez.

Just as it appeared the fight was heading nowhere fast, things took a dramatic turn at the end of the seventh. Martinez caught Cintron with a straight left hand at center ring, resulting in a delayed knockdown as Cintron was buzzed and forced to take a knee.

Referee Frank Santore began to count, at which point Cintron remained on the canvas and protesting the call, claiming a headbutt occurred. Cintron arose from the canvas as Santore appeared to reach ten and clearly waved off the fight, which sent the fighter into a full protest mode.

Confusion soon followed, with Martinez celebrating what he thought was a knockout victory in one corner, while Team Cintron demanded an immediate overturn in the other. Cintron not only won the argument, but was given 2 ½ minutes to recover from the knockdown, as Santore offered some half-assed excuse as to why the fight should be allowed to continue.

Action resumed in the eighth, with both fighters re-energized. Cintron had a better round than most to that point, but went into the final four rounds with a cut over his left eye and atop his forehead, and seemingly in a deep hole on the scorecards. However, it was a late point deduction from Martinez in the twelfth and final round that saved Cintron from suffering his third loss.

The disappointing fight ended with an even more disappointing decision. Martinez won on one card by a margin of 116-110, but the scores were overruled by matching cards of 113-113.

Martinez remains unbeaten in his last 29 fights in having to settle for the draw, as his record now moves to 44-1-2 (27KO). The lone loss came nine years ago at the hands of Margarito, scoring an early knockdown but was eventually stopped in seven rounds.

Margarito is also responsible for the lone two losses on Cintron’s ledger, though the Puerto Rican had been quite vocal in recent weeks in the wake of the hand wrap scandal that came in his conqueror’s failed January 24 bid against “Sugar” Shane Mosley.

Considering the amount of excuses he offered for the past defeats, Cintron never came close to redeeming himself in the ring, with the fortunate draw verdict sending his record to 30-2-1 (27KO). He has now been involved in two straight fights that were less than action packed, this coming on the heels of his 12-round stinker with Lovemore N’Dou last November.

Stinker is a word that will most likely never describe any fight involving Alfredo Angulo. The undefeated junior middleweight prospect kicked off the party with a five round thrashing of late replacement Cosme Rivera.

Things became very interesting in the early going. A clash of heads left Angulo with a cut outside of his right eye. The referee missed out on this detail, instead ruling the nick a result of a punch, which meant that Angulo was forced to fight or else be declared a TKO loser.

Angulo chose the former, which was very bad news for Rivera. The former welterweight title challenger had his moments, including his right uppercut which landed several times from the outside. It was otherwise all Angulo, who picked up the pace and took over for good in the second round, never looking back.

Rivera was rocked several times and all but out on his feet midway through the third, only for the referee to allow the fight to continue. Angulo stalked as Rivera could manage no more than a few clinches whenever he needed to clear his head.

The onslaught continued in the fourth and fifth, though there were several moments in which the fight could’ve been stopped. It took for a member of the Florida Boxing Commission to do what the referee and Rivera’s corner failed to do – intervene on behalf of the safety of the fighter.

The official time was 2:38 of round five.

Angulo improves to 15-0 (12KO) with the win. The California-based Mexican banger has now scored 11 straight stoppages, with his last three airing live on HBO’s Boxing After Dark.

Rivera’s career continues to head in the opposite direction. The loss puts him at 1-3-1NC in his last five, as he dips overall to 31-12-2 (22KO). Rivera was a very late replacement for Danny Perez, who pulled out of the fight earlier this week. Perez himself was a late replacement for Ricardo Mayorga, who may or may not have suffered a valid injury while in training camp for this fight.

The show was presented by Gary Shaw Productions and Don King Productions, in association with DiBella Entertainment.
 
Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .