The Greatest Prize in Sports

[kenyan_cheena]

The Chippewa Herald

Monday 25 December 2006

BADLY CUT NOSE ENDS
MORRISON'S NIGHT EARLY

Story by John Harrison

In the future Chippewa Falls middleweight Jake Morrison won't be looking back at Christmas 2006 with many fond memories. The day was spoiled for him when his IBL world ranking bout against hometown favourite Davey Moore last night in the Bronx was stopped early in round three due to a severe cut on the bridge of Morrison's nose. Moore inflicted the injury with a flush right cross just 36 seconds into the opening round, only moments after Morrison had rocked him with a left hook. Blood was soon running down either side of Morrison's nose and into his mouth. Both men sensed the desperation of the situation and went hell for leather. Moore cranked up a left hook and planted it on Morrison's jaw before being rocked himself by an uppercut. As the round entered its final minute Moore unleashed an uppercut of his own and then worsened Morrison's cut with another smashing cross.

With 24 seconds remaining in the 1st the ringside doctor was called upon to inspect the wound. After a considerable deliberation he allowed the bout to continue, Morrison ending the frame strongly by staggering Moore with a jolting right hand. The crowd greeted the end of the remarkable round with a standing ovation but they were not so excited when Morrison dominated the 2nd. His corner crew led by head trainer Jackie Goldberg did an admirable job of tending to the cut and Morrison came out determined to end the fight as soon as possible. He wobbled Moore with a pair of vicious uppercuts and a flush left hook. Moore was completely unable to capitalise on the good position he found himself in and landed only a handful of punches during the round.

Unfortunately for Morrison any chance he might have had of winning was taken out of his hands just forty seconds into round three. A head clash split Morrison's nose open again and even Goldberg would have admitted that his charge could not continue in such a condition. As the two men moved apart there was blood on Moore's chest and shoulder, but it wasn't his. Referee Danny Schiavone once again sought the doctor's advice and this time the fight was called off with Moore the winner by TKO. Although the crowd was happy their man had won they were understandably frustrated by the premature ending and some of them booed the stoppage. Morrison was visibly angry, violently smashing the padding on the corner post no less than a dozen times before exiting the ring, leaving Goldberg to speak to the media.

"That's how boxing goes sometimes," said the trainer, disappointment blanketing his face. "Sometimes the worst thing that can happen, happens. Jake has the ability to tear Davey to pieces and if not for the cut I'm certain he would have. It's just one of those freak injuries, you know? I can't tell you how shattering this'll be for him because the guy worked his ass off preparing for the fight. He ain't ever been in such fantastic condition, which is saying something 'cause he's always ready to go. The cut's pretty bad so we'll have to see if it affects his next fight or not. He certainly ain't gonna be able to spar for a while."

Moore dismissed the notion that he'd been lucky, pointing out the fact that winning a fight due to a cut is just as legitimate as winning by a knockout. The victory improved his record to 14-1(11) and secured the #13 initial world middleweight ranking for him. Morrison lost for the second time in three IBL outings and is now 9-2(9). As Goldberg alluded to the cut on his nose is quite a serious one and it could possibly prevent him from taking part in his next IBL bout, which is scheduled for mid-February. Hopefully the coming days will hold more positive news for the 25 year-old. Morrison is already regarded as one of the middleweight division's brightest up-and-comers and it will be Goldberg's task to see him through this frustrating period and prepare him for a bigger and better 2007.

[Jeff1787]

Tough luck for old Jake, but he'll be back....

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by Jeff1787

Tough luck for old Jake, but he'll be back....

I'm sure he will be. Despite the setbacks he's had in his first IBL bouts I have a good feeling about '07 for him. It's something to really look forward to.

Sorry it's taking me so long to get through all these December cards, everyone. Especially you heavyweight guys. There'll be a brief write-up of the Sunday night Nigerian FW world ranking card then I'll be diving straight into week four, with the two regional heavyweight cards scheduled on back-to-back nights.

[kenyan_cheena]

THE GUARDIAN
LAGOS - NIGERIA

Monday 25 December 2006

SIASIA FINISHES YEAR
ON A HIGH

Story by Sani Yobo

Nigerian featherweight Julius Siasia scored a unanimous decision win over the Filipino Ricardo Unabia last night in the main event of an IBL world ranking card at Surelere Stadium. In a clash of two combatants who were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the league's world championship tournament Siasia floored Unabia midway through round six and went on to take the verdict by scores of 76-75, 77-75 and 76-75. It was an action-packed affair, with Siasia being the busier of the two while Unabia was more accurate and damaging when he unleashed his arsenal. Neither man could hold the upperhand for more than a round or two, with Unabia just getting the better of an exciting opening frame before Siasia responded well in the 2nd. Unabia then took back command in the 3rd and kept it in round four. Siasia dominated the 5th and dropped Unabia in round six only to see the Filipino rally strongly in the 7th. Siasia finished with a flurry in round eight, an effort that won him the contest.

Siasia landed 191 of 798 punches (23.9%), Unabia an impressive 201 of 313 (64.2%). The victory improved Siasia's record to 26-2-1(19) while Unabia fell to 28-5-1(18). Although he missed out on competing for the world title Siasia should feel satisfied with his achievements since signing on with the IBL. He dropped a split decision verdict to former WBC junior-featherweight titlist Jesus Carrillo in his first outing and followed that up with an 8th round TKO of Puerto Rico's Athens bronze medallist Juan LaPorte in September. Last night's win was a great way for him to end the year. At #14 Siasia will start 2007 as the highest-ranked African in the league's featherweight division. He'll be looking to emulate his compatriots Taribo Keshi, Dick Tiger, Celestine Amakochi (all light-heavyweight) and Ike Ibeabuchi (heavyweight) in reaching the upper-echelons of his weight class.

[kenyan_cheena]

Havelstadt-Brandenburg

TUESDAY 26 DECEMBER 2006

SCHMELING DECIMATES DAMIANI,
COMPLETES TITLE RUN

Story by Philipp Westermann

Last night 24 year-old Brandenburg boxer Max Schmeling was crowned the IBL's first Inter-Continental Heavyweight Champion after dominating Italy's Francesco Damiani and knocking him out in round six of their tournament final. Schmeling gave himself a fantastic Christmas present but sent the larger than expected crowd at Milan's Agora Stadium home disappointed as he inflicted a first career defeat on Damiani. Schmeling came into the evening as a hot favourite following victories over Trevor Berbick, Herbie Hide and Sione Tialata in his earlier tournament bouts. The #3 seed justified that status as he dismantled Damiani in clinical fashion, flooring him on four occasions. The Italian gave as good as he got through the opening two rounds but when he tasted the canvas for the first time late in the 3rd it was the beginning of the end for him.

A textbook left hook was the punch that put a stunned Damiani on his backside and after absorbing more punishment in round four he was down twice in the 5th. The first came at the two minute mark courtesy of another flush left hook, the second only about twenty seconds after Damiani regained his footing from a jolting right cross. At just 21 years of age Damiani still has a long career ahead of him but he showed that he already possesses a bunch of determination and courage as he once again beat the count and traded power shots with Schmeling as the final seconds of the round ticked away. However, he had nothing left in round six and Schmeling decimated him with a two-fisted barrage, that damaging right cross proving a fearsome weapon. As the round entered its final minute it was another one of them that dropped Damiani for a fourth and final time. He was counted out at 2:14 of the 6th.

Schmeling's corner crew flooded the ring to celebrate with him, lifting the Athens bronze medallist onto their shoulders and parading him around the ring. At the time of the stoppage he had connected with a fantastic 218 of 410 punches (53.2%) while Damiani landed 91 of 205 (44.4%). Schmeling's record improved to 16-0(12), Damiani falling to 11-1-1(5). Speaking during the post-fight interview Schmeling said he was excited but also weary of his task in 2007, pointing out that fighting as many as twelve rounds every eight weeks is going to be as difficult a task as anyone in the IBL will have to face. His first title defense will be against Neemia Sivivatu, who defeated his fellow New Zealander Sione Tialata in the evening's co-feature title eliminator. Like Schmeling, Sivivatu was victorious by 6th round knockout.

It was a real slugfest while it lasted with both men having their moments throughout the contest. Sivivatu dominated the opening round before Tialata responded strongly to take round two. Sivivatu was right back in the driver's seat in round three but when Tialata controlled both the 4th and 5th the tide appeared to have turned in his favour. He staggered Sivivatu twice in round four and then cut him under the right eye in the 5th. But just sixteen seconds into round six Sivivatu displayed his revered knockout power, a left-right salvo landing flush on the chin and turning Tialata's lights out. The fight was over just 27 seconds into the round. Sivivatu (12-2(9)) was deeply disappointed after his tournament semi-final loss to Damiani and now has a chance to redeem himself. He'll step in the ring against Schmeling in late February, with the bout almost certainly to be held here in Germany.

While Schmeling has made a perfect start to his time in the IBL the same cannot be said for his compatriot Scott Mundt. The American-born slugger fell to his second career defeat earlier in the evening when his bout against Samoa's Kalolo Umaga was controversially stopped early in the 6th and final round due to a severe cut on Mundt's right eyelid. Mundt had dominated the fight through the opening five rounds, flooring Umaga twice in the first frame and landing almost twice as many punches as him. He cut Umaga on the right eyebrow with a left hook late in the 5th and the injury appeared to put an exclamation point on what had been a fantastic effort from the 27 year-old. But just nine seconds into the 6th Umaga unleashed a brutal uppercut that missed Mundt's chin but caught him hard on the eyelid, rending a huge gash and sending Mundt reeling across the ring into the ropes.

Within moments blood was streaming into his eye. Referee Steven Hayes stopped the fight and escorted Mundt to a neutral corner where the ringside doctor barely hesitated before advising Hayes to stop the fight. The doctor later confirmed that the wound, a one-inch cut running across the middle of Mundt's eyelid, was one of the worst he'd seen in a number of years. He called it a "freak injury" due to the fact that Umaga appeared to be exhausted when the final round started, and so should not have been able to throw a punch with so much power behind it. Such a belief fails to take into account that Umaga, like most of his fellow Pacific Islander pugilists, possesses fearsome punching power. Mundt may have gotten careless for the the briefest of moments, allowing Umaga to land the devastating punch.

The fortunate victory saw Umaga improve to 11-1-1(9) while the unlucky Mundt fell to 12-2(9). He held a five-point lead on all three scorecards heading into the final round, a lead that meant nothing after Umaga caught him with that one punch. Mundt and his cornermen protested the stoppage for a number of minutes after it had been confirmed before eventually leaving the ring in disgust. Back in May when the IBL announced the competitors for their various tournaments most observers placed Mundt on the same shelf as Schmeling, genuinely believing that the rivals were a very good chance of meeting in the Inter-Continental tournament final. While Schmeling completed a perfect 4-0 run Mundt went 2-2 to start his time with the organisation. It must be said that last night's defeat would rank amongst the most questionable seen so far in the IBL and Mundt is extremely unlucky to have left the ring a loser.

***

IBL Inter-Continental Heavyweight Championship tournament final

(#3) Max Schmeling (15-0(11)) KO6 (#13) Francesco Damiani (11-0-1(5))

***

[Infinity]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

I'm sure he will be. Despite the setbacks he's had in his first IBL bouts I have a good feeling about '07 for him. It's something to really look forward to.

Sorry it's taking me so long to get through all these December cards, everyone. Especially you heavyweight guys. There'll be a brief write-up of the Sunday night Nigerian FW world ranking card then I'll be diving straight into week four, with the two regional heavyweight cards scheduled on back-to-back nights.

No worries here, being the new kid on the block I figure I'll get byeline for my results. Hopefully I'll make some noise in the next year!

[kenyan_cheena]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Down here in Oz it's already Saturday morning. Hope you're all enjoying your day. It's my 35th birthday on Sunday and I'll be busy on Monday so after today I'll be absent from the board until Tuesday.

(Lots of "days" in that paragraph)

[comicfanman]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Down here in Oz it's already Saturday morning. Hope you're all enjoying your day. It's my 35th birthday on Sunday and I'll be busy on Monday so after today I'll be absent from the board until Tuesday.

(Lots of "days" in that paragraph)

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday a tad early

[kenyan_cheena]

Boxing

Updated: December 26, 2006, 4.30 PM ET

Norton and Haynes face-off
at Miami press conference

By Larry Holman
ESPN.com
Archive

In a somewhat unusual situation the camps of heavyweight boxers Ken Norton and Terone Haynes came face-to-face on Christmas Day in a press conference held at Miami's American Airlines Arena. With their highly anticipated IBL world championship bout just four days away the league has arranged a series of media events in Florida, with Norton's camp arriving in town on Friday. It hasn't been all business for them, though, with the IBL treating the former WBC champion, his family and team to some fantastic hospitality. Despite the Christmas spirit in the air neither camp was feeling much goodwill towards each other, with a number of insults and accusations traded back and forth. In particular Haynes was quite scathing with his words towards Norton, mocking him in regards to the Californian's talk of his "legacy" in the second episode of HBO's "24/7" documentary.

"Y'all ain't got no legacy, far as I can see," Haynes said, shaking his head. "Who y'all beat, man? Who y'all beat since winnin' that belt? Ray Mercer? Marcelo Franks? Brother, please. I take Ray's belt from 'im before two o' y'all even step in the ring. Far as I can see you was jus' picking at the leftovers. Michael, frickin', Dokes, almost knock out yo' ass! The brother ain't fought for, what, eighteen months?!? And he almost beat y'all? Please. Y'all saying if you beat me and Anyukov, you can retire happy? Brother, I already handed that Russian his ass on a platter! What y'all gonna prove by beatin' him, man? He be out o' the picture."

Norton took Haynes' comments in his stride, simply telling him that he'd better back it all up once they trade blows or he'd look like "the biggest fool in boxing's history." It must be said that Haynes' attitude is out of character for him. Until this point in his career he's always been one to let his actions speak for him. But as has been mentioned before Haynes feels he was ducked and disrespected by Norton while the San Diego native was WBC champ and Haynes is not going to let him forget that. It was clear to see that the 24 year-old holds an edge as far as the intimidation factor goes when the two men came together for a stare-off. Although only an inch taller Haynes is some fifteen pounds heavier than Norton and that size difference was evident, as was the complete lack of fear in Haynes' eyes.

The press conference was held in the afternoon, at 3pm. Four hours later most of those involved were back in the same room for the weigh-in for Tuesday night's Americas Championship tournament card. While the main event will see Orlando's Cheetah Brown take on Mike Weaver for the title there seems to be more interest in the evening's co-feature. It pits Haynes' stablemate Romy Alvarez against Norton's good friend Sam McVey in a ten-round offical Americas title eliminator. Many experts had expected this particular matchup to eventuate as the championship bout itself but both Alvarez and McVey were eliminated in the semi-finals, Alvarez by Weaver and McVey by Brown. They now have a second chance to earn a shot at the belt. Unsurprisingly it was a very vocal, raucous weigh-in although neither Alvarez or McVey had much to say. Their clash promises to be a fantastic one.

Toney confirms split from IBL

Norton's close friend James Toney was present at both the afternoon press conference and evening weigh-in and while there he confirmed that he had decided against extending his contract with the International Boxing League. He fought his last bout for the organisation this past Friday, losing a close unanimous decision verdict to Gene Armstrong in Japan to fall to 35-5-1(29). He flew back to America the following morning, arriving in Dallas before catching a connecting flight to Miami. Toney did not mince his words, delivering something of a parting shot to the IBL over the scheduling of their bouts when he said that he didn't believe an organisation that "tells its fighters when and against who they have to fight" would be able to survive within the environment that boxing works in.

Toney was defeated by Japan's Koichi Wajima in his first league bout back in June. It was a quarter-final of the middleweight world championship tournament, which Wajima went on to claim after even more impressive wins over John Mugabi and Les Darcy. There are many who believe that after his loss to Wajima, Toney had already decided that he would not be extending his contract with the IBL. Toney was tight-lipped on his future plans although he gave some credence to the rumour that he could end up with the soon-to-be-formed International Boxing Organisation when he indicated he'd have it all sorted out "in a week or so". Speaking from Miami on Tuesday morning IBL vice-president Michael Vincennes shed some light on Toney's decision to leave the league.

"We approached James about the possibility of signing with us back in March," said Vincennes. "It was only about a week after he'd fought Marcus White. We told him that we were interested in having him take part in our world championship tournament. He liked the idea but at the same time he made it clear that he didn't want to be locked into anything he wouldn't be able to easily get out of if it didn't work out for him. We had no problem with that and so we built conditions into his contract to allow for it. The way it was structured was that he would be contracted with us through until the completion of our middleweight tournaments. This meant that, win, lose or draw, he'd take part in no less than three IBL bouts. We added onto the contract an option for him to extend it for a further year if he so desired. It was completely up to him whether he wanted to do this or not.

"We had absolutely no say in the matter because we knew that he wanted to be free to move on, and we were happy with this arrangement. The only stipulation was that he would be required to inform us before the completion of the tournaments of his intention to pick up the one year option. We've had no contact with James for the last couple of months and so we had already accepted that the likelihood of him extending his time with us was remote. He has decided to move on and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours. I think that he believes that at this stage of his career he should be involved in the big fights all the time, every time he steps in the ring. With the way he performed in his bouts for us that wasn't going to happen during 2007, because he would have started out the year ranked at #15 and would have had to fight and win three consecutive bouts just to have a chance at getting into our top ranking tier. Clearly, that's not something he was prepared to do."

When asked to comment on Toney's remarks regarding the IBL's scheduling structure, Vincennes simply shrugged and said "I guess time will tell."

Larry Holman is ESPN.com's boxing writer.

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by comicfanman

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday a tad early

Thanks, cfm. Sorry to make you wait for your guy's big fight, but it should be posted in a little over 72 hours from now.

[Infinity]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Down here in Oz it's already Saturday morning. Hope you're all enjoying your day. It's my 35th birthday on Sunday and I'll be busy on Monday so after today I'll be absent from the board until Tuesday.

(Lots of "days" in that paragraph)

Happy Birthday to you early, and Merry Christmas as well! My favorite time of the year, I get to celebrate the Lord's birthday as well as my Mom's on 12-7. Ahh to be only 35, those were the days!....:P

[PWillisTheMan]

happy Birthday bro, I just got a fatal error loading title history and I think I remember you had to deal with something like that. After you celebrate, if you could let me know how that worked out I would appreciate it.

[Romdawg88]

Happy birthday man.

[CONN CHRIS]

Hope your birthday was fun Dan.

[Jersey-Jim]

Hope you had a nice birthday! I finally have some time to read OOTP universe results again. Sure was a busy end of the year.

[Ian Lord]

Happy Birthday KC

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by Infinity

Happy Birthday to you early, and Merry Christmas as well! My favorite time of the year, I get to celebrate the Lord's birthday as well as my Mom's on 12-7. Ahh to be only 35, those were the days!....:P

Originally Posted by PWillisTheMan

happy Birthday bro, I just got a fatal error loading title history and I think I remember you had to deal with something like that. After you celebrate, if you could let me know how that worked out I would appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Romdawg88

Happy birthday man.

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

Hope your birthday was fun Dan.

Originally Posted by Jersey-Jim

Hope you had a nice birthday! I finally have some time to read OOTP universe results again. Sure was a busy end of the year.

Originally Posted by Ian Lord

Happy Birthday KC

Thanks so much for all those birthday wishes, guys. It was a pretty good day, the highlight of which was seeing the movie Avatar in 3D. If you haven't seen it I can highly recommend it. Probably the most visually stunning movie I've ever watched. Simply incredible.

I'm happy the Bengals gave me a present by clinching the AFC North. As I said earlier I'll be busy today but I'm off work all this week and should have some time to work on the uni on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Oz time).

Thanks again for the kind words.

k_c

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by PWillisTheMan

happy Birthday bro, I just got a fatal error loading title history and I think I remember you had to deal with something like that. After you celebrate, if you could let me know how that worked out I would appreciate it.

Sorry I didn't answer this question the other day, buddy. When you get that problem it relates to the .dat files in your uni folder. If you regularly save your uni it shouldn't be a problem.

Open up the uni folder and then open up the most recent backup folder within it from before you had the problem. Copy the titlehistory DAT file, click back out of the backup folder and then paste the file into the uni folder.

It will ask you if you want to replace the exisiting folder, to which you should answer yes. This should fix the problem, although I'm not sure if you'll lose any information as it would depend on how many bouts you've run between saves.

[kenyan_cheena]

turn

[kenyan_cheena]

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