Judahs return Bitter Sweet! (4/15/07)
By: Michael sheffield

Everything that could have happened Friday night at the highly anticipated return of Zab Judah at the Fitz did happen, with the exception of a satisfying outcome to Judah’s fight.

After being advertised as an outdoor bout scheduled to take place on the banks of the Mississippi River, the fight was moved indoors two hours before the scheduled start time due to rain, wind and lightning. A hard working crew not only set up the ring, but ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights” broadcast equipment as well. Thanks to their efforts, the fight started promptly at 8:00.

The partisan crowd of 1,300, including Judah fans from New York mixed in with the Mississippi fight fans and Judah was raring to go from the moment he stepped out of the dressing room to when his lumbering 20-person strong entourage (which ran the gamut from suspended Tennessee Titans’ cornerback, Pacman Jones to Judah’s two daughters) entered the ring. Unfortunately it took more time to get the entourage in and out of the ring than it did for Judah to actually fight.

Right at the opening bell, Judah attacked Ruben Galvan and the crowd sensed a first round knockout as Judah threw everything he had at the grossly overmatched Galvan. Unfortunately, everything included either an inadvertent elbow or a head butt because Galvan began spewing blood from a cut over his left temple. The blood from the cut and Galvan’s Mohawk made him resemble a wayward WWE performer in stead of a boxer and even though he was clearly not hurt and wanted to continue, referee Keith Hughes, after consulting with the ringside doctor stopped the fight. Because it was the first round, it was ruled a no-contest.

Needless to say, the ruling did not sit well with the crowd, nor did it satisfy Judah’s corner, Jones’ opinion was that a right hook caused the cut. The final decision will be up to the Mississippi Boxing Commission, which is viewing the tape of the bout and will rule sometime in the next few days.

The evening started off with an action packed 6-round battle between Antonio Davis and Jesus Perez. The wild swinging Perez cut Davis early in the fight on an accidental head butt, but Davis was affected more by Perez’ constant holding than the cut over his left eye. Davis won the fight unanimously.

A 12-round WBO-NABO flyweight title fight followed Judah’s fight between Rayonta Whitfield and Carlos Tamara. The early part of the fight was action packed with Tamara getting cut over the left eye, but also getting two points deducted in the third round for repeated low blows. Whether or not the blows were actually low depends on whom you ask in the crowd.

The fight was easily the most crowd pleasing up to that point with both fighters dishing out and taking punishment that showed not only their collective heart, but also their lack of serious punching power. Whitfield would take the title on a unanimous decision, but the fight was close enough to where the low blows could have been fatal to Tamara.

The expected knockout power of heavyweights Joell Godfrey and DeLeon Tinsley was disappointingly absent in their bout, which promised to see somebody’s 0 go, as both fighters were undefeated. Godfrey spent the majority of the evening on the ropes playing peek-a-boo with Tinsley, who was doing his best to goad his opponent into fighting. Amazingly, nobody’s 0 went anywhere, as the fight was called a majority draw.

The night closed with what had to be the most skill-free, but at the same time crowd-pleasing battle that gave the antsy crowd the knockout it had been waiting for all night. Crowd favorite, Jason Ross decimated Bo Skinner in just over two minutes, knocking him down three times before the referee stepped in.