[kenyan_cheena]

Five minutes later, the Yokohama Arena had returned to relative normalcy. Chuck Hall was announcing to the audience that the next bout would be between 18 year-old Floyd Patterson of North Carolina (#17 seed) and 21 year-old Rocky Jones of Pennsylvania (#97 seed).

Comparing the extroverted qualities of Elmer Ray and Floyd Patterson was like comparing day and night. Patterson, reserved to the point of camera shyness, gave an almost timid acknowledgement of the crowd's applause as he was introduced. He would later reveal that he was overcome by nerves in the minutes leading up to the fight.

His opponent Rocky Jones appeared to be suffering from no such ailment. He
exuded confidence and self-belief as he waited for the opening bell.

Patterson may not have impressed the audience with his charisma, but he
certainly did with his boxing skills. He dominated the fight, winning 60-54 on two of the judges cards and 59-55 on the other. He landed his shots in bunches, throwing four and five punch combinations. Jones was visibly disheartened and overwhelmed by the end of the 3rd round, a mere fifteen minutes removed from his pre-fight bravado. He made a mighty effort in the final round to score a knockout, but it all came to nought.

"I'm very relieved to win the fight," Patterson said, appearing more relaxed and calm than he did before the opening bell. "But like Rocky Marciano said the other night, it's only the first step. I have to make fifteen more of these steps to become the champion." Then, in a somewhat transparent shot at Elmer Ray, Patterson added "It's a waste of time and energy getting excited about this, because in 2004, when the tournament is over and the World Champion crowned, not many people will remember what happened tonight."

***

Back in October when the HBF held their tournament auditions, the scouting report on Jimmy Young of Philadelphia said:

"A tough, smart fighter, with excellent endurance, a solid chin and a good
defence. However, he lacks a knockout punch and basic hitting power. This
weakness could prove to be quite a liability against opponents who know how to exploit it..."

Some in the audience at the Yokohama Arena had seen Young in the October
auditions and wondered if the scouting report's words would be proven correct. Many of them had been surprised when the HBF had seeded Young at #16, thinking that somewhere around the mid-to-low 20's was more
appropriate. Being the #16 seed meant that Young was also the #1 seed in his group, something which also caused much consternation amongst boxing
commentators. Young had done his best to ignore the negative media reports
relating to his position in the tournament, but his performance in his professional debut against the Italian-born, Pennslyvania-raised Tony Ross could have only led one to draw the conclusion that he really had been affected by them.

Young started the fight excellently, scoring well with crisp, quick jabs, leading to a cut in Ross's mouth only halfway through the round. Young showed some
impressive boxing skills in the opening stanza.

For some reason, he was not as busy in the 2nd round. This allowed Tony Ross to steal it on two of the three cards. Hindsight would show that this early lapse would cost Young when the result was announced.

The fight started to warm up in the third round, with some lively exchanges taking place. Young definitely got the better of these exchanges, but Ross was able to score more punches than Young's trainer Bobby Altman was comfortable with. He lectured his charge between rounds, telling him to stick to the gameplan. "It's real simple, Jimmy," he said. "Jab and move, jab and move. Bread and butter, baby. Bread and butter."

Altman would become more frustrated in the 4th round, as Young continued to mix it up with Ross, willing to stand and trade shots with his unfavoured
opponent. Again, in hindsight, this would prove to be a bad tactic. Ross was
winning the round going into its final minute, before Young was able to land
some nice punches, making it close. However, two of the judges gave the round to Ross. The crowd showed their appreciation with a warm round of applause.

In round five, Jimmy Young returned to the tactics that had seen him look so
impressive in the opening round ... but only for a while. Young seemed to be
slowing his fellow Pennsylvania resident down, with Ross looking tired as the
round progressed. But then, with 40 seconds remaining in the round, Young
seemed to lose concentration. He allowed his opponent to get in close and pin
him on the ropes, paying the price when Ross landed a nice uppercut. Young
fired back with a lead right that missed. Ross tagged him again, a right hand
bomb followed immediately by a left hook. Young was shaken and kept his
distance for the rest of the round. His trainer got stuck into him between rounds, cursing Young's inability to correctly follow the gameplan. "Stop giving me this B.S., Jimmy Young!" he said. "You gotta go out there and win this final round for yourself, because I'm worried about what's gonna happen if you don't!"

And win the round was exactly what Jimmy Young did, although it had as much to do with Tony Ross's fading endurance as it did with Young's performance. By no means did he dominate the round. In fact, it was quite close.

Both fighters waited nervously for the verdict. The expression on the face of
Young's trainer Bobby Altman was one part disappointment and one part
consternation. He really did fear that his fighter had not done enough to win the judges favour, knew that if he had just stuck to the gameplan, the decision would have never been in doubt. Young himself looked downcast, realising that he might not have achieved the goal that he had set for himself in his professional debut. Meanwhile, Tony Ross beamed with excitement. According to the HBF, he shouldn't have had a chance against Jimmy Young. The #16 seed against the #113 seed? It shouldn't have been close. But Ross felt confident, as did his corner, that he had done at least enough to earn a draw.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the judges have tallied their scorecards, and here is
your decision for tonight's main event," said Chuck Hall. "Judge Sipho Zondo of
South Africa has scored the bout 60-54 in favour of Jimmy Young." With this
came an uproar from the crowd, a chorus of boo's mixed in with words of protest and disbelief. Tony Ross shook his head in amazement. Chuck Hall waited for the audience to calm down before continuing...

...

"Judge Dr. Clark Sammartino of the United States has scored the fight 58-56 in favour of Tony Ross." A series of screams and excited applause came from the audience. Once again, they took some time to contain themselves.

"And, Judge Artur Ellensohn of Germany has scored the fight a 57-57 draw.
Ladies and gentlemen, the result of your main event is a draw."

Tony Ross jumped up and down as if he'd won. Jimmy Young sat on his stool,
head in hands. The crowd applauded the result and the effort of the two
combatants, although Jimmy Young didn't feel like he deserved it. In his mind, a draw against the lowest seeded boxer in his group was as bad as a loss, and just as embarassing. Boxing experts in the crowd had to have a chuckle. It was not Jimmy Young's apparent lack of strength that let him down. It was his inability to stick to a gameplan. This supposedly smart boxer had fought a dumb fight.

Jimmy Young congratulated Tony Ross on his performance, shaking his hand and speaking with his trainer. Then, things got a little crazy again.

Decked out in an oversized, black-red-white! hooded Lonsdale jacket and
matching trackpants, Elmer Ray returned to the ring. As covered earlier in this
article, Ray proceeded to bag Jimmy Young's performance against Tony Ross,
calling him "a bum!" and telling Jimmy that he would have to win each of his next three bouts before clashing with Ray on May 31 "just to stay close" to him in the group standings. Ray then left the ring without further drama.

"Well, that was something, I guess," said a confused Nick Warren, as he
prepared to interview a dejected Jimmy Young. "Jimmy, you must be disappointed with that result."

Young nodded. "Definitely, definitely," he said. "But, I'm not going to make any excuses. Just a bad debut performance. I don't want to take anything away from Tony, either. He had a great night."

"It seemed that you started very impressively there in the first round, and then you just kind of deserted those tactics," said Warren.

"I kept on trying to mix it up with him," Young replied. "Bobby kept on telling me, 'Stick to the gameplan.' But when that bell sounded, and we started throwing punches, it didn't happen. Just wasn't mentally prepared..." Young sighed.

"Elmer Ray. What do you think of his antics?"

Young laughed. "I know that he won his fight and I didn't win mine. I know that he looked sharp tonight and I didn't. I know that I'll be fighting him on May 31, that it'll be the 5th fight in the tournament, and that I'm gonna have to win every fight between now and then, and then beat him, to get into the top two in the group. The thing is that as these group fights go on, my schedule gets harder and his will be easier leading up to when we fight. He could easily be 4-0 when we meet. As for his antics, I don't really care at the moment. I've got more important things to worry about."

"Well, thanks for speaking to us, Jimmy," said Warren. "I'm sure everyone who follows the HBF will be hoping that you'll be successful as the tournament progresses."

"Thanks," said Young, leaving the ring.

"Well, we've now got a very excited Tony Ross," said Warren. "Tony, congratulations on your performance tonight."

"Thank you so much!" said Ross. "I'm just so happy that I've been able to achieve this result. I mean, the number one guy in the group, and I get a draw off him. It's unbelievable!"

"Tony, what you may not realise is how close you were to defeating Jimmy Young," said Warren. "If you had won the final round, you would have won the fight by split decision. Jimmy Young HAD to win that final round just to get the draw."

Ross laughed. "Well, I came here tonight confident that I could compete with him, and I fought hard. This result is beyond belief, and I can't ask for anything more than that. I'm happy."

"Next up for you is Floyd Patterson," said Warren. "He was very impressive tonight. How do you think you'll go against him?"

Ross nodded. "I think Floyd was the most impressive fighter on the card tonight," he said. "He just shut out Rocky Jones, didn't give the guy even a sniff of victory. Tomorrow, Elmer's gonna get all the headlines, but I think people in the know will recognise that Floyd was the best of tonight's bunch. I'm going to have to approach that fight with the exact same attitude as tonight's fight. I'll have to watch tape of his fight, and look for something to exploit. It's gonna be tough."

"Well, we wish you the best of luck for that fight, Tony," Warren said. "You've given us all a pleasant surprise here tonight. Congratulations, and good luck."

"Thank you very much, Mr Warren," replied Ross. "And thanks to ESPN for broadcasting these fights to everybody back home. It's great to know they are watching."

With that came the end of a wild, controversial, action-packed fight card. Vincennes said that the Japanese fight fans would get their monies worth, and they certainly did...