SaddoBoxing Covers Battle at the Boat.

Battle at the Boat XXXIV took place in Tacoma, Washington on Saturday 8th of January at 7:30 pm. The Emerald Casino lined up customers and the house received a large gate. Most fans waited in line for over forty minutes to get to valet parking. The indoor stadium filled to overflowing. The card showed promise while there appeared more testosterone in the room than the entire area of 3.5 million people. This was the thirty-fourth installment of a series that comes every six weeks. They saved the best on the card for the last. Emmett Linton went toe-to-toe with Marcos Primera. His win over Dorian Beaupierre was telecast on the ESPN 2 show last July at the Emerald Queen Casino. Marcos Primera, originally from Venezuela, is now calling Durham, North Carolina home. Primera’s manager, Steve Tannenbaum, said his boxer has had some tough breaks in the past, but that Marcos had changed his training rituals. “He would often train for fights by hanging a heavy bag from a tree”, said Tannenbaum. Primera’s sports a 150-11 amateur record with 80 KO’s. Primera kept up a good jab during the fight, and took some powerful shots from Linton. Linton figured Marcos out by the fifth round and started to apply pressure and not backpedal.

Emmett Linton defeated Marcos Primera. Emmett moved well in the early rounds. He showed speed in several flurries of exchanges. Emmett Linton, a Tacoma, Washington local, probably learned that with some fighters, you back them up rather than allowing them to give you openings. He discovered dancing around to the right opened up Primera to an onslaught of solid body blows. When he backed up Marcos, he made the most headway. About the middle of the fight, Emmett discovered that Marcos never learned how to punch moving backward. When Emmett stepped right and moved around Marcos, he landed several overhand rights to the golden area of the head. The several overhand right crosses set the tone of the fight as Emmett sidestepped around the slower Marcos. Middleweight Emmett Linton also found that Marcos lunged forward and present a chin for an uppercut. Emmett popped Marcos’ head back on those uppercuts. Linton won the unanimous decision in the tenth round; the scorecard and the audience applauded the decision. Saturday night in Tacoma, Washington gave Linton an improved record to 33-3-2 with 15 KOs. Primera slipped to 17-8-2 with the loss. Linton wins to make a re-appearance to the “top ten” list of middleweights and showed his experience in the ring. This worked to his advantage in the ten-round fight with Primera.

In other action, unbeaten heavyweight Kevin Johnson (7-0-1, 4 KOs) twice dropped Will Cook (7-2, 5 KOs) and finished the fight by the eighth round. Johnson moved up the ranks with a win over Robert Wiggins. He also won against the very respected Timor Ibragimov. As the semi-main event, Kevin Johnson and Will Cook fought an eight rounder at super heavyweight. The audience kept looking for energy from Will Cook or a surprise punch during the fight. Kevin Johnson stands six-feet-three-inches tall. Mr. Johnson weighted in at 232-pounds and without an ounce of body fat around the middle. The “Mongoose” played with his prey in the early rounds. He flicked out his jab, lowered his guard to bate Will to open up. It appeared that Will Cook frustrated Kevin with his low energy. Many a time the audience detected and hopefully waited for some fire out of Will Cook, but not this night. Kevin shows amazing promise with his jab, and an eighty-three inch reach. He moved like a middleweight and popped body blows into the flabby middle of a smirking Will Cook.

Promoter Brian Halquist wanted to get a better look at Johnson, possibly signing him up to a promotional contract. “I want to put him in a tough fight,” said Halquist. Kevin Johnson destroyed Cook, and most of the audience wondered if Kevin carried Cook for a few rounds. Afterwards, it became clear to this reporter that Kevin waited like the rest of us to see something from the illustrated man, Will Cook. With such a soft underbelly, apparently, Will Cook shows some solid bones under the flesh, and stood up under Kevin’s bone crushing punishment.

Kevin learned boxing after fifteen amateur fights from an older Larry Holmes. Sparring nine rounds a day, training for hours and roadwork keeps him in a fast-paced tempo around some of the lower energy bouts. Born on September 7, 1979, he started to fight to help his family out. With two brothers and four sisters at home, he needed to make some money and found his way into the boxing world. From New Jersey, He looks to move up in the rankings well. His right hand hammers and paws the opponents much like a mongoose playing with a snake. Kevin showed the speed of Ali, and the power of Foreman. Johnson put so many tattoos on Will Cook (he came with a body of tattoos); some wondered if he might ever return to boxing after this night. Even though Will Cook provided little challenge to Kevin “Mongoose” Johnson, watch this hulk rise rapidly in the ranks.

The featherweight prospect Eric Aiken scored a victory against Terrence Roy. This took Aiken to a record of twelve and nine KO’s, and move Roy to six and ten losses, flooring Roy three times in round one before ending matters in round two. These super Bantamweights danced only for a few of the six rounds. Eric popped Roy in rapid fire that the fighter showed no defense by the second round. Eric Aiken (right) put Terrence Roy down three times. The fight was stopped at 1:02 of the second round. Aiken scored his twelfth win, nine by KO.
Darby Smart dance in an “Irish Mickey Ward” stance. Featherweight Darby Smart (5-0) came back to town to meet local favorite Sabino Rosario (3-4-0). Darby Smart (right) knocked Sabino Rosario down a few times in their four round bout. Here, at 1:23 of the fourth, the fight was stopped and Smart collected the KO victory. Darby uses his wife as trainer and manager. She supports her husband in and out of the ring. His wife, who easily appears like a show model, intelligently explained the game plan and future for her husband. The kid showed a chin of granite as he took some meaty hooks to the head and body. Also, Darby’s brother and father used to fight. The whole family flew out to support the boy from Minnesota. Without the hometown support, “Irish” Darby gave a blistering showing against the bruiser from Tacoma. We hope to see him return, since we all miss the other Irish slugger.

Tony Redman and Leslie Watson made their pro-debuts in a super middleweight match-up. They fought four rounds and Redman got the nod for a win. Tony Redman spent most of the fight trying to figure out how to deal with the awkward style of Leslie Watson. In the end, Watson would be disqualified and Redman would win his pro debut. Watson showed a strange style of a Rastafarian mambo player and dancer. The crowd kept booing him and wishing that he would settle down and fight rather than look for a new hip-hop dance move. The under card bouts feature Othello fighter, and Tacoma crowd pleaser; David Torres (6-0-0, 4KOs) fought Michael Haley (0-1-0), and nailed a decision in the first thirty seconds. Haley stayed out and got carried out of the ring. Torres KO’d Haley in the first round with a power brainer. Shortly after this stab at Torres, Haley went down hard, and the fight doctor stepped into the ring to see if there was a sign of life in the fighter. Torres landed such a punch, best punch of the evening, that Haley took about ten minutes to be helped out of the ring.

Joseph de Beauchamp can be reached at joedebo@wfnn.info