[kenyan_cheena]

MAIN EVENT

In his HBF debut last month, #16 seed Jimmy Young shot himself in the foot when he abandoned successful "jab-and-move" tactics that had seen him take the opening round with ease in favour of mixing it up with his unfancied opponent, Tony Ross. The fight ended in a draw, and many criticised Young's performance as incompetent and just plain dumb.

Young's opponent in his second bout would be Rocky Jones, another Pennsylvania native and the 97th seed in the tournament. Jones had been easily defeated by Floyd Patterson in his own debut, and Jimmy Young didn't need to be told twice that Jones would be hungry for victory second time out.

But Young wasn't just facing a determined opponent tonight. He also had to contend with the presence of Elmer Ray at ringside. Ray, the 33rd seed in the World Championship tournament and 3rd seed in Group Sixteen, had taken his record to 2-0 earlier in the night, which meant that a victory for Young was imperative if he was to stay close to the top of the group standings. Ray did not utter a word, choosing instead to bestow an icy glare upon the 16th seed, whom he had called "a bum" on more than one occasion.

In the moments leading up to the bell and also as the two fighters met in the centre of the ring, Rocky Jones was firing verbal shots at Jimmy Young, reminding him of his sub-par performance against Tony Ross and telling him what he had in store for him. Jones wore a hot-tempered scowl as he returned to his corner, appearing as if he was ready to explode.

The opening round started slowly, with neither fighter landing a meaningful punch during the first minute. It wasn't until the final minute of the round that the action picked up, with Young landing some nice, quick combinations. Indeed, it was the same Jimmy Young that we all saw in round one against Tony Ross, the one who jabbed and moved and hardly got hit. The 21 year-old Philadelphian returned to his corner with confidence.

Young continued his good work as the second round progressed, landing some telling blows during the first half of the round. Jones was struggling to connect with anything. It appeared that the 16th seed was simply too quick and agile for him. But then, it happened again. Inexplicably, Young allowed Jones to get in close and the man from Chester obliged, letting rip with a number of damaging hooks. Young was caught on the ropes, but instead of getting out of there he started trading bombs with Jones. There was no doubt that Jones got the better of the exchange, and his work during this period of the round was enough to convince all three judges to score it in his favour.

Round three saw Young re-establish control of the bout. He kept Jones at a distance - jabbing, bobbing and weaving, constantly on the move. Jones appeared to be getting frustrated by Young's tactics, unable to do much damage at all during the round. At the halfway point in the fight, all three judges had Young leading by a point, but their opinions would differ greatly during the final three rounds.

The action slowed down quite noticeably in the fourth. Strangely, Young seemed to be labouring. His workrate dropped by about half during the round, as he allowed Jones to throw leather and then initiate clinches. Two of the judges scored the round in Jones's favour, and some sections of the audience booed as the two men returned to their corners. Elmer Ray sat in stony silence, continuing to regard Jimmy Young with disdain. Young's trainer was seem slapping his man between rounds, cursing his lacklustre effort.

Young was sharper in the fifth, peppering Jones with a series of jabs after making a slow start to the round. But Jones had his moments, too, making it a tricky round to score. Two of the judges gave it to Young, but if either one of them had gone the other way, this fight would have had an entirely different result.

Showing a vastly improved performance in comparison to his debut embarassment against Floyd Patterson, Rocky Jones had won large sections of the crowd over, and as the bout entered its final round many felt that he was close enough to pull off an upset.

Unfortunately, round six did not produce much in the way of drama or excitement. Neither man really did enough to win it and as a result, two of the judges scored the round even.

Returning to his corner to await the verdict, Jimmy Young wondered if he had let another victory slip through his fingers.

But when the verdict came, he could breathe a sigh of relief. Young had eeked our a split decision victory, 58-57, 56-58, 59-57. Some in the audience were not in agreement with the result, and let their feelings be known. Rocky Jones was visibly upset at the verdict, unable to believe that his efforts had not garnered him at least a draw.

The punch totals for the fight showed that Young did deserve the win. He landed more punches and threw more punches. But what was surprising was the amount of times he was hit, especially considering that Jones had barely laid a hand on him during the first round-and-a-half.

YOUNG punches landed 138 punches thrown 326 (42%)
JONES punches landed 108 punches thrown 251 (43%)

(To be continued, with post fight comments from the Main Event, plus the Jimmy Young-Elmer Ray out of ring altercation!)