The Greatest Prize in Sports

[kenyan_cheena]

Upcoming posts in TGPiS...

* Boxing Monthly April fight reviews

* Review of the May 3 Jeff Lampkin-Torsten May world junior-heavyweight title fight (plus undercard)

* Review of the May 10 Patricio Marquez-Francisco Ortiz world lightweight title fight (plus undercard)

* IBL WCC updated rankings, as at May 11

[Romdawg88]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

CARMELO ALEMAN (UNITED STATES, 9-2-2(6)) D10 JIMMY KRUG (UNITED STATES, 11-2(5))[/B]

Man, I'm sick of the draws. No more draws, don't care if they turn into losses but no more draws.

[kenyan_cheena]

A combination of (partly) lack of time and (mostly) lack of enthusiasm has led to my inactivity during the last week. Will try and get the April Boxing Monthly done in the next couple of days.

[kenyan_cheena]

BOXING MONTHLY

VOLUME 30, ISSUE 4 - APRIL 2008

(following are selected entries from the magazine's "Fight Review" section)

Saturday 5 April: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Juan Escobar (Colombia, 27-1(19)) UD12 Benny Diaz (Philippines, 24-3-1(19))
(WBA junior-lightweight title fight)

Colombia's Juan Escobar recorded probably the most impressive victory of his title reign to date, scoring a hard-earned unanimous decision win over former WBO champion Benny Diaz at Caesar's Palace (115-111, 114-112, 115-112). It was a fiercely competitive stoush through the first nine rounds, and going into the 10th it looked possible that, in his fifth title defense, the South American might finally be dethroned. However, Escobar finished the contest brilliantly, dropping Diaz with a right hand two minutes into round ten and then again with thirty seconds remaining in the 11th to secure the win. Escobar was the aggressor throughout and landed 265 of 912 punches (29.1%), Diaz 194 of 597 (32.5%).

A planned unification bout against Nigeria's WBC champion Joseph Odiah fell through due to haggling over the purse percentage, but with both men making successful defenses during the last two months, hopefully their camps will be able to reach a compromise and make the fight happen. As for Diaz, this was his third high-profile loss in the last two years. He dropped the WBO belt to compatriot Floriano Becite in June '06, before moving up to lightweight in November of the same year and losing to Francisco Ortiz with the vacant WBO 135-pound title on the line. Ortiz went on to defeat Joe Brown for the world championship. Diaz gained revenge over Becite in a non-title fight last December, but with this defeat to Escobar he now has to go back to the drawing board.

Saturday 12 April: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Art Aragon (USA, 22-2-2(14)) KO8 Daniel Jimenez (Puerto Rico, 19-0-1(11))
(WBA lightweight title fight)

Making his second title defense, local favourite Art Aragon decimated the untested and clearly outclassed Puerto Rican Daniel Jimenez at the Staples Center. Aragon floored Jimenez an extraordinary seven times on the way to an 8th round knockout win, outlanding his opponent 318-126 and criticising referee Arthur Mercante in the fight's aftermath. Jimenez tasted the canvas twice in round one, once in the 4th, twice in the 5th and two more times in round eight, the contest ending when he was finally counted out at the 2:15 mark. Aragon is a popular attraction in his hometown, but there's not a lot of attractive opponents in the lightweight division and a move to the talent-rich 140-pound weightclass could be in his future.

Saturday 19 April: Fresno, CA, USA
Wayne McCullough (Northern Ireland, 27-4(16)) KO10 Mike Ayala (USA, 18-2-1(13))
(WBC junior-featherweight title fight)

The lineage of the WBC's 122-pound championship had another new name added to it, the third in the space of four title bouts since the beginning of 2007. Remarkably, the title sat vacant for most of 2006 after Mexico's Jesus Carrillo relinquished it to join the IBL and the dysfunctional organisation couldn't figure out who should fight for it. Japan's Kozo Ishii claimed the vacant belt in January '07, but was defeated in his second defense by Thailand's former IBO titlist Niwat Srimaka in October. Srimaka was unable to come to an agreement with the WBC over who his next opponent would be, so he handed the belt back to them in February, leading to this month's contest for the once again vacant title.

Competing for the first time in the USA, Northern Ireland's Wayne McCullough scored a dramatic one-punch 10th round KO of San Antonio native Mike Ayala to win his first world title. McCullough had the better of the opening nine frames, but he took a nasty cut under his left eye into round ten, which came from a head clash late in the 9th. McCullough was then cut above his left eye midway through the 10th, before Ayala was deducted a point for a low blow late in the stanza, which itself preceded the chin-snapping uppercut that had the Texan out cold, flat on his back and counted out after the bell. It was an extraordinary ending to an eventful and exciting fight.

Saturday 19 April: Fresno, CA, USA
Joe Choynski (USA, 21-0-1(14)) TKO5 Wayne Thornton (USA, 27-5-2(16))
(WBC light-heavyweight title fight)

In an all-northern California matchup, 22 year-old San Francisco slugger Joe Choynski secured his first world title, defeating Fresno's Wayne Thornton in his hometown at the Selland Arena. It was Thornton's first defense of the vacant title he won back in December after England's long-time holder James Franklin relinquished it to join the International Boxing League. It didn't take the talented Choynski long to establish control as he floored Thornton with an uppercut ninety seconds into round one and continued to dominate through the next four stanzas until referee Kenny Bayless stepped in to save the defenseless hometown favourite from further punishment at the 2:23 mark of the 5th. Choynski had ignored overtures from the IBL throughout 2007, saying that it had been his dream to claim the same championship held by his great-grandfather James Choynski over fifty years ago (1954 to '56). Amazingly, he has now achieved that ambition and looks like he could be set for a long reign.

Saturday 26 April: Glasgow, Scotland
Walter McGowan (Scotland, 31-3-1(22)) DQ8 Terry Allen (England, 27-6-2(19))
(WBA flyweight title fight)

In what could be a good omen for his compatriot Benny Lynch, Scotland's Walter McGowan retained the WBA flyweight title for the third time since winning it in March '07, although this would not be considered one of his most memorable defenses. The bout ended abruptly in round eight when his English opponent Terry Allen was disqualified following a body blow that landed way south of the border. Allen was right in the contest at the time, trailing by just a single point on two scorecards going into the 8th. Lynch is scheduled to challenge Russia's Yuri Arbachakov for the IBL and official world flyweight championship on the 10th of May and he'll surely draw inspiration from McGowan's exploits during the last thirteen months.

[kenyan_cheena]

*** Thought it was time to give Boxing Monthly a little bit of a facelift ***

[Romdawg88]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

A combination of (partly) lack of time and (mostly) lack of enthusiasm has led to my inactivity during the last week. Will try and get the April Boxing Monthly done in the next couple of days.

So by a couple of days you meant hours huh?

[kenyan_cheena]

Had a sudden burst of inspiration.

[kenyan_cheena]

Just to add, with the exception of Escobar and Diaz, all the fighters featured in the April Boxing Monthly were making their first appearances in the thread, and all of them are real fighters. It's part of my plan to strengthen the non-IBL section of the sport and also get to a point where, as far as my record-keeping goes, each alphabet title has a holder. I've neglected doing this for far too long, but the assumption has always been that there are champions and up-and-comers that I simply haven't written about to this point. Joe Choynski would fall into this category. There is a long-term reason for doing this, also, but you don't need to know about that. Not yet, at least.

[kenyan_cheena]

THE OHIO EXPRESS

Sunday, 4 May, 2008

LAMPKIN STOPS MAY
IN 2ND ROUND

Story by Jerry Anderson

The unlikely, inexplicable world junior-heavyweight championship reign of Jeff Lampkin entered new realms of astonishing last night when the Youngstown native climbed off the canvas in the opening round - not once, but twice - and then knocked out Germany's Torsten May at the end of round two. In front of a capacity crowd at the Chevrolet Center, the site of his previous three title bout victories and where he has become a local hero, Lampkin continued to defy conventional wisdom and extended his already record-setting IBL championship run to seventeen months. The 31 year-old is the only one of the league's nine inaugural world champions to have achieved an uninterrupted reign, and now he is the only one to make three successful defenses.

It's a feat the man himself could barely believe even before last night's extraordinary triumph, as he summed up during an interview on SportsCenter two weeks ago when he said that everything that's happened to him since he joined the IBL "wasn't supposed to happen". During the same interview, Lampkin stated that he would retire with his next loss, and after three minutes of last night's bout, that appeared to be a certainty. Following two failed attempts at earning a shot at Lampkin in December '06 and May '07, Torsten May finally secured his title challenge with a split decision win over England's Carl Thompson in January. The German appeared like a caged animal as he prowled the ring shortly before the opening bell, itching to finally exchange punches with the world champion.

Lampkin looked slow and uncertain in the opening stages, and absorbed a flush right cross just thirty seconds into the fight. He then found himself down on one knee thirty seconds later when a stinging body shot took the wind out of him. Lampkin was up at five but wore a concerned visage as he made it back to his feet. The two exchanges a flurry of blows soon after, bringing excited cheers from the audience, and Lampkin was able to stay out of trouble until the end of the frame when another right cross put him on his backside. Referee Jorge Alonso started applying the count just as the bell was sounding, and a vacant-eyed Lampkin somehow pushed himself up at seven and returned to his corner on unsteady legs.

Alonso visited Lampkin's corner during the intermission and told his trainer Jimmy Grant that he would stop the fight if the champion was dropped a third time, adding that he was concerned for the man's health. This last comment brought an incredulous expression from Lampkin, a great moment that HBO's cameras caught beautifully in the moments before the bell sounded for round two. Lampkin caught May with a stiff left-right combo early in the stanza and pierced a jab through his defenses around its midpoint, while May also scored with a trio of hard lefts. That aside, there was little action of note until the last five seconds of the frame - and what an amazing five seconds they were.

With May seemingly backpedalling following the timekeeper's ten-second signal, Lampkin pinned him in a corner and unloaded a left hook that buckled the challenger's knees and put him against the ropes. Each punch of the follow-up left-right-left flurry caught May flush, and he slid to the canvas and fell sideways, his head hanging over the edge of the ring apron and having to be supported by a pair of ringside reporters as Alonso administered what appeared to be a redundand count and the audience went wild. The noise that came from them when Lampkin landed the initial left hook was like the roar of some primal beast, that sound a physical presence within the confines of the Chevrolet Center. May did not move for the duration of Alonso's count. Lampkin was the winner by knockout at the end of round two, and still world champion.

He could be seen voicing the words "Oh, my God" with a stunned expression on his face as Grant and his corner crew flooded the ring to celebrate with him. Within moments they had hauled him onto their shoulders and were parading him around the ring to the delight of the adoring throng of 5,700 that were crammed into the Chevrolet Center. The win improved Lampkin's record to 39-8-1(31), while the vanquished German, having seen his big chance disintegrate in a handful of seconds, fell to 35-6-1(24). As I write this article now, a mere hour after Lampkin's triumph, I am still finding it difficult to believe what I witnessed, still cannot quite comprehend the magnitude of what Jeff Lampkin pulled off in those seven crazy minutes.

There was absolutely nothing to indicate the remarkable story that Jeff Lampkin was about to unleash upon the boxing world when he stepped into the ring against former light-heavyweight champion Maurice Holmes in his IBL debut just under two years ago in San Juan, Puerto Rico. And that is the absolute beauty and uncertainty and wonderful unexpectedness of all of sports. This man, who appeared set to never win a world title of any kind on the first day of 2006, will now go down as the first great champion of the International Boxing League, regardless of what happens after tonight. He could very well lose his title and end his career when he next steps back in the ring, but it will not matter, because what he has accomplished in the last two years makes him immortal, and that can never be taken away from him.

[kenyan_cheena]

...and that, my friends, is why we love this game so much.

[kenyan_cheena]

ESPN

Boxing

Updated: May 4, 2008 9.30 AM ET

Shelton suffers costly defeat
on Youngstown undercard

By Larry Holman
ESPN.com
Archive

Fighting in the final preliminary bout on Saturday night's Lampkin-May card in Youngstown, Jamaican light-heavyweight Tyrone Shelton dropped a majority decision verdict to New York's Ray Landis (115-113, 114-114, 115-113), and as a consequence has tumbled out of short-term world championship contention. Shelton came into the bout ranked at #2 in the 175-pound division's IBL World Championship Conference, while Landis was placed at #8. The loss was Shelton's second of 2008 after he fell to a unanimous decision defeat against Peru's Mauro Mina in a January world title eliminator in his hometown of Kingston, Jamaica. The two setbacks have come after Shelton was a perfect 3-0 in 2007 and 5-0 since September '06, with former world champion Harold Johnson and world title challenger Taribo Keshi amongst the opponents he defeated.

It was a surprising result as Landis was not only making his IBL debut, but also fighting for the first time as a light-heavyweight after competing as a super-middleweight before signing with the league. He challenged Fulgencio Obelmejias for the 168-pound IBF world title in August '06 and while he was expected to provide Shelton (30-5-1(20)) with a stern test, there were not many observers who were predicting a victory. As it was, Landis only just took the verdict, thanks in large part to a fantastic effort in round nine, where he punished Shelton before dropping him with an uppercut at the two-minute mark. It concluded a dominant stretch in the contest for Landis, as all three judges awarded him five of the seven rounds from the 3rd through to the end of the 9th. Landis (31-3(24)) had to withstand a strong finish from Shelton in the final two frames, but it was not quite enough for the Caribbean slugger to get over the line.

The punch totals illustrated what a lively, exciting fight it was, as Landis connected with 246 of 1,000 punches (24.6%), while Shelton landed 282 of 1,030 (27.4%). Whether the closeness of it and the narrow nature of his defeat helps Shelton when the IBL releases their updated rankings next weekend remains to be seen. One interesting aspect of the fight is that Shelton had originally planned to be inactive during stage one of the WCC following the January bout with Mina, but when it was announced that 3rd-ranked Englishman Len Harvey had negotiated a clash with 6th-ranked former alphabet champion James Franklin, the Jamaican's camp feared that he might drop in the rankings if he stayed inactive. Now, after being defeated by Landis, and combined with Harvey's win over Franklin, it's entirely certain that Shelton will take a tumble in the standings.

Larry Holman is ESPN.com's boxing writer.

[Romdawg88]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

...and that, my friends, is why we love this game so much.

Man, the Jeff Lampkin story I think has been the best thing in this uni bar none> Just a great ride, I'm going to be kind of sad when it comes to an end.

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by Romdawg88

Man, the Jeff Lampkin story I think has been the best thing in this uni bar none> Just a great ride, I'm going to be kind of sad when it comes to an end.

You know I like to avoid talking about the player's ratings and career stages in order to make it feel as real as possible, but I will say this, and it will make you even more ...

Lampkin is at post-prime and rated a 2. 2. The next worst fighters in the JHW WCC are a couple of prime guys rated 5. It is completely and totally inexplicable that Jeff Lampkin is the world champion, but it has been, like you said, probably the best story in the uni so far. I'm kinda bummed that I didn't watch the fight against May live. I just simmed it, but when the result came up on the screen I let out one of those "I cannot believe this!" laughs, and when I read through the bout log I was just .

[Romdawg88]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

You know I like to avoid talking about the player's ratings and career stages in order to make it feel as real as possible, but I will say this, and it will make you even more ...

Lampkin is at post-prime and rated a 2. 2. The next worst fighters in the JHW WCC are a couple of prime guys rated 5. It is completely and totally inexplicable that Jeff Lampkin is the world champion, but it has been, like you said, probably the best story in the uni so far. I'm kinda bummed that I didn't watch the fight against May live. I just simmed it, but when the result came up on the screen I let out one of those "I cannot believe this!" laughs, and when I read through the bout log I was just .

Wow, that does make it all the better. He hasn't been post-prime the whole run right? There is no way he was, that would be nuts.

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by Romdawg88

Wow, that does make it all the better. He hasn't been post-prime the whole run right? There is no way he was, that would be nuts.

Not sure, but I can find out by checking the bout logs. I'll do that when I get home tonight.

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

Upcoming posts in TGPiS...

* Boxing Monthly April fight reviews

* Review of the May 3 Jeff Lampkin-Torsten May world junior-heavyweight title fight (plus undercard)

* Review of the May 10 Patricio Marquez-Francisco Ortiz world lightweight title fight (plus undercard)

* IBL WCC updated rankings, as at May 11

Gonna work on Marquez-Ortiz post tonight, and the rankings on the weekend.

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by Romdawg88

Wow, that does make it all the better. He hasn't been post-prime the whole run right? There is no way he was, that would be nuts.

His first bout at post-prime was the inaugural IBL world title bout, when he stopped DeLeon in the 5th. So that's FOUR victories in title fights at post-prime, plus the "exhibition" against Haynes.

[Romdawg88]

So that is DeLeon x2, Taoufik Belbouli, and Torsten May with May being the worse of the bunch at a 7 and all the wins coming in some crazy dramatic way. Wow, like you said this is why we love the game.

[kenyan_cheena]

The New York Age

SUNDAY, 11 MAY, 2008

JUST ANOTHER
CRAZY NIGHT IN VEGAS

Story by James Reynolds

Stage one of competition in the International Boxing League's World Championship Conference concluded in surreal fashion last night at the sanctioning organisation's headquarters, the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. By the time the night was over, a former world champion had suffered an upset defeat, the world flyweight title had changed hands for a fourth consecutive fight, and Mexico's Patricio Marquez had retained the world lightweight championship, though in controversial circumstances. All of it was witnessed from ringside by the league's president and vice-president, James Molk and Michael Vincennes. The evening commenced with a trio of bouts in the IBL's Development League, a mere prelude to the drama that was about to commence.

Any of the three WCC contests on the card were worthy of main event status, and it just so happened that Jamaica's former world junior-middleweight champion Mike McCallum featured in the first of them. Making his IBL debut against the Englishman Nigel Benn, McCallum was expected to push his claim for a shot at the world middleweight championship currently held by Australia's Les Darcy, but it didn't quite work out that way. In a major boil over, Benn took a split decision verdict to send McCallum to just his second career defeat, although both of those have come during the last twelve months. On the 26th of May '07, McCallum was upset by compatriot Devon Edwards, also by split decision, but went on to avenge the defeat with an 11th round TKO in November. It's doubtful that Benn will be as generous as Edwards was in regards to granting McCallum a rematch.

Benn brought a two-fight winning streak into the evening with his most recent victory coming in October, a convincing one against Oakland's Marvin Blanks in the WCC qualifying tournament. He had said during the week that he was not planning to be "Mike McCallum's sacrificial lamb", that he intended to not only compete and trouble the Jamaican but also emerge as the winner. McCallum started strongly in round one, only for Benn to answer back with an equally dominant effort in the 2nd. Round three was evenly-fought, but when Benn punished McCallum with a succession of power punches in the 4th it really did appear that "The Bodysnatcher" was going to be in for a tough night. The action slowed considerably in round five before coming back to life outstandingly in a fantastic 6th frame, during which both men had their moments only for Benn to steal it with a flurry of activity in the final thirty seconds. All three judges scored the round in his favour.

McCallum looked the worse for wear coming out for round seven, some alarming puffiness showing under his right eye. He took the round to give his supporters some hope, but it was followed by a period of control from the Englishman that ended up winning him the stoush. Benn did just enough to take the 8th, before being the clear winner of round nine and then dominating the 10th and 11th. He almost dropped McCallum twice in the penultimate frame, his assault bringing the crowd to their feet as the Jamaican legend was rocked time and again. However, McCallum showed his champion qualities with one last rally, abruptly dropping Benn onto the seat of his pants with a left hook midway through round twelve. Benn shook his head, clearly annoyed with himself as he made it back to his feet at seven, and avoided trouble for the remainder of the stanza, but wore a perturbed expression as he waited for the judge's verdict.

When it came, the 24 year-old fell to his knees and shouted. He had taken the split decision verdict by scores of 115-112, 113-114 and 115-112, pulling off the biggest win of his career to date. Benn landed 241 of 1,114 punches (21.6%), McCallum 185 of 791 (23.4%). Now 19-2-1(14), Benn is sure to make a major jump in the WCC rankings as he came into the fight ranked at the bottom of the division at #15, while McCallum (38-2-2(28)) was placed 5th. The 31 year-old offered no excuses, conceding that Benn was simply better on the night, and when asked if he thought he had maybe lost a step or two, replied by saying "Well, it happens to all of us eventually." Benn has bounced back remarkably well since a shock 4th round KO loss to Juan Carlos Rivero eleven months ago, and if he can stay hot through the rest of '08 will certainly be in a position to challenge for the world title in early '09.

In the co-feature, Russia's Yuri Arbachakov tried, and failed, to become the first fighter to successfully defend the IBL's world flyweight championship, his bout against Scotland's Benny Lynch called off late in the 8th round due to cuts above the champion's right eyebrow and on his left eyebrow. It was unclear exactly which one caused the stoppage, and, as a harbinger to what would follow in the main event, the situation became confused as it appeared one of the cuts had been caused by a head clash. Regardless, Lynch was the rightful winner as he outclassed Arbachakov for much of the fight, becoming the second man from his nation to claim a flyweight world title in the last fourteen months after Walter McGowan won the WBA belt in March '07 (and successfully defended it for the third time last month).

This was the second loss in an IBL title fight for Arbachakov, as he was defeated by Mexico's Candido Tellez in the inaugural championship bout in December '06, before winning it from the same man last September. In between those two clashes, Tellez had lost the title to, and won it back from, Cincinnati's Willie Davison, meaning that Lynch signifies the fifth different title reign in the space of eighteen months. Arbachakov could not have made a worse start to the bout, as the cut above his right eyebrow was opened midway through round one by a stiff left jab. Lynch continued to hold the upper-hand through the next two rounds before Arbachakov dominated the 4th. Lynch was back in command in rounds five and six, and opened Arbachakov again late in the 7th, after which the desperate champion rocked Lynch with an uppercut and a right cross. It was a remarkable end to an extraordinary round of boxing.

Almost two minutes into round eight, the cut was opened once again and this time referee Sergey Krupenich asked the ringside doctor to examine it. The fight was allowed to continue but within thirty seconds it was halted again, as Arbachakov was not only bleeding heavily from the cut above his right eyebrow, he was now also sporting a wound on the inside of his left eyebrow, near the bridge of his nose. Krupenich indicated that this new cut had come from a head clash, but when the doctor inspected Arbachakov and suggested that the fight should be halted, it was not immediately clear whether it was the left cut or the right cut that led to the stoppage. When Lynch was announced as the winner by TKO, it confirmed that the original cut, which had come from a punch, was the culprit. The Scotsman and his team celebrated jubilantly, not the least bit concerned with the anti-climatic nature of his win, which came at 2:35 of round eight.

Lynch confidently boasted afterwards that he would have knocked Arbachakov out if it had been allowed to continue, citing the ease with which he was landing his punches for most of the contest. Indeed, Lynch connected with a fantastic 249 of of 443 punches (56.2%), Arbachakov just 151 of 592 (25.5%). When the possibility of a rematch was raised, Lynch (30-3-1(18)) said he would have no problem if the IBL came to such a conclusion. Amazingly, the Glasgow native has risen to the top of the league's flyweight division after being eliminated via disqualification in the quarter-finals of the Inter-Continental championship tournament back in August '06. Last night's crowning glory was the 29 year-old's seventh consecutive win, coming on the back of victories over former champion Willie Davison in September and Japan's Koki Kameda in the January eliminator.

Arbachakov is now 34-4-1(25) and will need to produce a much better effort if the speculated rematch becomes a reality. After a busy opening fourteen months in the IBL (during which he fought a total of sixty rounds in six bouts), he was given the luxury of an eight-month break before this title defense and it will disappoint him greatly that after striving for so long to win the championship, he was unable to hold on to it. He'll certainly need some time to recover from the beating Lynch unleashed upon him, so if a rematch does eventuate it probably won't be until October or November, near the conclusion of the '08 season. Who knows, after the way he looked last night, Lynch might be inclined to take his championship back home and defend it there against a different opponent in stage two.

The evening's main event was supposed to be the conclusion of a rivalry and the answer to a question, that being who the best lightweight in the world really is. All it did was fan the fires of the feud and make the truth of the issue a bit murkier. The rivalry between Mexico's Patricio Marquez and Francisco Ortiz of the Dominican Republic started back in March '06, when Marquez scored a convincing 10th round TKO and became the official world champion, adding Ortiz's WBA title to his own WBC belt. Marquez was dethroned as world champion by Joe Brown in November of the same year, after which Brown was knocked out by Ortiz in March '07. The Dominican pursued a rematch with Marquez, who seemed uninterested in the idea when he instead moved up to junior-welterweight last July to fight future Hall of Famer Javier Gutierrez in what now appears to have been the Argentinian's final bout.

Marquez eventually came to the table, though, and the rematch took place in December, the Mexican given a disputed unanimous decision nod in a fifteen-round epic that Ortiz appeared to have won. The plan had been for the winner to fight the IBL world champion later this year, but due to the controversy surrounding the verdict a third contest was arranged. In an ending that was eerily similar to the Lynch-Arbachakov bout, Marquez was victorious by TKO in the 8th round due to a cut on Ortiz's forehead. However, the cut was opened by a head clash in round six, one that referee Jose Cobian had called intentional on Marquez's part at the time it occured. Therefore, the scorecards should have been tallied, rather than Marquez being a TKO victor. The result would not have changed, as Marquez held leads of two points on two cards and three points on the other heading into round eight.

In the aftermath, it wasn't the technicality that infuriated Ortiz, it was Marquez's actions. He labelled the champion a "cheat" and a "dog", saying that while it was the judges who cheated him out of victory in December, on this occasion Marquez "took care of the injustice all by himself." Marquez denied that he had intentionally headbutted Ortiz, but replays of the incident indicated that the champion seemed to have lost his cool after Ortiz's constant clinching, and retaliated. Whether the ending of the fight was conclusive or not, there was no denying that Marquez was the superior combatant while it lasted, and looked to be heading for a comfortable victory. The first four rounds were evenly contested, but Marquez swept the 5th, 6th and 7th on all three scorecards to open up a handy lead, a lead he would have almost surely built upon. He had outlanded Ortiz 219-142, connecting with an impressive 45.7% of his punches while Ortiz struggled to land 19.7%.

After the cut was opened in round six, Cobian halted the action twice in round seven to allow the ringside doctor to inspect the wound, before stepping in again early in the 8th, where, after an even lengthier examination, the fight was stopped at the 0:21 mark. Ortiz (38-4(31)) could only shake his head as he returned to his corner, but his frustration soon turned to anger and as he visited Marquez's corner to exchange congratulations, he hurled insults at his opponent. Marquez (46-3-1(37)) greeted Ortiz's words with indifference, allowing the Dominican to vent. During the post-fight interview, Marquez made it clear that he had no intention of fighting Ortiz a fourth time, saying "I'm 3-0 against the guy, it's done, even if you want to call it 2-1, I'm finished with him", to which an incredulous Ortiz replied "Well, I'm not finished with you!"

While Marquez is officially correct as far as the cold, hard numbers are concerned, he would surely concede that Ortiz has been luckless in both their second and third clashes. The Dominican was the clear winner in December, in what will go down as the greatest performance of his career, but was not rewarded by the judges. And last night, any chance he had of winning was taken away from him by the gruesome gash Marquez opened on his forehead. None of that changes the fact that, as was the case after their second meeting, Marquez is the world lightweight champion, will be at #2 in the IBL rankings when they are released today and, come November, he'll be fighting the winner of the June 14 IBL lightweight championship bout between Ben Villaflor and his compatriot Hector Hernandez. As for Ortiz, he'll have to be content with venting, and stewing, and grinding, and waiting.

[kenyan_cheena]

Now working on the WCC rankings. Should have them done within the next 24 hours, I guess.