[kenyan_cheena]

The Daily Telegraph

TUESDAY 10 OCTOBER 2006

JACKSON ONE WIN FROM
WORLD TITLE SHOT

Story by John Brown

Caribbean-born Sydney heavyweight boxer Peter Jackson scored a dramatic 10th round TKO victory over Poland's Andrew Golota yesterday to earn himself a berth in the final of the International Boxing League's Challenger's tournament. The 24 year-old Athens bronze medallist climbed off the canvas in the 4th and 9th rounds before producing a fantastic rally in the final stanza. He floored Golota twice in the space of 25 seconds before the referee called the contest off at the 2:30 mark with Golota out on his feet. Going into the 10th two judges had it all tied up at 85-85 while the third favoured Jackson 86-84. Jackson takes on England's Lennox Lewis in the final after his main event bout against the American Jack Johnson ended as a draw. The event was held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and kicked off at 1pm Monday, Sydney time.

Golota has unsuccessfully challenged for the world championship on two occasions during his career but that experience and his sensational TKO of Athens silver medallist Riddick Bowe in the tournament quarter-finals had him installed as the favourite to send Jackson to his first professional defeat. Jackson's road to the semi-finals had been somewhat less convincing as he'd survived a late rally from the Russian Alexander Zolkin to win by split decision. As usual, he entered the ring in a robe and trunks of white with green and gold trim. Out of the gates quickly, Jackson took the opening round by dominating its bottom half. He landed a hard right and a pair of flush left hooks before finishing strongly by connecting with a right cross and an uppercut from in close.

Jackson controlled the contest through the 2nd and a much closer 3rd, proving to be more aggressive and busy than his Polish opponent. But Golota turned the tables in round four, landing a jolting combination early before finding the mark with a wicked left to the body and then dropping Jackson on his backside with a perfectly-timed uppercut. The Aussie was up at seven but looked quite shaken. Luckily for him the round was nearing its end and he was able to make it to the bell despite absorbing a crushing right cross. Showing no ill-effects from the knockdown Jackson stole back the upperhand in the 5th, a booming left hook early in the frame keeping Golota on the backfoot through the rest of it. Golota appeared set to take the 6th but Jackson made it a much closer thing after some effective work through the final minute, including a left rip to the ribs that had Golota grimacing.

When Jackson produced a dominant 8th he seemed to be on his way to an impressive victory. Golota looked downcast and tired as he sat on his stool, but he hasn't had the excellent career he's enjoyed by giving up and he rallied in the 9th. Jackson was still in control as the round entered its final thirty seconds when, completely against the run of play, Golota floored him with a flush left hook. Jackson was back on his feet at three but looked perturbed by the Pole's sudden fightback. For the last period of the round they went toe-to-toe to the delight of the Las Vegas crowd. As the final round started Jackson looked the fresher of the two and appearances were soon confirmed as reality when he caught Golota with a series of hard shots before knocking him down for the first time with a left-right-left salvo just before the two minute mark.

Golota was up at five but wore an exhausted gaze. Jackson dropped him again just twenty seconds later, a brutal right cross turning his legs to jelly. He made it to his feet at the count of six and was allowed to continue, but when Jackson sent him into the ropes with a jolting left jab/straight right combo referee John Wright stepped in and ended it, Jackson a jubilant winner by TKO at 2:30 of the 10th and final round. He was joined in the ring by his corner crew and fellow IBL competitor Les Darcy, who'll be contesting the final of the middleweight division's world championship tournament come December. While Jackson was overwhelmed by his achievement Golota appeared in the depths of despair as he sat on his stool, head bowed and covered by a towel. After his great win over Riddick Bowe he'd said that he felt confident of going all the way to the tournament final but his countenance in the moments after the fight ended spoke a thousand words of heartbreak and anguish. Jackson remains undefeated at 16-0(10), Golota falling to 29-5(25).

The main event that followed was every bit as dramatic. It was a clash of the Athens heavyweight and super-heavyweight gold medallists, a contest that had been eagerly anticipated and discussed. Both Lewis and Johnson stepped into the ring undefeated. They left the same way, but it was Lewis who progressed to the tournament final by virtue of his higher seeding (Lewis is #5, Johnson #8). The main talking point was how Johnson would contend with the Englishman's ten-inch reach advantage and when one makes an assessment of the fight it's clear to see that Lewis would have been defeated without that edge. There was trouble for Johnson early on when a hard right opened a cut on his left eyelid just forty seconds into round one. Lewis came on strong in the bottom half of the frame, landing a flush left hook, a left-right salvo and a crunching straight right to take it.

After his corner crew went to work on his eye Johnson took the 2nd convincingly, a jolting uppercut and a snapping right cross putting Lewis on the backfoot before he ended the round with a strong response, a left hook that wobbled Johnson moments before the bell. The Texas-born Johnson was even more impressive in round three as he tagged Lewis with a number of flush shots, the pick of which was a right rip to the body that brought a pained expression to Lewis' face. Johnson was getting his punches off without hesitation, his gameplan in sharp contrast to Lewis' more cautious approach. Realising he needed to step it up Lewis became more aggressive in the 4th, the result a spectacularly dominant three minutes. He pounded Johnson throughout the frame, starting with a pair of sledgehammer body blows and continuing with a crushing uppercut one minute in, a left-right-left flurry and a follow-up right cross near the two minute mark and another flush right cross about thirty seconds from the bell.

Unsurprisingly the action slowed in the 5th before Johnson took the 6th despite a late Lewis rally. Little was happening early in round seven until Johnson suddenly had Lewis on the canvas after a lightning-fast left-right salvo. Lewis was up quickly, wiping at his nose and smiling as if to give the impression everything was okay. But Johnson maintained the pressure through the rest of the round, keeping the Englishman on the backfoot and tagging him with a stiff jab, a hard left to the body and a pair of jabs as the stanza drew to a close. The 8th was a much closer affair with both men having their moments. Lewis found the mark early with a left rip to the ribs and late with a smashing right cross, the punch being the highlight of the round. Johnson connected with a number of shots but none of them really had much steam behind them.

In hindsight the point where Johnson lost his chance to win came in the final two rounds as his workrate dropped considerably. Lewis didn't set the world on fire, either, but he did enough to sweep both the 9th and 10th on two scorecards and, as a result, retain his place in the tournament. He hurt a tiring Johnson with a right cross in round nine and a booming left hook in round ten. When the verdict was announced Johnson reacted angrily, exclaiming "Oh, hell no!!!" and briefly arguing with an IBL official. Two judges had it all tied up at 95-95, the third favouring Johnson 97-94. He outlanded Lewis by 32 punches, 219-187. Even though Johnson's supporters outnumbered Lewis' most of those in attendance at the MGM Grand seemed to be in agreement with the result. Lewis' record is now 16-0-1(10), Johnson's 15-0-1(11).

As a consequence of their elimination from the tournament Golota and Johnson both face difficult matchups in their next bouts. Johnson takes on former WBA world champion Sergey Anyukov while Golota goes up against Nigeria's Ike Ibeabuchi. Meanwhile, Lewis and Jackson will go toe-to-toe on the final day of the year for the glory of a shot at the world championship. Earlier in the evening Brooklyn's Riddick Bowe and New Jersey native Joe Jeannette set up what will be an anticipated December stoush with solid victories. Bowe floored the Russian Alexander Zolkin twice on the way to a unanimous decision win (77-73, 79-71, 77-73) while Jeannette dominated and then knocked out the Tongan Simione Paea at the end of round five. The winner of the Bowe-Jeannette bout will be the #8-ranked heavyweight when the IBL's initial world rankings are released in early January.

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Results

(#11) Jackson TKO10 (#2) Golota
(#5) Lewis D10 (#8) Johnson

Tournament final, 31 December

(#5) Lennox Lewis (16-0-1(10)) vs (#11) Peter Jackson (16-0(10))

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