“I came here to do what I had
to do,” Ward said after the fight. “It was pretty much done
after he got knocked down. I only know how to do 100%. God
blessed me with so much ability and talent; I owe it to him
to maximize my potential in every training camp and every
fight. I wanted a great performance. Just a win isn’t enough
for me. I wanted to put on a spectacular performance, and I
think I did that. It’s Championship time!”
Ward, a 2004 Olympic Gold
Medalist who is ranked number one with both the WBC and the
WBO, can now look forward to his next challenger; current
WBA Middleweight Champion Mikkel Kessler (42-1, 32 KOs) who
was victorious over Gusmyr Perdomo on this same night in
Denmark. Kessler won by a fourth round TKO giving Perdomo
his first KO loss. The Ward/Kessler fight will take place
November 21 in Oakland, California, and is part of the Super
Six World Boxing Classic.
Considered the co-main event,
James “Lights Out” Toney (72-6-3, 44 KOs) faced Matthew
Greer (22-4-1, 9 KOs). This match was considered laughable,
until Greer hit Toney with a right early in the first round
that caught him off guard, and then continued with a flurry
of punches. Apparently all that did was awaken the sleeping
Toney, who, from that point forward, had complete control
over the fight. He dropped Greer in the second round and
finally the fight was stopped at 2:33.
James was at the lowest weight
he has been at in a long time. He weighed in at 217.5 and
joked about losing more and fighting as a Middleweight.
But I have to say that the biggest topic of conversation
before, and even during this fight, was the fact that Greer
was wearing what appeared to be blue sweat trunks rather
than boxing trunks. Hmm, what does that tell you?
Francisco Santana (11-1, 5
KOs) went up against Tony Hirsch (9-3-1, 5 KOs) in a Light
Middleweight contest that the fans really got into. Hirsch
seemed to be the stronger of the two, but both men continued
to exchange punches throughout this six round fight. We saw
a very scrappy Hirsch at the end of round four, but Santana
came back in the fifth. There was a lot of action in round
six, although not a lot of the hits were connecting solidly.
At the end of the fight however, it was the consensus of
most that the fight would go to Hirsch. A split decision
read it differently, as Francisco Santana was awarded the
victory. Ok, being a ringside judge is not my thing, but
Hirsch won this fight, IMHO. What is it they say? That’s
boxing.
Junior Welterweight Michael
Dallas kept his win streak going after getting a unanimous
decision over Vincent Arroyo, 60-54, 59-55, 59-55. The first
round was a close one, and showed how fast both fighters
were. Round two was a great round for Dallas. He started to
show some power here. The third and fourth had both fighters
throwing a lot of punches and exhibiting good efforts. In
the fifth, both men slowed down a bit as the pace had been
fast up until then. But it still appeared to be all Dallas.
Toward the end of the sixth however, Arroyo really sent
Dallas reeling with some hard punches, but it was too little
too late. Michael is now 10-0-1, 2 KOs, while Arroyo had his
win streak broken and is now 9-1, 6 KOs.
I spoke with Michael later and
wondered if there were any surprises in that fight. “No, I
knew he had a lot of knockouts and was going to come out
strong, so I just stuck to my game plan and just boxed him.
“I’m still undefeated. An
undefeated prospect coming up, and I was the bigger man
tonight.”
In a Junior Featherweight
bout, Victor Martinez (15-6, 11 KOs) was totally overwhelmed
by Rico Ramos, who increased his undefeated streak to 12 –0,
8 KOs. Rico dropped Martinez in the first and stepped it up
from there. His hard body shots were giving Victor a
beating, and the fight was stopped in the third.
Terrel Williams went up
against Joshua Zurfluh. Zurfluh was so outmatched here, as
Williams delivered hit, after hit, after hit. Big rights by
Williams all night. Well, alright, maybe not all night, as
the fight was stopped in the second round. This dropped
Joshua’s losing streak to seven, including one win and one
draw. Williams increased to 2-0.
With all these fights that
were one-sided, it might seem as if the night was a bit of a
bust, but that was not the case. It was a very entertaining
evening of boxing, with the Ward fight delivering what it
was supposed to. Michael Dallas showed that he is one to
watch as well. And the remaining fights, with one probable
exception, provided a lot of action.
Big thanks to Pechanga and all
those involved!
Be safe and God Bless,
Viva La Raza,
Barb.
