By Troy Ondrizek at ringside (photo by Tom Casino)
On the eve of football’s most treasured day, Don King decided to give fight fans a night of world titles. With three championship bouts set up for fans to enjoy, King also added some nice undercard bouts to sweeten the deal a bit. With some of the bigger boys in the ring we saw the return of former cruiserweight titlist Wayne Braithwaite and we were introduced to a power-punching heavyweight prospect. Two of the three title fights were a little disappointing, but the one that mattered most delivered a hell of a fight.
In the night's only heavyweight attraction, we saw journeyman Harold Sconiers face up and coming Canadian fighter Bermane "B-Ware" Stiverne. When Stiverne’s record was announced a collective "oooohhhh" rang out from the crowd. I guess a professional record of 9-0 with 9KO’s does sound impressive, but Stiverne did acquire this gluttonous record by feasting on tomato-cans and the "fat" of the lower-end of the division.
Truth be told, Sconiers is best known for losing and being an opponent, but I’ll give Sconiers credit, he came at Stiverne early. However, that wasn’t the best idea that Sconiers ever had and at 2:05 of the first round Stiverne enlightened Sconiers of this and ended the bout with a hellatious right that resulted in Sconiers slumping down the ropes in disturbing fashion. Stiverne moved to 10-0 with 10KO’s and Sconiers was removed to the hospital.
Wayne "Big Truck" Braithwaite started his quest for another world title with a scheduled 10 round affair with Mexican journeyman Gustavo Enriquez. This is the first time Braithwaite has been in the ring since Guillermo Jones stopped him in September of 05’. I have never heard of this Enriquez kid and quite frankly wasn’t too concerned about it.
As expected Braithwaite was rusty and kept switching from orthodox to southpaw throughout the bout. Enriquez did come to fight and tried to press the action, but Braithwaite while rusty, was still seasoned enough to frustrate the raw Enriquez. As soon as Enriquez was out of the fight mentally, there basically wasn’t any fight; the fans booed as Braithwaite tried to press the action.
Then in the seventh round Braithwaite lured Enriquez into the corner and let the Mexican gain a little confidence, right when Enriquez started swinging, Braithwaite came back firing and pinned Enriquez along the ropes and battered him. Enriquez was able to escape the ropes, but not Braithwaite’s onslaught and in the middle of the ring the ref jumped in to save an overwhelmed Enriquez.
The first title bout of the evening was Rodney "Smooth" Jones and Cory "Next Generation" Spinks, for Spinks’ IBF junior middleweight title. Jones came out dry and seemed a little stiff, but the veteran of 41 bouts soon settled in and snapped Spinks" head back with counter lefts. After the first round it seemed that both men were trying to feel one another out.
Very much unlike his effort against Roman Karmazin, Spinks at least early stood in close and fought tough with Jones. As the fight wore on, Jones wore down and Spinks found a great home for his right hook; he would land it to the body and to the head. Jones with hands down low just flung shots at Spinks and on a few occasions stunned the faster man, but Spinks as usual got on his bicycle and rode around the ring peppering (and I say peppering because that is about as hard as Spinks hits) Jones with counter rights and jabs to the body.
In the tenth round Jones was looking to rally and started pressing Spinks, at one point Spinks’ mouthpiece flew out, but it was a result of fatigue and not from one of Jones’ punches. But Spinks just frustrated Jones with his superior footwork and hand-speed and in what was Jones’ biggest chance he came up a little short with the scores of 118-109, and 120-108 twice.
I’ll give Spinks some credit, he has good stamina; for I can’t remember the last time I rode a bicycle that long. I think that Spinks’ foot skills would be better suited for "Dancing with the Stars", but Cory Spinks isn’t a star.
Jesus Chavez made his return to the ring from 16 months of inactivity due to injuries and mental fatigue. Chavez is known as El Matador, but with him being four inches shorter his opponent Julio Diaz is was Diaz who was the matador early as Chavez bullied and rushed in at Diaz for the first two rounds. Diaz did a great job of using his height and jabbed and kept Chavez at bay.
Midway through the round Diaz threw a double-jab at Chavez’ chest and hit nothing, as Chavez stepped back and braced himself to counter, his right knee (the injured one) gave out and Chavez crumbled to the mat. Referee Frank Santore must’ve had a bad angle because everyone but him saw that Chavez’ knee gave out, because inexplicitly Santore counted out Chavez.
For almost the entire night the volume grew in the building as the Polish contingent multiplied as well. As early as Spinks/Jones there was back and forth banter between the American fight fans and the Polish fans.
Chants of U.S.A. and Polska emanated throughout the building in deafening tones and for as loud as the Polish fans were in jeering Dawson’s entrance, the American’s showed off their vocal bravado and actually drowned out the cheers of the Poles. For there was no doubt who everyone was there to see, the main event between WBC light heavyweight champion Tomasz Adamek and American stud "Bad" Chad Dawson.
As the fight started all the action was between the fans as Adamek and Dawson admired each others physiques. The 5,270 people who showed up despite the recent tornados were screaming at every blow delivered. After the initial shock of being in a title fight for Dawson, Dawson put Adamek in awe of his speed. By the middle rounds a nice mouse had made its way just under Adamek’s left eye and Dawson was lighting "Goral" up, but Adamek found a home for his right hook in the sixth and started working on landing that shot with regularity.
The intensity of the fight grew immensely in the seventh as Adamek momentarily stunned Dawson with a right, but Dawson fired back and connected regularly with straight lefts and even dropped the Pole when he was off-balance with a left to the body. Adamek continued to stay confused as the bout progressed; he was nothing like the fighter that climbed into the ring against Paul Briggs and Thomas Ulrich.
I couldn’t tell you if it was Dawson’s speed and accuracy or if Buddy McGirt ruined Adamek’s style, but whatever it was, Adamek looked lost in the ring and the only thing he could find was Dawson’s gloves. As soon as Dawson looked in complete control, Adamek landed a monstrous straight right and floored Dawson in the tenth. On wobbly legs Dawson danced and clinched to survival throughout the tenth and eleventh rounds and seemed in the waning moments of the eleventh he got his legs back and the ebb and flow of the late part of the fight was magnificent.
As soon as the bell tolled Dawson leapt into the air in his mind knowing he had won. I personally had the fight 115-111 for Dawson. If the victory over Harding was Dawson’s coming out party, then this fight was Dawson’s formal announcement that he is the baddest man at the light heavyweight level. In a division that is dominated by dinosaurs, Dawson is the comet that is about to make them extinct.
Not every fight can be super but Tomasz Adamek always delivers in victory or defeat and we saw the coming of age for Chad Dawson and the potential power of Bermane Stiverne.
This was a great night for boxing and for boxing fans, until next time, see you at the fights.