Doc's Scores Again - Weekly Boxing Recap - Hasim Rahman vs Monte Barrett Review by Drew "King" James - 08/18/2005 Last weekend offered boxing fans title fights, comebacks and plenty of hot prospects. First up, Don King presented a highly anticipated showdown between top heavyweight contenders and good friends. Former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman won a boring but convincing twelve round decision over Brooklyn's Monte "Two Gunz" Barrett. Both competitors came into the fight in fantastic shape and on hot streaks. Hasim Rahman had won his previous five bouts and Monte his previous two. Action never really heated up in this one as it was Hasim Rahman who worked behind a strong jab that kept Barrett backing up all night. It wasn't until the third round that Barrett became active, consistently landing his jab and even staggering Rahman with a sharp left hand. Unfortunately for Monte, and more importantly the rest of us tuning in at home, he would do nothing more than run and hold for the next six rounds of the fight. Going into the 10th, I had only given Barrett one round on my scorecard. Though to his credit, he came on strong late and probably did enough to win the final three rounds but I think Rahman tiring had more to do with it than anything. This fight was a certified DUD because these two fought more like best friends than bitter enemies. Judges final scorecards read 118-110, 118-110 and 116-112 all in favor of Hasim Rahman. Yet again Doc's Jeremy Bjornberg was dead on with his picks of Hasim Rahman by Decision and Over 10.5 rounds that offered odds of +365 and -110 respectively. With the win, Hasim Rahman is now guaranteed a shot at reigning WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko sometime in the next two months. Top Rank today won the purse bid to promote Klitschko-Rahman. They bid 12.1 million, which just beat out Don King's bid of 11 million. Featured on the undercard was the return of fan favorite Ricardo Mayorga. It wasn't 10 months ago that Mayorga announced his retirement from the sport after taking a malicious beating from Tito Trinidad. Waiting for Mayorga to comeback was WBC President Jose Suliman who was ready with a handpicked opponent and newly vacated junior middleweight title. Only thing in Ricardo's way was former IBF welterweight champion Michele Piccirillo. Although Piccirillo is a former champion, he's far beyond his prime and was last seen getting off the canvas to win a six round split decision against a 16-9 journeyman fighter. In the fight Mayorga knocked Piccirillo down three times total. It happened twice in the second and once in the fourth round. Despite dropping three times it didn't seem like Picirillo was truly hurt by any of Mayorga's punches and actually won a few of the middle and late rounds. Now a two-division champion, Mayorga will next look for a fight with either Fernando Vargas or unification with IBF champion Roman Karmazin. The lesser of these two fights were the ones that offered up the most action. Another ancient heavyweight found his way back onto the scene as 40-year-old Oliver McCall knocked out Polish heavyweight Przemyslaw Saleta in the fourth round of a fight televised on the Don King PPV. This was originally dubbed "The Polish Fight of the Century" but Andrew Golota had to pull out after suffering an injury during sparring earlier in the week. So McCall, who was originally scheduled to be fighting on the same card but against a lesser opponent, stepped in on short notice and stopped the former European champion with a well-placed uppercut. Kicking off the PPV was Puerto Rican welterweight sensation Luis Collazo. Collazo made the first defense of his WBA title a successful one as he battered former champion Miguel Angel Gonzales en route to a eighth round TKO. After a round or two Collazo was just too quick for Gonzalez as he would frequently land four, five, and even six punch combos. Also winning on Saturday was one of boxing's most controversial prospects. Edwin Valero improved to 15-0 (15 KO's) with a first round knockout of overmatched Jose Hernandez. All fifteen of Valero's wins have come via first round knockout. The only problem for Valero is that he's currently under medical suspension by the NYSAC in the United States for brain trauma after suffering a motorcycle accident a few years back. Although he's under suspension in the U.S., Valero has continued his career, fighting twice in Argentina and most recently last weekend in Venezuela. On Aug. 20, Fernando Vargas makes his return to junior middleweight taking on former champion Javier Castillejo at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. This was originally supposed to be for Castillejo WBC title but all of a sudden they stripped him for refusing to fight No. 1 ranked junior middleweight Ricardo Mayorga. Vargas' last fight was with fringe middleweight contender Raymond Joval. He didn't look spectacular against Joval so he dropped back down to junior middleweight. Everything changes when a fighter moves up or down in weight. New arguments are made and past defeats are forgotten. My personal opinion is that Vargas is a spent fighter with too many injury problems and excuses. Let's face it, Vargas was brutally beaten by Oscar De La Hoya, despite testing positive for an illegal substance! Don't remind me of the twelve round beating he took from Trinidad. Click the link for boxing picks. |