[kenyan_cheena]

(continuation)

Stable was clearly overwhelmed by his achievement, his voice faltering and joyful tears welling in his eyes as he spoke to reporters. In understandable contrast Trinidad was inconsolable, reduced to a stunned, almost speechless state. He eventually made an emotional apology to those who were left in the crowd, receiving lukewarm applause in response.

Trinidad left the ring soon after, head concealed under the hood of his robe, leaving Stable and his corner crew in the ring to continue their celebrations.

***

As mentioned earlier, Trinidad's fellow Puerto Rican Wilfred Benitez was victorious in his own debut, defeating Cuba's Isaac Logart by unanimous decision (59-55, 60-54, 59-55). Benitez will celebrate his 17th birthday on Thursday but he gave himself an early present, winning the fight in an impressive manner. Benitez had admitted at the weigh-in to not training as hard as he could have, claiming he'd been sick with the flu in the weeks leading into the fight. Taking that into consideration, his effort was even more admirable.

Benitez used a stinging left jab to keep Logart off balance, the Cuban frustrated for much of the contest and his right eye showing some serious swelling at its conclusion. Benitez landed 179 of 363 punches (.493), making him the most accurate performer on the night. Logart connected with 86 of 404 shots (.213) and was made to look foolish at times by Benitez's excellent defensive skills.

It's not a well-known fact that Benitez was actually born in the Bronx before his family moved back to Puerto Rico when he was eight years old. He may have a New York history but the slick-punching teen considers himself Puerto Rican and the hometown crowd heaped praise upon him at the conclusion of the bout.

ON THE UNDERCARD...

Opening Bout

Despite appearing to be the better man, Trinidad and Tobago's Hector Constance came out on the wrong side of a 58-56, 57-57, 59-55 majority decision verdict against Puerto Rico's Angel Espada. In what looked to be a clear case of the crowd influencing the judges, Constance found absolutely no luck in a quartet of close rounds (the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th) with all three judges combined scoring a single one of them in his favour.

It must be said that Espada threw more than twice as many punches as Constance but he landed less than 15% of his shots. Constance completely dominated Espada in rounds one and four, coming close to finishing him off in a punishing 4th stanza with some damaging, flush blows. He left the ring a dejected and disappointed man afterwards.

Preliminary 1

Jamaica's Simon Brown made a dynamic start to his professional career, scoring a 5th round KO victory against Dominican Republic native Fausto Rodriguez. After dominating his clearly overmatched opponent through the first four rounds, Brown floored Rodriguez three times in the 5th, the final knockdown coming nine seconds from the bell, Rodriguez failing to beat the count.

The 20 year-old Jamaican was in a celebratory mood afterwards, his entourage having a spontaneous party in the ring, complete with some reggae from Bob Marley booming from an oversized ghetto blaster. At the time of the stoppage Brown had landed exactly 150 punches, Rodriguez just 35.

Preliminary 2

In what appeared to be another case of incompetent judging, Cuban Luis Rodriguez's bout against the Jamaican Buddy Grant was scored as a draw after Rodriguez looked to have done more than enough to win. Grant is no pushover but he had some luck on his side, especially in rounds two and five. In both stanzas Rodriguez controlled the early running before Grant finished with a late flurry. His work shouldn't have been enough to sway the judges but it was, as all three scored both rounds 10-10.

Next to his fellow Welterweight Jose Napoles, Rodriguez is considered Cuba's biggest chance of World Championship success so this result will be something of a setback for him. He looked absolutely fantastic in the opening round, sending Grant back to his corner with something akin to a shell-shocked expression on his face. Rodriguez would go on to outland the Jamaican 148-88 but in the end the scorecards showed as 59-57, 58-58, 57-59.

Support Bout

Rodriguez's fellow Cuban and Olympic silver medallist Jose Napoles gave a definition of the term "taking care of business" with a 2nd round TKO of Dominican Republic slugger Miguel Montilla. After bamboozling his opponent throughout the opening round Napoles dropped him with a lightning bolt of a left hook late in the piece and it was a minor miracle that Montilla made it back to his feet. He did and made it to the bell but the knockdown punch had opened a nasty cut over his right eye. His corner crew worked on it desperately during the intermission and despite their best efforts Napoles had the crimson flowing down Montilla's face midway through round two. It took only moments for the ringside doctor to declare the fight should not continue, Napoles the winner by TKO at the 1:45 mark.

A comparison between Napoles' performance and that of his fellow medallist Felix Trinidad that followed later in the evening gives a clear indication that Napoles came ready to fight. He knew he was in against an opponent who he was much too good for and he didn't waste time dispatching him. Along with Puerto Rico's Wilfred Benitez, Napoles was the most impressive fighter on show tonight.

***

If there had been more spectators in the Escobar Stadium when the series two matchups were posted, the reaction to one of the matchups would have been palpable. As it was, it caused just a slight murmur...

Series Two matchups

JOSE STABLE (1-0-0) vs FAUSTO RODRIGUEZ (0-1-0)
WILFRED BENITEZ (1-0-0) vs MIGUEL MONTILLA (0-1-0)
BUNNY GRANT (0-0-1) vs HECTOR CONSTANCE (0-1-0)
FELIX TRINIDAD (0-1-0) vs ANGEL ESPADA (1-0-0)
ISAAC LOGART (0-1-0) vs SIMON BROWN (1-0-0(1))
LUIS RODRIGUEZ (0-0-1) vs JOSE NAPOLES (1-0-0(1))