By Richard Thomas

Photo: Richie Maldonado

Last night, the promotional company Main Events, lost two world titles as their money maker Arturo Gatti was dethroned by Floyd Mayweather.  And also in the same division, WBA champion Vivian Harris was surprisingly upset by Carlos Maussa.    

All it took was six rounds for Floyd Mayweather (34-0, 23 KOs) to dispatch of Arturo Gatti (39-7, 30 KOs) to become a world champion in the junior welterweight division, and probably the best fighter in the 140-pound weight class.  Floyd came out from the start and overwhelmed Gatti with his tremendous hand-speed, and boxing skills. Gatti at one point in the first round turned to the referee as he was looking for the ref to warn Mayweather for hitting while holding Gatti’s head down. But the ref did nothing about it and Gatti left himself open to be on the receiving end of a Mayweather left hook that dropped him.  Gatti was not hurt, but he got up from a knee, and the ref began to count.  He made it to his feet in less than two seconds and eventually made it out of the round.   

In round two Mayweather began to dominate the fight with his lightning quick punches and footwork.  Gatti was so slow to react and that caused Mayweather to connect with double left hooks and double right hands at will with no response from Gatti.  In round three Mayweather continued to do what he did, but was momentarily stopped by a low blow, for which the referee issued a warning to Gatti.  In round four Gatti bravely took punch after punch as Mayweather picked up the pace and threw a barrage of unanswered punches.  In round number five it was evident that the end was near as Gatti had no answer for Mayweather’s speed. 

In round six, Mayweather went out to do what he predicted and he threw a powerful combination that started off with a left hook to the head and a left uppercut to the body that hurt Gatti and sent him reeling back to the ropes.  From then on, Mayweather saw gatti's reaction and threw an onslaught of punches.  Gatti’s fans realized that their hero was just a punching bag and they kept quiet, as the small amount of Mayweather’s supporters went wild.  When the bell sounded to end the sixth round, Gatti wobbled and staggered badly back to his corner, and the corner wisely stopped the fight.  Mayweather becomes the new WBC junior welterweight champion of the world with the win.

Junior welterweight contender Carlos Maussa (19-2, 16 KO’s) scored an upset victory when he defeated WBA world title holder ‘Vicious’ Vivian Harris (25-2-1, 17 KO’s) by knockout.  In the first round Harris came out with a solid right hand that connected on the chin of Maussa.  But the Colombian Maussa held steadfast and took the punch gallantly.  Harris continued to look for his right hand to use as his only weapon, and he missed repeatedly with it.  Carlos Maussa began to get his rhythm and started to throw punches from all angles and he started to beat the champion at will.  When the bell sounded to end the round, the champion came back to his corner looking worried.

In round two, Maussa continued to throw his hands like a madman, and he would not stop.  While on the other hand Harris was throwing one punch at a time.  When Harris would miss his target, Maussa countered and let his hands go.  In round three, Harris came out with big roundhouse punches but calmed down, which opened himself up to face the fire of the non-stop punching Maussa.  In that round there was a clash of heads, and that opened a bad cut over the right eye of Harris.  In round four Harris was able to control a round.  But in rounds five and six he seemed to tire and began to backpedal and do nothing as Maussa started to pressure him, drop his hands, and clown around with the champion. 

In round seven Maussa applied the same pressure that he did in the previous rounds and threw a mythical left hook that made Harris stagger back and eventually fall to the canvas.  Maussa ran in and clobbered Harris with a right hand to the temple of his head as Harris flew wodn to the canvas and laid helpless.  The ref picked up the count and Harris struggled to to get back to his feet, but was unable to beat the ten-count.  An ecstatic Maussa jumped for joy as he became the new WBA junior welterweight world champion by knocking out Vivian Harris at 43 seconds into round seven.                 

IN OTHER BOUTS:

Junior welterweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (20-0, 15 KO’s) TKO’d a tough Rubén Galvan (21-7-2, 9 KO’s) at 2:22 of the 4th round.  In the 1st round Chavez used his good boxing skills to outwork Galvan.  But in rounds 2-3 Galvan used his experience and pressed Chavez back and getting the best of him on the ropes with good combinations.  Things began to change in the 4th round as Chavez scored a strong straight right and left uppercut that snapped Galvan’s head back, which hurt him.  Chavez then followed up with a flurry of punches that caused Galvan to hold on for survival.  Unfortunately for Galvan he fell to the canvas and straight through the ropes.  The ref picked up the count, and Galvan made the count.  Chavez then turned on the heat and gave Galvan a severe beating before Galvan’s corner threw the towel in to signal the ref to stop the fight.          

WBO minimumweight (105 lbs.) champion Ivan Calderon (23-0, 5 KO’s) held on to his title as he outscored Gerardo Verde (13-2, 10 KO’s).  Two judges scored the fight 117-111, and the other scored the fight 115-113, which gave Calderon a 12-round unanimous decision.   

Colombian Welterweight Joel Julio (19-0, 18 KO’s) scored an impressive knockout when he stopped Art Medina (12-15, 5 KO’s) in the 1st round.  When the bell rung Julio came out with rapid 1-2 combinations as his corner screamed, “Ali” (referring to do as Muhammad Ali with constant jabs and right hands).  He continued with the straight punches to the body and head as he opened up a cut in the nose of Medina, which bled profusely.  Julio then connected with a straight right to the body that made Medina go down.  Medina made it to his feet but was later put to the canvas again with a powerful straight right hand to the abdomen.  The ref saw that Medina was in a lot of hurt as he waived the fight at 2:56 of the 1st round.          

Coming off of his big win over Jameel McCline just about 2 months ago, heavyweight prospect Calvin Brock (26-0, 21 KO’s) TKO’d Kenny Craven (26-16, 22 KO’s) in less than 4 rounds.  The entire fight up until the KO was all Brock, but at times Craven was able to land a good right hand that shook up Brock.  Through the fight Brock maintained his good defense and let his short punches go.  In round four he connected with a crisp right hook that dropped Craven.  Craven made it to his feet but Brock moved in to finish his opponent by throwing repeated left and right hooks to the head of Craven, eventually having the referee jump in to halt the bout at 2:34 of the 4th round.

In a good action-packed junior middleweight contest, Giovanni Lorenzo (18-0, 10 KO’s) got by a competitive and experienced Ronald Weaver (29-16-2, 22 KO’s).  In the opening round Weaver was able to use his experience to apply great pressure and attain a high punch-connect rate.  Lorenzo seemed to be cautious, and did more to defend himself than to attack.  But in round two Lorenzo began to loosing up his hands, and in rounds 3-6 Lorenzo dominated the fight with his punch output, and powerful punching ability.  In round 7 he seemed to tire and began backpedaling and allowed Weaver to take advantage, and that gave Weaver the round and the following one.  The judges scored the fight 79-73, 77-75, and 78-74, which gave Lorenzo the win by a unanimous decision.

In a scheduled 4 round fight Henry Crawford (7-0, 2 KO’s) got rid of Fernando Jimenez (3-6-2, KO’s) by knocking him out at 1:34 of the 1st round.  Crawford came out from the bell firing hard punches to the head.  He eventually connected with a left hook and followed it up with a right hand that sent Jimenez to the canvas.  Crawford continued to hit Jimenez while he was going down until the referee pulled him away.  The ref picked up the count and Jimenez could not make the ten-count.

Junior welterweight Wes Ferguson (10-1-1, 3 KO’s) scored a unanimous decision over John Temple (6-10-2, 1 KO) in a 4 round fight with all three judges seeing the fight 40-36.