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MASTERFUL:
LANGFORD DOMINATES STEWART,
WINS BY UNANIMOUS DECISION
Wednesday 29 May 2002
On Monday night, California's Sam McVey ushered in series five of the Heavyweight Boxing Federation's World Championship tournament with a brilliant 2nd round TKO of Zora Folley. That performance has been spoken of in the two days since as a "new standard" or a "measuring stick". It was said yesterday that McVey had thrown down the gauntlet to the other top contenders in the tournament.
Well, if McVey's effort on Monday was sensational, the one produced by Canada's Sam Langford tonight was simply masterful.
In the Main Event of the Cox Pavilion, Las Vegas fight card, Langford scored a 60-55, 59-55, 60-55 unanimous decision victory over England's Alex Stewart. In doing so, the 5'8" pocket rocket re-affirmed his status as one of the leading favourites to capture the inaugural HBF World Championship.
The seat-of-his-pants start that Stewart has made to his career has been widely documented, but against the World Championship tournament's #9 seed - and with the exception of an even second round - he was never in the game. As has been the case in his previous bouts, Langford entered the ring adorned in his national colours of red and white, his trunks solid white with thin red trim while Stewart wore black and gold.
After a quiet first two minutes, Langford put his foot down, stunning Stewart with a vicious uppercut and then a crushing three punch combo to take the opening round. Round two was the only one in the entire fight where Stewart looked capable of matching it with his dynamic opponent, who had weighed in at a ripped 185 pounds yesterday. Again, it started slowly as both men measured their punches, but Stewart landed a couple of jolting uppercuts before Langford evened out the ledger in the final minute with a series of sharp scoring jabs.
In round three, Langford didn't wait. He went to work from the bell, peppering the Englishman with crisp jabs and pounding his body with left and right rips before Stewart halted the assault momentarily with another big uppercut. Langford responded immediately, tagging Stewart at will with variety and then power, a smashing uppercut snapping the 40th seed's head back.
The fourth found a lull in the action but the Canadian showed that he was the hungrier fighter by finishing strongly, catching Stewart flush with a perfect counter right as the final seconds of the round ticked away. Not much changed in round five, with the exception of the look of absolute frustration that had come to Stewart's face. He was having next to no success in hurting Langford or even scoring regularly and appeared to know it. When he left his stool for the final round, a resigned gaze showed on the Londoner's face.
Once again, Langford unleashed a punishing barrage, demonstrating that he could have easily gone another six as he continued his strong work. Stewart's only highlight was another jolting uppercut, thrown late in the round and followed up by a solid straight right. But it was too little, much too late and the bell sounded with Stewart leaning on his smaller opponent, exhausted.
The verdict surprised no one, and the punch totals for the bout reflected Langford's dominance:
Langford: 185/362
Stewart: 59/172
(to be continued)
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