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By Keith Idec - BARRANQUILLA, Colombia - Ricardo Torres came to Atlantic City, two hours south of Kendall Holt's hometown, and established himself as a true threat at 140 pounds nearly two years ago.
Holt had hoped that he'd be the one to replace injured Italian contender Gianluca Branco as Miguel Cotto's opponent that night. HBO boxing executives wouldn't approve Holt as a substitute, though, and instead selected Colombia's Torres for a co-featured fight on a "World Championship Boxing" broadcast. HBO's Kery Davis was skeptical because Holt had been stopped in the first round against unheralded Thomas Davis barely more than a year earlier, so Holt had to accept a non-televised slot on the Wladimir Klitschko-Samuel Peter undercard at Boardwalk Hall.
The gifted fighter from Paterson, New Jersey, defeated Russian journeyman Vladimir Khodokovski by unanimous decision in their 10-rounder on Sept. 24, 2005, but didn't inspire confidence in producing a pedestrian performance. Holt half-joked afterward that his ordinary outing might've made Cotto's promoters at Top Rank Inc. choose him as Cotto's next opponent. Moments later, Torres, a 13-1 underdog who had never before boxed in the United States, dropped the popular Puerto Rican champion in the second round, and while that seemed like an undeserved knockdown, Torres had him hurt at least twice more in one of the most entertaining encounters of 2005.
Cotto came back to knock out Torres in the seventh round of that brutal brawl, but Holt (22-1, 12 KOs) never got his shot at one of boxing's greatest gate attractions because Cotto (30-0, 25 KOs) relinquished his World Boxing Organization junior welterweight title less than a year later to fight at 147 pounds.
With Cotto convincing more and more doubters of his pound-for-pound worth with each welterweight fight, it seems fitting that Holt's long-awaited title shot will come against Torres (31-1, 27 KOs), in Torres' hometown. [details]
Holt had hoped that he'd be the one to replace injured Italian contender Gianluca Branco as Miguel Cotto's opponent that night. HBO boxing executives wouldn't approve Holt as a substitute, though, and instead selected Colombia's Torres for a co-featured fight on a "World Championship Boxing" broadcast. HBO's Kery Davis was skeptical because Holt had been stopped in the first round against unheralded Thomas Davis barely more than a year earlier, so Holt had to accept a non-televised slot on the Wladimir Klitschko-Samuel Peter undercard at Boardwalk Hall.
The gifted fighter from Paterson, New Jersey, defeated Russian journeyman Vladimir Khodokovski by unanimous decision in their 10-rounder on Sept. 24, 2005, but didn't inspire confidence in producing a pedestrian performance. Holt half-joked afterward that his ordinary outing might've made Cotto's promoters at Top Rank Inc. choose him as Cotto's next opponent. Moments later, Torres, a 13-1 underdog who had never before boxed in the United States, dropped the popular Puerto Rican champion in the second round, and while that seemed like an undeserved knockdown, Torres had him hurt at least twice more in one of the most entertaining encounters of 2005.
Cotto came back to knock out Torres in the seventh round of that brutal brawl, but Holt (22-1, 12 KOs) never got his shot at one of boxing's greatest gate attractions because Cotto (30-0, 25 KOs) relinquished his World Boxing Organization junior welterweight title less than a year later to fight at 147 pounds.
With Cotto convincing more and more doubters of his pound-for-pound worth with each welterweight fight, it seems fitting that Holt's long-awaited title shot will come against Torres (31-1, 27 KOs), in Torres' hometown. [details]
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