Halifax Sunday
Chronicle-Herald
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2006
LANGFORD VICTORIOUS
IN WORLD RANKING BOUT
Story by Louis Haywood
In his first outing since being eliminated from the IBL's Junior-Heavyweight World Championship tournament Nova Scotia's Sam Langford recorded an eight-round unanimous decision victory over the willing but outclassed Cuban Yoan Pablo Hernandez last night. In front of a parochial crowd at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens the two-time Olympic gold medallist found some stubborn resistance from Hernandez but was always in control, taking the verdict by scores of 79-74, 77-76 and 78-74. Langford employed a balanced and varied offense throughout the fight, making it difficult for Hernandez to know what to look out for from one punch to the next. The Cuban sustained a cut on his right eyebrow in round six, which the ringside doctor examined late in the round and again in round seven. Langford landed 170 of 780 punches (22.3%), Hernandez 154 of 454 (33.9%).
Langford entered the arena to a deafening ovation and was decked out in our nation's colours of red and white. He'd said in the lead-up to the fight that he was feeling more nervous than usual and that his defeat at the hands of Massimiliano Duran in June had affected his mindset more than he expected, despite "a lot of prayer and positive thoughts". Rumours had been circulating through Toronto fight circles in recent weeks which claimed that Langford might drop down to the light-heavyweight division in the new year. While he did not rule out such a possibility, Langford said that it was not something he'd previously spoken about and that the rumour did not originate from his camp. The Sydney and Athens Olympic Champion is now 15-1(11).