411Boxing Recap: ShoBox: The New Generation
Posted by Joe Roche on 10.03.2009
Allan Green, Antwone Smith and Marcus Johnson impress on Showtime.
Allan Green is ranked as one of the top 10 super middleweights in the world by all of the major sanctioning bodies. Unfortunately for Green on October 17th, when Showtime's Super Six World Boxing Challenge begins with Carl Froch-Andre Dirrell and Jermain Taylor-Arthur Abraham, Allan Green will be left on the outside looking in. In an effort to remind everyone why he is one of the best super middleweights in the world Green was featured on Friday October 2nd's edition of ShoBox: The New Generation from the First Council Casino in Newkirk, Oklahoma.
Green (29-1-0, 20 KO's) had spent his entire camp preparing for Victor Oganyov, a straight forward slugger but six days before the fight Oganyov bowed out due to injury and Tarvis Simms (25-1-1, 11 KO's) a more traditional southpaw boxer replaced him. Green was a heavy favorite against Simms who had never tasted defeat at 38 years of age but also had never stepped up in competition (I recently saw Simms fighting an 8 rounder at Mohegan Sun).
While Simms is a natural southpaw he came out fighting conventional and it seemed to be the wrong choice. Green was able to use his superior hand speed, crisp shots and good angles to take a commanding early lead on the scorecards as Simms just seemed too slow to compete. Simms for his part had made weight at the last minute, losing 8 pounds in six days to take this fight on short notice. Simms finally switched to southpaw in the sixth round which caused a lot of problems for Green. While Simms looked very uncomfortable throwing punches as a southpaw, Green looked even worse trying to figure him out. Between rounds after the sixth Green could be heard in his corner saying "he switched to southpaw, what do I do?"
Green did well enough adapting to the southpaw stance although Simms was still able to get off more shots and keep Green on his heels as a lefty. This is why it made little to no sense when Simms went back to a conventional stance in the ninth round – which apparently gave Green some confidence because he had his best round since the fifth when he saw Simms as a righty. The tenth round offered little change as Simms tried to switch back to southpaw but he was already beaten by this point. At the end of the scheduled 10 rounds the judges saw the fight 99-91, 98-92, and 97-93 (my card was 97-93 Green).
Even though the judge's scorecards were pretty one sided this fight was much more competitive then I thought it would be. Simms is not known as a pressure fighter, and he was very active throughout this fight. After cutting weight so quickly, and having no real training camp for Green specifically I thought Simms did himself some favors, looked very good and even in losing gained some respect. Sometimes the hardest thing for a boxer is to let go of the "0" in their record, and Simms did that tonight, but he also stepped up and looked good against a world ranked opponent.
There is a bright side to Allan Green not looking tremendous in this fight – basically the bigger fish in the super middleweight division (not in the tournament) will be more likely to fight Green now that he doesn't seem so intimidating. I thought Green did enough to win, and since he prepared for a completely different fighter then he got on Friday night he has nothing to be ashamed of. I would not be surprised to see Green in the ring with the winner of the Librado Andrade-Lucian Bute title bout in early 2010.
The co-feature of the night saw Antwone Smith (17-1-1, 9 KO's) score a 9th round TKO of previously unbeaten Henry Crawford (22-1-1, 9 KO's). This was a very good fight, highly entertaining and competitive right to the end – although what it will be remembered for is the referee allowing it to go on much longer then it ever should have. The bout started with Crawford dominating the first two rounds with quick hands and great combinations, but Smith was able to withstand the initial onslaught and then turned it on in the later rounds. The controversy will come from the sixth round where Crawford was knocked down after showboating. Crawford was doing a little dance when Smith caught him and sent him to the canvas (actually on his gloves touched but still). After the knockdown Crawford's eyes were very glassy and glazed over. He did not know where he was, and for the final minute or so of the round he simply did his best to grab and clutch as Smith who was landing some big unprotected head shots on Crawford. The official did nothing – even after Crawford's mouthpiece fell out and he looked to be out on his feet. Crawford survived the round but I'm not sure how, and the fight absolutely should have been stopped in the sixth round.
The amazing thing is that after the sixth round Crawford seemed to get a second wind and started winning rounds against with fast hands and quick feet. Crawford, the much taller man began fighting from the outside which was a smart strategy and he used the entire ring – all 15 feet of it to keep Smith off balance. Just when it appeared that Crawford would get himself back into the fight in the 9th round he ate a huge right hook that sent him stumbling to the canvas. At this point the fight should have been stopped once again as Crawford got to his feet for the eight round but when he walked toward the ref he slipped and basically fell into the ref's hands. The official did not stop the fight and Crawford survived the round. Mercifully between the 9th and 10th rounds Crawford's corner stopped the fight as it was obvious that he was out on the stool and should not be allowed to continue. This was a very good win for Antwone Smith who obviously has no knockout power but has some good skill – but the story of the night will be the ref's inability to tell when this fight should have been stopped. It's just fortunate that Crawford did not suffer any additional unwarranted punishment.
In the telecast's opening bout Marcus Johnson (18-0, 14 KO's), one of the class of '04 amateurs (Andre Ward) scored a unanimous decision over granite chinned Victor Villareal. This bout was completely one sided with Johnson using supreme speed, great locations and startlingly accurate punches from different angles to punish Villareal throughout the 8 round bout. Villareal did his job to perfection though, taking some good shots, staying on his feet and staying on offense to give Johnson some very good work. Johnson is the least experienced of the class of '04 having sat out eleven months due to a contract dispute with Don King Promotions (his old company), however on this night Johnson looked like a future star and by the time the Super Six World Boxing Classic has finished I think there will be a lot of people clamoring for a Marcus Johnson – Andre Ward bout.
In closing – this was a great show top to bottom. Three really good fights that delivered exactly what you would want from them – this may very well have been the very best ShoBox: The New Generation of the year, and that's impressive because Showtime has had some great fights this year. It also did it's job in gearing me up even more to see the super middleweight tournament which I didn't think was possible because I'm already marking days off on my calendar for Oct. 17th.
