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Pugilistic Review: Shobox, July 10th 2010
By Craig Medaris
This past weekend Showtime featured a pair of exciting cards, featuring young up and comers on Friday's Shobox and a pair of world title fights on Saturday's Showtime Championship Boxing telecast. Both telecasts were top quality viewing for the fans and if you missed out on either, I can't recommend strongly enough that you track both cards down.
Friday's Showbox telecast was headlined by welterweight super-prospect, Philadelphian Mike Jones. I've been following Jones for a couple of years now and the kid is really coming along. he has all the punches in the book and some impressive physical tools which could aid him as his career moves along and possibly up in weight. His opponent Friday was Irving Garcia, probably best remembered by fans for giving us and incredible four round war with undefeated Luis Abregu.
Garcia as always was brave, but just a bit out-gunned and he was put away in somewhat controversial fashion in five rounds by Jones. Towards the end of the bout, Jones had Garcia pinned up against the ropes and was unloading a barrage of shots that had Irving on the brink of defeat, yet the finishing shot was what looked to be a blatant low blow that dropped Garcia for the ten count. Experienced referee Randy Neumann called the shot legal and despite some strong protests from the Garcia camp, proceeded to declare Jones the victor.
Jones moves on now towards welterweight contention, while Garcia might look towards retirement once more. Despite this victory I can't help but shake the feeling that Jones should probably be doing more with his six foot frame than simply paw with his jab and look to unload combinations once he gets set. Don't get me wrong, he's incredibly fluid once he gets rolling and the combo's naturally flow he can look like a future superstar, but it's the gaps in those flourishes that leave me with the most questions. He still gets hit quite a bit as maintains a dangerous range thanks to his lack of an effective jab and without that jab he can have problems setting up those damaging combinations. Against the top flight welterweight competition that's out there right now, Jones could find himself struggling to get off and taking damage while he waits for the next opportunity. He's a quality prospect, but remains a solid work-in-progress.
The highlight of the show for me, was Lanardo Tyner's upset of Miami prospect Antwone Smith. In what was an exciting back and forth scrap, fought mostly at close quarters, the nearly 35 year old Tyner wore out the heavily favoured, 23 year old Smith. Smith came into this fight on a serious hot streak, running off wins over solid competition and had looked good while doing it, so this was a real shocker. Tyner, a 5'6'' welter with a habit of letting the shots fly early on in a fight, instead fought at a measured pace and stayed under control for the first half of the fight while Smith was the aggressor. It looked like Tyner was just overmatched once more and Smith would win the inside battle, but instead Tyner's shorter, harder shots began to take a toll and Smith faded badly over the final few rounds leaving him with a badly swollen eye and a second 'L' on his ledger. The ending came in round 9 when Tyner finally put Smith down, forcing Antwone to pull himself from the fight.
This was a disappointing loss for Smith and it will no doubt hurt his chances of securing more important fights going forward. You really have to question the intelligence of his camp matching him with a fighter like Tyner who's never been stopped and can really only fight on the inside, yet sending Smith out with a game plan to fight on the inside with Tyner despite an apparent bout of the flu in the weeks leading up to the fight. As a result Smith suffered a devastating loss in which he was on the receiving end of a lot more punishment than any 23 year old kid should be taking. It's the sort of loss that I've seen ruin young fighters, so I can only hope he can come back from this one renewed and fresh enough to improve.
As for Tyner? It's hard to figure out where he might fit in. At almost 35, he will probably be matched with another young contender in a few months time and if he loses then it will probably be all over for him at that level of the sport. But seeing him gut the win over Smith certainly made this writer a fan and if he's matched well enough, don't be shocked if you see his name up in a similar report in a few months time where he's once again pulled one out of the hat. He's that kind of a fighter.
Pugilistic Review: Shobox, July 10th 2010
By Craig Medaris
This past weekend Showtime featured a pair of exciting cards, featuring young up and comers on Friday's Shobox and a pair of world title fights on Saturday's Showtime Championship Boxing telecast. Both telecasts were top quality viewing for the fans and if you missed out on either, I can't recommend strongly enough that you track both cards down.
Friday's Showbox telecast was headlined by welterweight super-prospect, Philadelphian Mike Jones. I've been following Jones for a couple of years now and the kid is really coming along. he has all the punches in the book and some impressive physical tools which could aid him as his career moves along and possibly up in weight. His opponent Friday was Irving Garcia, probably best remembered by fans for giving us and incredible four round war with undefeated Luis Abregu.
Garcia as always was brave, but just a bit out-gunned and he was put away in somewhat controversial fashion in five rounds by Jones. Towards the end of the bout, Jones had Garcia pinned up against the ropes and was unloading a barrage of shots that had Irving on the brink of defeat, yet the finishing shot was what looked to be a blatant low blow that dropped Garcia for the ten count. Experienced referee Randy Neumann called the shot legal and despite some strong protests from the Garcia camp, proceeded to declare Jones the victor.
Jones moves on now towards welterweight contention, while Garcia might look towards retirement once more. Despite this victory I can't help but shake the feeling that Jones should probably be doing more with his six foot frame than simply paw with his jab and look to unload combinations once he gets set. Don't get me wrong, he's incredibly fluid once he gets rolling and the combo's naturally flow he can look like a future superstar, but it's the gaps in those flourishes that leave me with the most questions. He still gets hit quite a bit as maintains a dangerous range thanks to his lack of an effective jab and without that jab he can have problems setting up those damaging combinations. Against the top flight welterweight competition that's out there right now, Jones could find himself struggling to get off and taking damage while he waits for the next opportunity. He's a quality prospect, but remains a solid work-in-progress.
The highlight of the show for me, was Lanardo Tyner's upset of Miami prospect Antwone Smith. In what was an exciting back and forth scrap, fought mostly at close quarters, the nearly 35 year old Tyner wore out the heavily favoured, 23 year old Smith. Smith came into this fight on a serious hot streak, running off wins over solid competition and had looked good while doing it, so this was a real shocker. Tyner, a 5'6'' welter with a habit of letting the shots fly early on in a fight, instead fought at a measured pace and stayed under control for the first half of the fight while Smith was the aggressor. It looked like Tyner was just overmatched once more and Smith would win the inside battle, but instead Tyner's shorter, harder shots began to take a toll and Smith faded badly over the final few rounds leaving him with a badly swollen eye and a second 'L' on his ledger. The ending came in round 9 when Tyner finally put Smith down, forcing Antwone to pull himself from the fight.
This was a disappointing loss for Smith and it will no doubt hurt his chances of securing more important fights going forward. You really have to question the intelligence of his camp matching him with a fighter like Tyner who's never been stopped and can really only fight on the inside, yet sending Smith out with a game plan to fight on the inside with Tyner despite an apparent bout of the flu in the weeks leading up to the fight. As a result Smith suffered a devastating loss in which he was on the receiving end of a lot more punishment than any 23 year old kid should be taking. It's the sort of loss that I've seen ruin young fighters, so I can only hope he can come back from this one renewed and fresh enough to improve.
As for Tyner? It's hard to figure out where he might fit in. At almost 35, he will probably be matched with another young contender in a few months time and if he loses then it will probably be all over for him at that level of the sport. But seeing him gut the win over Smith certainly made this writer a fan and if he's matched well enough, don't be shocked if you see his name up in a similar report in a few months time where he's once again pulled one out of the hat. He's that kind of a fighter.