411Boxing Report: Dawson-Johnson II
Posted by Joe Roche on 11.08.2009
It wasn't a Fight of the Year, but there was still plenty to talk about as Joe Roche is ringside in Hartford, CT.
Heading into Saturday night's rematch with "Bad" Chad Dawson (29-0 17 KO's), Glen Johnson was worried about the "rip off artists." As it turns out that fear was unwarranted because while Johnson (49-13-2, 33 KO's) still failed in his attempt to become the IBF and interim WBC light heavyweight champion, the history books will show a much closer fight then anyone witnessed on Saturday. With judge's scorecards of 115-113, 117-111 and 115-113 fans that did not see this fight will one day look at Dawson-Johnson II and think that this was a close fight.
It was not.
411mania's official ringside scorecard had the fight 119-109 in favor of Dawson, and even that might have been too generous (our own Ryan Bates scored the fight 120-108 for Dawson). At 40 years of age Glen Johnson isn't the same fighter as he was two years ago when these two first met and it showed. As early as the second round of their HBO Championship Boxing main event it became clear that Glen Johnson simply didn't have the type of speed that would allow him to keep pace with Chad Dawson. Perhaps as he nears his 41st birthday Johnson was only a fraction of a second slower then he was at 38 (when the two met the first time) but that fraction of a second made all the difference on this night.
If I were grading on a scale I'd give Dawson an "A" for his game plan. In the first fight I thought Dawson got caught up fighting in a phone booth which opened him up to hooks from Johnson and ultimately led to Dawson getting himself in trouble. I can recall only two instances of Dawson getting caught in close quarters combat on Saturday night, once in the 9th round when Johnson let Dawson escape the inside without unleashing many punches, and once in the 12th round when Johnson caught Dawson with a clean left hook that looked to really stun "Bad" Chad at a time when he simply needed to run out the clock to get the win. Other then those two examples there was no time that Dawson wasn't implementing his game plan, tiring out the older Johnson and using his swift, crisp combinations to keep Glen Johnson at bay.
Sitting ringside and hearing the crowd turn on Dawson was a bit disappointing. The crowd wanted Dawson to stand in the middle of the ring and trade haymakers, but Dawson didn't fall into that trap. The one problem that Dawson did have, and the only time that he didn't seem completely in control is when he would seemingly stop throwing punches and get caught up in his lateral movement. The problem with a fighter who moves around the outside as much as Dawson is that when he's not throwing punches, but he's still using the movement he comes across as someone who is simply running away. Dawson appeared to get stuck running in the 8th round, which happened to be the only round I scored for Johnson. Knowing that none of the ringside judge's scored the 8th round for Johnson would normally make me rethink my criteria, but knowing that one of the judges's also scored three of the first four rounds for Johnson leaves me comfortable that they weren't the best barometers on this night.
The HBO telecast opened with a bang as Alfredo Angulo (17-1, 14 KO's) delivered one of the most vicious knockouts of the year to Harry Joe Yorgey (22-1-1, 10 KO's) to become the WBO Inter-Continental Junior Middleweight Champion (put that on a business card). The knockout came in the third round (1:03) when Angulo caught Yorgey against the ropes with a vicious left hook, straight right combination and Yorgey was out before the right ever hit him. The knock out was actually very scary for someone sitting so close to ringside because all I could see was Yorgey's head bounce off the mat, and Gary Shaw confirmed later that he was "out cold" and had to be revived by the ringside doctor.
The fight will be remembered for two reasons; the first is the vicious knockout that Angulo got to secure the win. The second reason is the horrible officiating job, which promoted Gary Shaw to explode at the HBO crew (for some unknown reason), and tell the media after the fight that the referee did the worst job that he's ever seen in his life including all of the four round fights that he's been involved in throughout his career. Shaw was obviously very upset with how the second round was handled by official John Callas as well he should have been. Angulo knocked Yorgey down in the second round but while Yorgey was on the mat, Angulo hit Yorgey at least twice in the back of the head – a clear violation and something that should have warranted at least a warning and probably a disqualification. There was another point in the second round where the official broke the two fighters up, sent them to neutral corners and then just told them to keep fighting. I have yet to be able to get an accurate description of what happened here as I was completely bewildered by the whole event. It appeared as if the official was overwhelmed with the magnitude of the fight, which may be the case but won't help Harry Joe Yorgey sleep any better.
The fight continued into the third round where Yorgey was essentially knocked out. Yorgey came off the ropes after being hit slouched over and holding onto Angulo's legs until the ref broke them up and stood Yorgey up (no knock down was the rule). At this point I said that the fight should be stopped. I was looking right into Yorgey's eyes and he was obviously out on his feet. It was no surprise that the knockout came quickly after the fight resumed.
I am hopeful that John Callas does not work another professional fight in Connecticut. For a state boxing commission that wouldn't allow ringside photographers to have chairs it seems laughable that someone who put Harry Joe Yorgey's life in serious danger would be allowed to continue as a boxing referee. However, the officiating should not take away from the brutal and convincing fashion with which "El Perro" dispatched the previously unbeaten Yorgey setting up what I imagine could be a rematch with Kermit Cintron.
On the untelevised portion of the card the fans in the XL Center were treated to a pretty decent slug fest between Orlando Lora (26-0-1, 18 KO's) and Octavio Narvaez (7-8-1, 4 KO's) that saw Narvaez do most of the work on offense, win over the crowd and then loose a decision 77-75, 77-75, 78-75 (411mania saw the fight for Narvaez 77-75). The decision disappointed the crowd and Narvaez who had the more explosive punches, and the more crowd pleasing style which apparently didn't win over the Judge's in this fight like it would win them over in the main event. Also on the undercard Chris Avalos (13-0, 11 KO's) who is fresh off an appearance on ShoBox fought Robert DaLuz (12-22-3, 9 KO's) in what turned into a fantastic fight between a talented boxer and a tough kid who simply wouldn't quit coming forward. Avalos controlled much of the fight with his superior speed, and boxing ability but DaLuz took Avalos into the deep end of the pool and tested the kid's mettle. This was a great fight for Avalos' learning process as he will take much more from this fight then he would have from a simple first round KO. The judge's scored the fight 79-73, 79-73 and 80-71 (411mania.com scored it 79-73 Avalos) all for Avalos, which were proper scores although they don't tell the full story of how much pressure DaLuz put on Avalos from bell to bell.
The strangest undercard moment of the night came courtesy of Michael Oliveira (9-0, 7 KO's) and Francisco Osorio (12-7, 10 KO's) who were scheduled for a 6 round middleweight bout, which was apparently turned into an 8 round middleweight bout before the show started. That's not in and of itself a big deal, except I'm not sure anyone told Osorio who quit on his stool after the 7th round – which was fought after Osorio had already celebrated with Oliveira believing that the fight was over after the scheduled 6th round. Osorio actually had his best round of the night in the 7th round winning the round on all three ringside judge's scorecards (and my own scorecard) which made him quitting on the stool all the more confusing to those in attendance. At the time he quit the judge's scorecards had Oliveira up 67-66, 68-65, 67-66 (I had it 68-66 Oliveira) and coming off his best round there was still a chance that Osorio could come away with a draw had he fought the 8th round. I think it is a case of a guy having six rounds in his head and not be able to fight two extra rounds without notice.
The opening two bouts supplied the fireworks as heavyweight Emad Ali (3-0, 3 KO's) welcomed everyone to the XL Center with a first round TKO (2:49) over Kelsey Arnold (1-3-2, 0 KO's). Also Philadelphia middleweight Tyrone Brunson (21-0-1, 20 KO's) looked very sharp as he dissected Jose Medina (15-16, 11 KO's) over three rounds with crisp jabs, good footwork and impressive power. Brunson finished the fight at 1:31 of the 3rd round when he delivered a right hook to the liver that sent Medina to one knee and keeping him on the mat for the 10 count.
At the end of the night the unfortunate truth is that this show will largely be forgotten by this time next weekend. It's unfortunate for me because I covered the fight live, it's not unfortunate for HBO who I'm sure would rather not hang their hat on this evening. The enduring legacy of this night will no doubt (unfortunately) be the terrible job by the referee in the Yorgey/Angulo fight, and the questionable judge's scorecards in the main event. I plan on having much more coverage of the fight, including a more focused article on the job of John Callas so stay tuned for those – and just think if you were let down by what happened in Hartford, there is always Pacquiao/Cotto only six days away.
