By Sean Reed

"The stars at night are big and bright... deep in the heart of Texas", according to the popular song recorded by Perry Como, Ray Charles, Bing Crosby and others. 

Unfortunately, the Dallas/Ft. Worth boxing scene isn't all that large or illuminated at the moment. 

But thanks to the Harrison Boxing Group (led by Wayne Harrison III) and their "Texas Slugfest" series, local fans have a bona fide name-brand boxing show to hang their hats on and anticipate several times per year. The latest entry, aptly named “Texas Slugfest 5” came Thursday night at the Cowtown Coliseum in the historic Stockyards of Ft. Worth, Texas. 

One thing the Metroplex has going for itself is the fairly close-knit fraternity that exists between local boxing personalities. When a fight card is forthcoming, word spreads quickly and boxing brethren reach out to one another in a show of support. 

On that note, former two weight world champion, Paulie Ayala was in attendance, accompanied by his lovely wife, Lety. 2008 United States Olympian, Luis Yanez showed up with trainer Dennis Rodarte, manager Mike Montoya (CEO of Brown Boy Media) and best friend/surrogate big brother, "Handsome" Hector Beltran. Mixed martial artist and former local boxing clubfighter Marcus "The Wrecking Ball" Hicks was also in the house. 

The headlining act of the evening featured a true grudge match between Ft. Worth's Joey Dunmoodie and James Freeman. The bad blood goes back to April of 2008, when Freeman knocked out Dunmoodie's older brother, Franco. 

Joey was in his brother's corner that night, and didn’t care for the way Freeman stood over his brother's prone body and swore revenge. 

It was mission accomplished, with Dunmoodie upending the previously unbeatean Freeman by six-round majority decision.

As they weighed in, Dunmoodie (now 4-1, 2KO) glared at, mean mugged and trash talked the laid back, unassuming country boy from Vernon, TX. The verbal excrement even spewed over into the ring as the two carried on mouthpiece dialogue throughout the contest. 

Freeman (3-1, 2KO) won the first round based on his southpaw jabbing and straight lefts.  But in the second, the more athletic Dunmoodie began to find range with hooks and straight rights, drawing "oooh's" from his hometown crowd and blood from Freeman's nose. 

Eventually, Dunmoodie successfully jabbed with Freeman and consistently beat his man to the punch with superior hand speed.  By the sixth, both middleweights were winded and a bit battered; Dunmoodie had blood coming from his lower lip, and Freeman was swollen and nicked under his right eye.  Freeman executed a defensive no-no by leaning straight back from punches and as a result, he found himself getting caught on the end of those blows and sometimes wobbled. 

The final verdict was a majority decision for Dunmoodie, who seemed to bury the hatchet by hugging Freeman and telling anyone who'd listen that he was "tougher than I thought he'd be."

Ft. Worth's favorite middleweight, Chapp Huggins (4-0, 0 KO) remained unbeaten with a 4 round unanimous decision over the seasoned Calvin Pitts (3-11-1, 1 KO) in the evening’s co-feature. 

After building a local Arturo Gatti-like reputation in his first three bouts, Huggins looked to show that he has skills to accentuate his "action-hero" side. 

Mission accomplished. 

Huggins put on a pleasantly surprising display of pocket boxing, landing good left hooks, rocking Pitts with left uppercut-right hand combinations and maintaining a high and tight defensive guard. The best exchange of the fight occurred in the third round; Pitts responded to Huggins' combo's with flurries of his own.  But Chapp got the better of this engagement, outlanding Pitts and repeatedly knocking him back on his heels. Huggins, a Ft. Worth golden gloves winner many times over, was bolstered by the screams and presence of his sister Alanna, a former fighter herself.

In a heavyweight prelim affair, Dallas' Brent Urban made a successful professional debut by stopping perennial loser, Ras Thompson (0-7-1) in the 3rd round of a scheduled four.

Urban, trained by the lovable John "Lawman" Lawson, came out aggressively, landing almost everything and was even searching for a kitchen sink to hit Thompson with. Like Adam "Pac Man" Jones in a strip club, Urban was making it rain, only in the form of punches; rights, lefts and crunching body shots to the blubbery midsection of his balding foe. Thompson threw and landed the occasional desperation shot, but they had no effect on Urban. 

After ending round two with a multitude of overhand rights, Brent unleashed a flurry of left hooks, forcing Thompson to find a soft spot on the canvas and willingly accept the referee's ten-count.

In a battle of debuting featherweights, Sammy Sanchez (former Luis Yanez sparring partner) won a unanimous decision over Felipe Ramirez.  Arlington-based middleweight Angel Sigala (1-1) won a unanimous decision over Trinidad Murray (0-4) and Jabbar Hurd (3-3-1) unanimously won his featherweight fight with Pedro Sanchez (0-2).

Afterwards, Hurd looked to the crowd and exclaimed, "Not bad for a 35 year old man!"

Make no mistake, "Texas Slugfest" is a club show; a grassroots movement looking to build fighters from scratch.  But in due time, some of the participants will find themselves on larger cards, making more money than they envisioned and they'll have the Harrison Boxing Group to thank for it.