[kenyan_cheena]

The Fresno Bee

SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2006

Lytell stops Steele in 11th,
claims undisputed championship

Story by Larry Smith

Fresno middleweight Bert Lytell defied both the experts and the oddsmakers last night in scoring a dramatic 11th round knockout victory over the man known as "The Tacoma Assassin", Freddie Steele. The two combatants clashed for the undisputed world middleweight championship at Bally's in Las Vegas, Lytell putting his WBC belt on the line and Steele his IBF title. The hard-hitting Washington native was favoured to emerge victorious, having successfully defended his belt four times since claiming it in May 2003. But it now seems that those observers who backed Steele underestimated how much trouble he'd have in dealing with Lytell's quick fists and southpaw stance. Lytell won the WBC championship by defeating James Toney in April '04 and retained it against him in a September rematch. He defended it twice during 2005 but stepped between the ropes for the first time this year last night.

The bout was being looked upon as the second mega-fight of 2006 following the Marquez-Ortiz lightweight unification clash in March and while it didn't quite reach the heights of that contest it was still an intriguing stoush. After the opening round it appeared that Steele's backers would be proven comprehensively correct as he unloaded on a cautious Lytell with a number of flush power punches, most of which came in the bottom half of the frame. But Lytell was quick to get himself into the fight and controlled the next three rounds. In particular, he tagged Steele repeatedly during a dominant 4th. However, just as Lytell appeared to have the upperhand the momentum swung back to Steele. He was the busier, more aggressive fighter in both rounds five and six, so as the contest entered its second half it was either man's to win.

Rounds seven through nine did little to make the picture any clearer. The pace had taken its toll on both men leading to a lull in the action, but it was pretty clear that Lytell was in better shape. He had been content to let Steele dictate the pace and in round ten he upped his workrate, winning the round convincingly and sending Steele back to his corner with some nasty swelling showing under his left eye. As round eleven started there was nothing to indicate it would be the bout's final stanza. Fifty seconds in Steele caught his man with a short, powerful left hook that snapped Lytell's head around and brought a chorus of applause from the Tacoma slugger's supporters. Just twenty seconds later Steele was the one on the canvas, dropped as if from a sniper's bullet after a perfectly timed Lytell cross landed flush on the chin. Steele made it to his knees at five and tried to clear his head, but when he pushed to make it back to his feet his body wouldn't co-operate and he was counted out, the bout suddenly over at the 1:23 mark of round eleven.

Lytell's handlers flooded the ring and paraded him around on their shoulders, the 27 year-old showing an intense, excited countenance. He thumped his chest with his right glove, raised his hands above his head and shouted "I told all o' y'all!" at least three times, nodding his head in agreement with himself. His record is now an impressive 32-1(23), Steele suffering just his second career defeat and falling to 33-2-1(29).

Punch totals

Lytell: 246/686 (35.9%)
Steele: 197/859 (22.9%)

Scorecards at the end of 10th round

Lytell 97-95, 96-96, Steele 98-94

Lytell is promoted by the extroverted, WBC-aligned Chicago businessman Tyrone Hillier, who was only too happy to kick dirt in the faces of anyone who had doubted his charge during the post-fight interview. He claimed their words had "driven Bert on to a fantastic victory" and that "the power and mastery of a southpaw should never be questioned." After fielding a number of questions on the fight itself Lytell was asked what his next move would be, Hillier voicing a response that will cast doubt on Lytell's future in the middleweight division.

"We can name our price now," Hillier said confidently. "We can name our price, we can demand it and that's what we plan to do. We've got an undisputed champion here now, see? Only three other fellas in the sport right now can claim that, so we can name our price. We'll sit back and make sure that we secure the biggest fight possible for Bert. The brother's a superstar of the sport now and he should only be involved in fights befitting that status. If that means moving up to super-middleweight, that's what it'll mean. You already know Bert's said recently that he feels his future really lies at light-heavyweight, but that's something we'll look at down the track."

One reporter raised the possibility of Lytell signing with the IBL, to which Hillier fired off a livid response.

"You think my boy is gonna sign his career over to a bunch of amateurs?!?" he snapped. "You think he's gonna let go of all the power he has to determine who and when he fights? You gotta be outta your mind to even suggest such foolishness. Ain't no chance in hell that Bert Lytell will ever fight for the IBL, my friend. No chance in hell!"

With the IBL's World Championship tournaments currently on hiatus the WBC had the focus and spotlight squarely on themselves last night and they staged an entertaining fight card. In the co-feature, New York-born cruiserweight champion David Lester retained his belt with a 6th round TKO of the young Philadelphian Nate Gibbs. It was an action-packed affair, exactly the type of bout that the often-maligned division needed. Lester tasted the canvas in round three before dropping Gibbs once in the 5th and then twice in the 6th, the referee stopping the fight shortly before the bell. In the previous bout Panama's junior-bantamweight champion Luis Valdez was sensationally dethroned by compatriot Roman Moreno via 2nd round knockout. There'd been a deal of bad blood between the two leading into the fight and Moreno backed up his trash talking with a devastating left hook one minute into round two. The punch put Valdez to sleep and ended his two year reign in the blink of an eye.

The evening was kicked off by two young men regarded as boxing's most promising talents, Virginian gold medallist Pernell Whitaker and the Puerto Rican Felix Trinidad. Fighting at lightweight Whitaker improved to 14-0(9) with a 5th round TKO of David Walters while the junior-welterweight Trinidad decimated Rubin Gomez, knocking him out ninety seconds into the opening round to maintain his perfect stoppage record at 5-0(5). With the two seperated by just one weight class it appears inevitable that they'll clash some day during the coming years, but for now boxing fans can simply sit back and enjoy watching them build their careers.