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Jermain Taylor UD12 Kassim Ouma
It wasn’t the way he wished or envisioned it but Jermain Taylor successfully defended his middleweight title Saturday night in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. An announced crowd of 10,000, roughly 7,000 short of a sellout, were on hand to witness Taylor’s first defense of his hometown since winning the title last year.
For a fight that many billed as simply a “showcase” for Taylor and a much needed breather in terms of competition, turned out to be a grueling twelve round battle. Ok, perhaps grueling is a bit of a misnomer as Ouma did not present any considerable threat to Taylor’s crown. After all, there was good reason the betting odds were 5 to 1 in favor of the champion.
This bout marked Ouma’s first foray into the middleweight division after spending the majority of his career in the junior middleweight class. I will leave you to your own conclusions as to what Ouma did to deserve a title shot but such is the way of modern day boxing. Needless to say, Taylor was the bigger man in the ring and it showed in the match.
Looking to make an emphatic statement in front of his hometown crowd, Taylor came out in the first round with guns blazing. Utilizing his great jab and pinpoint accurate hard right, Taylor inflicted notable damage to Ouma. The crowed “oohed” and aahed” as each punch rocked Ouma back on his heels. Credit must be given to Ouma for weathering the early onslaught dished out by the champion.
After about three rounds of letting Taylor have his way, Ouma stepped up his attack. The challenger began to rush inside of Taylor, thus negating the range that Taylor needed to continue establishing his dominance. The champion seemed uncomfortable with Ouma closing the gap and began to battle while backpedaling. It was in no way orthodox but Taylor found a way to make it work in his advantage.
Ouma never gave up the hope that he could pull off the upset and much credit should be bestowed upon him for never folding in light of seemingly insurmountable odds. Too bad said odds could not be overcome by Ouma, Taylor easily won on all three scorecards.
One wrinkle to note in this bout was the use of open scoring during the fight. After rounds four and eight, the ring announcer would read the scores of the judges over the loudspeaker. Not that this fight needed it as the whole world could clearly tell that Taylor was in complete control of the fight. I personally would like to see the end of this experiment as it does little to enhance the sport and if anything, takes a little of the magic away from it.
Not only would it potentially cause a fighter to coast through the bout if he was way ahead but who does not love the anticipation at the end of a close bout while the scores are being totaled?
Andre Berto TKO6 Miguel Figueroa:
2004 Haitian Olympian Andre Berto continued to make his presence felt in the welterweight division with a one-sided beat down of career journeyman Miguel Figueroa. Berto utilized a quick jab and thudding rights and uppercuts in breaking down the surprisingly durable Figueroa. While it was clear that Berto was looking for the knockout, it was a nice surprise to see him pace himself more so than in his recent fights.
It appears that he has grasped the concept of not rushing the KO but rather letting it come to him. Figueroa did little in the way of making the bout competitive but his will seemed in place regardless of absorbing so many powerful shots. Of course a man can only stand up to such abuse for so long and it was clear that Figueroa wanted the beating to stop as he basically pleaded for his corner to stop the fight after the 5th.
Relenting to the scolding from his corner, Figueroa answered the bell in the sixth only to be systematically broken down to the point that referee Laurence Cole mercifully halted the bout at 1:59 in the round.
