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Showing posts with label Tarvis Simms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tarvis Simms. Show all posts

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Green vs. Simms: Sitting In the Dwindling Crowd


By Russ Choate

As the crowd was entering the circus tent, Tyrone Brunson was entering the ring. The record holder for most consecutive knockouts, challenged Marcos Primera to eight rounds of fight action. Brunson looked the part of a knockout king, but could not put Primera to the canvas. The fight ended in a unanimous decision in Brunson’s favor.

In the next bout of the evening Tor Hamer embarrassed Howard Jones. This fight had just begun, when it was ended. Hamer came out swinging and Jones was quick to fall. After staggering to his feet the ref called the fight.

The last non-televised fight of the night was a tribal war between Brooke Wellby & George “Comanche Boy” Tahdooahnippah. Indian drums were beat as the fighters entered the ring and you could tell “Comanche Boy” was the crowd favorite as the fighters entered the ring. Wellby a Native American from Winnipeg Canada needs to carry papers to prove his heritage. The crowd cheered their fighter to a unanimous decision.

Then just as you thought everyone was getting ready to watch the televised portion of the card, most of the crowd left. I guess this is a sign of “Comanche Boy’s” following. Everyone who was left turned their attention to Antonio Tarver.

Marcus Johnson and Victor Villereal kicked off the televised portion of the night. Johnson looked crisp with powerful punches to the head and body. Villereal had his most aggressive round in the 5th, but followed that up by being knocked down in the 6th. Johnson tried to put Villereal away in the 7th, but Villereal survived the rest of the fight. Johnson won on all three scorecards 80-71.

In the best matchup of the night Antwone Smith stopped Henry Crawford. Crawford started the fight using his speed to land the better combinations for the first two rounds. Smith looked better in the 3rd and then buckled Crawford with a body shot to end the 4th. The 5th round was a toss-up. In the 6th Crawford danced his way to the canvas. Leaving his hands down and spitting out his mouth piece he survived the round. Crawford looked better the next couple of rounds, until the last seconds of the 9th. He regained himself long enough to make the bell. Then his corner made the decision to call the fight.

The crowd continued to dwindle as the main event got under way. Allan Green was the aggressor during the early rounds. Then in an attempt to change things up Simms went with the southpaw stance for the middle rounds. Green continued to land powerful punches for the later rounds and scored himself a unanimous decision. Green is currently the alternate for the Super Six Tournament.





Saturday, October 3, 2009

Night of the Living Underachievers: Tua, Harrison, Green Win Big



by Paul Magno

What do you do with a granite-chinned, iron-fisted Samoan who choked in his biggest fight, an Olympic Champion who can't even keep a regional title and a complete package who just can't put it all together? The answer's simple...You keep parading them into the ring until either good things happen or they run out of opportunities.

Yesterday, we saw three talented, yet underachieving, fighters get big enough wins to at least ensure one more TV date and one more shot at the top.

David Tua, at one time THE Heavyweight prospect, who was being marketed as an affable South Pacific version of Mike Tyson, never recovered from being dominated by Lennox Lewis in his first title fight back in 2000. The result of that loss was nearly a decade's worth of weight issues, sloppy fighting and uninspired performances.

After a two-year layoff, Tua finally stepped back into the ring in what was being billed as "The Fight of the Century" in New Zealand against a club-level, but popular New Zealand fighter, Shane Cameron. Tua showed what happens when an irresistible force meets a club-level object and he took Cameron out hard in the second round after also scoring a couple of knockdowns in the first.

Audley Harrison, as a British Heavyweight Olympic Gold Medalist had blank checks waiting for him when he got back home from the games in 2000. Unfortunately, he took those blank checks as a sign that he didn't need to work again. He would wind up on the losing end against pretty much every fighter who had a legit chance of beating him (Danny Williams, Dominick Guinn, Michael Sprott and Martin Rogan). Despite some flashes of real talent, like his rematch blow-out of Danny Williams, Harrison's career can only be described as a major disappointment.

When the "A-Train" signed on for Britain's "The Prizefighter" it was seen as a sign of the former Olympic hero finally hitting rock-bottom. And, even worse, he wasn't being given much of a chance to win the single day tourney despite it being mostly stocked with inexperienced UK club fighters.

When the one rated fighter, Danny Williams, was surprisingly eliminated in the first round, Harrison went on to score wins over Scott Belshaw, Danny Hughes and Coleman Barrett to take home the cash prize.

Back on US soil, Allan Green also won his bout. He carried the awkward, yet over matched, Tarvis Simms the full distance in a lackluster follow-up to Green's exciting two round blow out of Carlos de Leon Jr. last April.

At one point, Green was seen as a sort of second coming of Gerald McClellan; a two-fisted, athletically gifted fighter who was much more comfortable going to war than playing it safe.

Since he's arrived on the world stage, Green has turned in some inconsistent performances, culminating in a nervous UD loss to Edison Miranda in his biggest fight to date. Because of this lack of consistent fire, Green has found himself on the outside, looking in, as his fellow Super Middleweights are being put in place to have an all-out brawl for dominance via the upcoming Super 6 Tournament and the Lucian Bute-Librado Andrade rematch.

*********


Last night we saw three talented fighters, who never quite lived up to their promise, buy themselves some more time on the world stage. Boxing is a very forgiving sport; Win a couple of big ones and all's forgiven, but nobody gets unlimited second chances...and their time is running out.










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