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Larry Holman Blog

Mixed results for IBL's regional champions
Monday, February 5, 2007 | Print Entry

The International Boxing League's February fight card schedule kicked off last week and included on the bill were a quartet of regional championship bouts in the welterweight and junior-heavyweight divisions. While the two 152-pound champions (Mexico's Bernabe Carbajal and the German Reinhardt Kohler) retained their titles, the junior-heavyweights were not so successful. Orlin Norris and Grigory Drozd were dethroned attempting to defend their belts for the first time, both suffering knockout losses. Norris put his championship on the line on Thursday night, the Californian going up against Guyana's Wayne Braithwaite in front of a healthy crowd at the San Diego Coliseum. The Caribbean slugger had done a lot of talking in the two weeks leading up to the bout, saying that the Americas title belonged to him and Norris was merely "minding it" for him.

No doubt, what was also very much on Braithwaite's mind was gaining revenge for the upset 2nd round knockout Norris had inflicted on him in the Americas tournament semi-finals back in September. The result was one of the bigger surprises in the league's tournaments and gave a stunning indication that Norris was a competitor to be taken seriously. Thursday's rematch was a much longer and much more competitive affair, and one of the bloodiest seen in the IBL to date. When it was all over Braithwaite had triumphed via 11th round knockout, having dropped Norris three times along the way. Braithwaite was not afraid to say afterwards that he felt extremely confident in regards to his chances of holding the title through the remainder of the year and earning himself a shot at the world championship.

It was a disappointing outcome for the hometown hero after he made a confident start and was still very much in the fight going into the 9th round. Norris had dominated the opening frame and more or less maintained control through the next two, but Braithwaite floored him for the first time early in round four and had brought some nasty swelling to the defending champion's right eye by the end of the 5th. But Norris did his share of damage and opened a cut on Braithwaite's right eyebrow late in the same stanza, the ringside doctor checking the wound in round six. Norris looked to be in the driver's seat when he took both the 6th and 7th in convincing fashion, but round nine would prove to be the turning point of the contest. A booming right hand opened a cut on Norris' left eyebrow early in the frame, after which Braithwaite went after his man with renewed enthusiasm.

Another big right, a head-snapping uppercut and a right hook had Norris in major trouble before a third sledgehammer right hand worsened the cut on his eyebrow. The ringside doctor inspected it and allowed the contest to continue but when the bell rang Norris looked spent and battered, his right eye badly swollen while blood trickled into his left. Surprisingly, Braithwaite was not especially busy through most of the 10th but when he unleashed a left hook late in the frame it opened a gash under Norris' right eye in the midst of what was already severe swelling. Once again the doctor was called upon to make a decision and after an extended examination he gave the all-clear for the contest to continue. During the intermission the audience did their best to raise Norris' spirits but their efforts were in vain as Braithwaite finished the job in comprehensive style in round eleven.

A succession of blows sent Norris to the canvas for the second time in the fight just thirty seconds into the round. He rose on unsteady legs at seven but was down again a minute later, a left-right salvo dropping him face first to the mat. He made it to a knee at eight but couldn't push himself up and was counted out at the 1:40 mark, Braithwaite declared the winner by knockout and new IBL Americas junior-heavyweight champion. The Guyanan outlanded Norris by a small margin, 210-191. The win improved his record to 22-5(15) while Norris suffered his first career defeat and fell to 12-1(8). With his good friend, fellow Californian and IBL competitor Ken Norton at his side a despondent Norris could only acknowledge that the Caribbean slugger had been too strong for him to handle and offered a brief "We'll see what happens" when asked if he'd like to take him on in a third matchup down the road.

As it is, Norris' next bout figures to be even more difficult than this one as it'll be against one of the fighters ranked in the top half of tier two. Braithwaite's opening defense could very well be against the man who was the #1 seed in the Americas tournament, Oklahoma's Eric Fields. Ranked at #30, Fields scored a dominant ten-round unanimous decision win over Gary Gomez on the undercard. In comparison to Norris' nightmare, the first title defense of Mexican welterweight Bernabe Carbajal was a walk in the park. He scored a 7th round TKO of the Dominican Republic's Carlos Alou in a rematch of their Americas tournament semi-final, which had been a fiercely competitive draw. Carbajal had no such trouble on this occasion, the bout stopped due to a cut on Alou's left eyebrow. It had been opened by a hard right cross early in the 3rd and as the rounds went by it grew worse, especially after Carbajal dominated the 5th and 6th frames.

The bout was held at the Mexico City Arena Coliseo on Friday night, an enthusiastic crowd on hand for the seven-fight card even though only three Mexicans featured on it. Carbajal is regarded by many in boxing circles as one of the most promising youngsters in the sport and against Alou the 21 year-old gave another example of why he's held in such high esteem. By the time the contest was called off just twenty-five seconds into round seven he had outlanded Alou 180-73, the win upping his undefeated record to 11-0-2(7). Alou, who had suffered through the frustration of three consecutive draws before Friday's bout, fell to 8-2-3(5). Like Braithwaite, Carbajal appears to be a fighter who could very well achieve the task set by the IBL of successfully defending his championship five times and earning a world title shot. Although still young he has tremendous talent and it's obvious that he would not be intimidated by the likes of Emile Griffith or Enrique Diaz.

Some nine hours earlier and 6,600 miles east of Mexico City, Russian junior-heavyweight Grigory Drozd had attempted to defend his Inter-Continental title at Moscow's Krylia Sovetov. Unfortunately for him and the hometown crowd he was unsuccessful, Ireland's Tom Sharkey claiming the championship with a 10th round knockout. Drozd had won the belt in dramatic fashion back in December when he stopped the Czech Republic's Lubos Suda on cuts in the 12th and final round of the inaugural title fight, in which Suda had held a 105-103 lead going into that final frame. However, in the explosive pocket-rocket Sharkey he found an opponent he was unable to overcome. The hard-hitting 23 year-old unleashed some terrible punishment upon Drozd, especially during rounds two, three, six and ten, during which Drozd was floored twice.

The first knockdown came early from a left hook, the second less than a minute before the bell after a jolting right cross. Drozd was unable to beat the count, the fight over at the 2:21 mark. Going into the tournament semis Sharkey had been a favourite to claim the title but he was surprisingly stopped by Suda. He bounced back to win the eliminator against the German Markus Bott, stopping him in the 9th. Sharkey outlanded Drozd by more than a hundred punches, 251-141. The win improved his record to 17-1-1(15) while Drozd fell to 21-5-1(15). Sharkey has said in the past that his ambition is to one day be fighting for the world heavyweight championship and with the dynamite power he possesses in each fist he'd no doubt give the big boys quite a challenge. For now, though, he's the new Inter-Continental junior-heavyweight champion and looks capable of holding onto the belt for some time to come.

In the last of the week's four regional title fights Germany's Reinhardt Kohler retained the welterweight version of the Inter-Continental belt with a convincing 5th round knockout of Japan's Akio Kameda. Having won it with an unexpected 8th round stoppage of the rising English star Ashley Jackson in the tournament final Kohler is determined to make the most of his achievement and against Kameda he made an impressive first step. After controlling the action for the majority of the opening four rounds he dispatched the Japanese slugger with a brutal right cross midway through round five. Kameda tried to push himself up but collapsed back to the canvas to be counted out at the 1:39 mark. Kohler raised his hands in triumph and the appreciative crowd at Berlin's Sportpalast applauded his efforts.

Still only twenty years old, Kohler is gaining quite a following in his homeland and could soon rival the Inter-Continental heavyweight champ Max Schmeling in the popularity stakes if he keeps on producing performances like this one. He's now 11-1(7), having won all five of his IBL bouts with four of those victories coming inside the distance. It's possible that his next defense could be against the man he defeated to win the title, Ashley Jackson. The Englishman was victorious earlier on the Berlin card, although it was not the most convincing win. In an entertaining tussle Jackson took a unanimous decision verdict in the ten-rounder against the Australian Hector Thompson, two judges scoring it 97-95 with the other having it even closer at 96-95.

Toney's time is over

The career of Los Angeles boxer James Toney reached a new low on Saturday night when he was both bullied and outboxed by the unheralded German Christian Fritz in the IBO's inaugural super-middleweight world title fight at the Waldbuehne in Berlin. The saga of Toney's unsuccessful period of employment with the International Boxing League was well-publicised late last year and he was looking to the newly-formed IBO as a kickstart for his floundering career. Instead, it may have simply provided the final nail in the coffin. In an exciting clash Toney was simply outfought - despite his best efforts - by an opponent who held no fear and was able to tag him at will, to the point where the contest was stopped in the 10th round due to the severity of swelling around Toney's left eye.

Fritz was the WBO champion before the IBF/WBO merger but had been inactive since March, with an August title defense cancelled due to a knee injury he suffered while training. He has never been regarded as one of the sport's current elite and was not expected to provide too much resistance for Toney in what appeared to be little more than a title grab for the Californian. But Fritz seized the opportunity with both hands, outfighting Toney even in the most action-packed frames of the fight. While on the losing end of the scorecards Toney was at least providing some determined resistance through the first six rounds. But he started to crumble in the 7th, Fritz winning it and round eight with ease before he really went to town on the former WBC middleweight champion in round ten.

A succession of power punches had Toney in terrible trouble. Early in the final minute of the round referee Rocky Burke halted the action and directed a distressed Toney to the ringside doctor, who examined the swelling around his left eye and determined that the fight should be stopped. Burke obeyed and the fight was over at the 2:12 mark, Fritz the winner by TKO and now a two-time world titleholder. The parochial crowd applauded his efforts as he was paraded around the ring on the shoulders of his corner crew, Toney simply watching on through his right eye, his left almost completely closed. Fritz landed an impressive 318 of 754 punches (42.2%), Toney 203 of 584 (34.8%). With the victory Fritz improved his record to 24-2(19) while Toney fell to 35-6-1(29). After going undefeated through his first 32 professional bouts, he's now 4-6 in his last ten and 1-3 in his last four.

An interesting aside to the fight was the non-presence of Toney's best friend Ken Norton, the former WBC heavyweight champion and current IBL contender. Instead of traveling to Germany to support Toney's efforts Norton had decided to remain in California and accompany fellow San Diego slugger Orlin Norris to the ring for his IBL junior-heavyweight Americas title bout two days earlier, which Norris lost (as discussed above). Norton could have flown to Germany afterwards to support Toney but the two have suffered something of a falling out over the LA native's decision to fight for the IBO title. Norton had no problem with Toney leaving the IBL but believed that he should take some time away from the sport before stepping back into the ring so quickly. Toney's last IBL bout had been a loss to Gene Armstrong in Japan on December 22 and he had said he'd have no trouble taking on Fritz a mere six weeks later. Clearly, he was mistaken.

If I was someone close to Toney I'd be telling him that "enough is enough". The guy is obviously a shot fighter, something that we saw the first signs of when he was defeated by eventual IBL middleweight champion Koichi Wajima back in June. He might have benefitted from taking Norton's advice and going on a sabbatical, but there's no reason to think that in six months from now he'll be any better. Toney possesses perhaps the biggest ego in boxing but even he would have to realise after the beating that Fritz inflicted upon him that his time in the sport is over. If it turns out that he still feels he deserves to be a main eventer, he's beyond helping.

Langford's loss shows
you really never can tell

It was only a week ago when, while being interviewed on a radio program in Toronto, Canada's two-time Olympic gold medallist and IBL junior-heavyweight competitor Sam Langford spoke of how vitally important the next few months would be for his goal of breaking into his division's top ranking tier and eventually challenging for the world championship. Langford discussed how he would have to handle his upcoming trio of bouts "one fight at a time" and how he couldn't "afford even one mistake". Well, on Saturday night at the Maple Leaf Gardens Langford's critical stretch of fights got off to a shockingly disasterous start as he was knocked out cold just 35 seconds into the 2nd round of his main event bout against the Detroit-born unbackable longshot Rydell Booker. In this matchup of the 12th and 23rd ranked IBL junior-heavyweights the audience was reduced to a stunned silence by a victory so comprehensive, it was incomprehensible.

Booker's time in the IBL to date had been something of a disaster in itself. Having brought a 17-2(13) record into the league he was made the 16th seed in the Challenger's tournament and was unsurprisingly defeated by the top seed Torsten May in stage one. He then suffered another loss in a September world ranking bout against the Englishman Bruce Scott, ironically on a card at the same Maple Leaf Gardens venue as Saturday's boilover in which Langford was victorious in the main event. To seal his initial IBL world ranking of #23 Booker fell to Kenny Keene in December in Jamaica, once again on the undercard of an event where Langford was the victorious headliner. Taking that inauspicious start into consideration there was no reason to believe he'd pull off a victory of such magnitude.

Looking at the footage of the bout has revealed that a single, solitary punch sealed Langford's fate, a hard left hook that caught him flush on the jaw a minute into the opening round. The blow would have dropped a lesser fighter. As it was it scrambled Langford's senses and while he fired back with a damaging combination of his own it was clear as he sat on his stool during the intermission that he had not recovered from it. Following the devastating left hook an aggressive Booker had raised a good sized lump under Langford's left eye with a smashing straight right near the round's midpoint and snapped his head back with an uppercut shortly before the bell. 23 seconds into the 2nd Booker unleashed a left-right salvo that found Langford's chin perfectly and deposited the crowd favourite onto his rump before he slumped sideways and was counted out to the shock of the thousands in attendance,

An ecstatic Booker (now 18-5(14)) celebrated with his corner crew, revealing later that he had decided a week before the fight (but told no one) that he was going to try for an early knockout and didn't care if he suffered one himself as a result. Caution hadn't helped him in his previous bouts, so he made the choice to "flip everything around". He couldn't quite believe that his "devil may care" tactics had paid off. In no condition to speak to the media, Langford was taken from the ring for a medical examination shortly after the stoppage. He'd said during that interview of last week that he didn't believe he deserved the plaudits many have heaped upon him and after the loss to Booker he might just have been proven correct. His record is now 16-2(11), both defeats coming under the IBL banner.