By Joe Harrison
In a very uneventful main event, WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev (45-0, 33 KOs) defeated Monte Barrett (31-5, 17 KOs) by an eleventh-round technical knockout at the Allstate Arena near Chicago on Saturday night. The bout was filled with wild punches and repetitive holding as the 13,482 fans in attendance observed the 7-foot-tall giant manhandle Barrett around the ring. On the other hand, Barrett held his ground extremely well and was able to give Valuev a real battle.
In the first half of the fight, Barrett was outworking the giant Russian by connecting punches and immediately clinching to avoid Valuev’s attack. It became apparent that Monte had no intentions of changing his punch-and-clinch tactics.
To everyone’s amazement, this strategy seemed to be working for him, scoring points and winning the rounds. Even as Nikolai began to land his jab, Barrett was still connecting his wild hooks to Valuev’s head.
Entering the middle rounds, Valuev’s punches became more accurate and he was beginning to turn the fight around. Barrett continued to clinch as often as possible, but Valuev still found ways to connect his punches, and started pushing Barrett around the ring. Eventually, they both began to trade punches, but the action always seized because of the constant hugging.
In the eleventh round, Valuev connected a powerful hook to Barrett’s face, sending him down to the canvas. Barrett was able to beat the count, but was clearly staggered. Valuev went in for the kill, and connected with more power punches, causing Barrett to stumble down. Once again, Barrett beat the count, but Valuev didn’t hesitate to go right back after Barrett.
Only seconds later, Barrett’s trainer jumped into the ring to save his fighter, bringing an end to the contest at the 2:12 mark.
In the co-main event, Tomasz Adamek (31-0, 20 KOs) retained his WBC light heavyweight title by defeating Paul Briggs (25-3, 18 KOs) via majority decision.
Much like their first fight, it was a pure slugfest as both men connected punches over twelve rounds. Adamek was visibly the more skilled fighter of the two, but Briggs’ punches were very crisp and powerful, making most of the rounds difficult to score.
After going down in the first round, Adamek pulled himself together and seemed to be landing his jab at ease. His defense was impressive as well, making it difficult for Briggs to land his power punches. After a few rounds, Briggs was finally able to land a few punches, but continued to get punished by Adamek’s attack.
By the fifth round, it was evident that Briggs had found his target, continuously hitting Adamek’s face. But it wasn’t long before Adamek was back on the attack, beating Briggs with jabs and combinations. However, Briggs would not back off, and they continued to trade throughout the middle rounds.
After Adamek had a point taken away in the ninth-round for low blows, the battle progressed as both men had their moments. This war continued through the final rounds and until the final bell. The scores were 115-111 for Adamek, 114-112 for Adamek, and 113-113.
Earlier in the evening, heavyweight Mike Mollo (17-1, 11 KOs) dominated Tyson-conqueror Kevin McBride (34-5-1, 28 KOs) inside of two rounds. From the start of the fight, Mollo was very aggressive, going right after McBride with hooks and power punches. At first, McBride was handling them well, but the constant pressure began to take its toll on him.
Mollo’s punches sent McBride down, but he was able rise and beat the count. In the second round, the butchery continued as Mollo floored McBride two more times before the ref called a halt to the bout at 0:44.
In an IBF lightweight eliminator, Nate Campbell (29-5-1, 23 KOs) outclassed Matt Zegan (37-2, 21 KOs) to earn the victory by unanimous decision. Campbell was able to use superior body movement to avoid Zegan’s punches, and was in complete control for most of the fight.
In the last few rounds, Zegan turned it up a notch and was beginning to hurt Campbell. It was too little, too late. All three judges scored it for Campbell, 120-106 and 119-107 twice.