Not a headline from 1993... Holyfield
defeated Botha in Las Vegas Saturday night. Namauu, Santamauro also victorious. Despite all the grief and bellyaching we all gave the match-up, the heavyweight bout between Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield and Francois "The White Buffalo" Botha wasn't really half bad after all.
Botha started early trying to land his power shots, but Holyfield demonstrated early why he was a 4-time world champion and a better boxer in his prime. Botha landed early to Holyfield's abs, and tried some dirty moves, like an Emanuel Augustus-like box-your-ears move, which cited warnings from referee Russell Mora.
Evident early was that Holyfield, despite reaching retirement age, is still in prime shape, while Botha looked like he belonged in a Toughman contest. Botha tired early, staying up against the ropes. His entire game plan seemed to be 1-2-clinch, a la John Ruiz. This actually worked in round five, where Botha was able to capitalize on top of those clinches to break away and land decent, meaningful shots. But for the majority of the fight, Evander's punch output managed to sway the 1-2-clinch program, and in round six he threw a straight right that simply floored Botha. Botha made the count, but he was clearly on Odd Way Out, and after a battering in the corner, Russell Mora stopped the fight in the seventh round.
Post-fight, Al Bernstein left the door open for a retirement for Botha, asking him what was next. The punchy Botha simply said he was going to talk to his team about what was next. He also asked Holyfield how to rate his performance, to which Holyfield gave himself a 7.
Holyfield is now the WBF (what?) heavyweight champion, and goes up to 43-10-2 (28 KO). Frans Botha goes down to 47-5-3 (28 KO).
Fight of the night goes to the ten-round cruiserweight bout between UNLV's own Henry Namauu and Rayford Johnson. Namauu and Johnson at times were ready to throw defense to the wind and stand and brawl all night. Johnson started the fight well into it. He came with power, and he came with some accuracy. Johnson's downfall came due to the fact that he fought a minute at a time, and a boxing round is three minutes. Namauu's stamina came into play as by the third and fourth round Johnson would fight the first minute and try to get by on that in the second and third. Namauu wasn't having that. The 2006 Cruiserweight Collegiate Champion put his thunderous power behind every punch, making sure he was giving as much as he was (occasionally) taking.
By round seven, the tide had turned, and it was now the Henry Namauu show. Johnson was still winging punches, but not connecting with any accuracy. Namauu would wind up his punches and connect. Johnson landed an intense flurry which connected with Namauu, and from that point Namauu saw red, barraging Johnson with head attacks that made Johnson's head look like it was going to snap right off. Tony Weeks mercifully jumped in and stopped the fight, but Namauu was incensed and looked like he could go ten more. Namauu, who started as a hard-luck fighter, now improves to 6-3 (4 KO) and shows no sign of slowing down. The too-game-for-his-own-good Johnson falls to 5-5.
On the undercard, in a story of "too little, too late," Valente Tinajero suffered a loss at the hands of former IBF champion, the veteran "King" Arthur Williams. Williams used his jab and reach to effectively keep Tinajero at bay for most of the fight. He moved him into the corner, but then couldn't do any real effective damage. Tinajero was looking for the big bomb all night, but couldn't find it, save for a left hook in round 5 that wobbled Williams. Both men were tired, but Tinajero had conserved more energy and used it to come on strong in rounds 5 and 6, but it wasn't enough. All three judges scored the bout 59-55 for Williams, moving him up to 47-16-1 (30 KO). 411Mania had the bout 58-56 for Williams, with Tinajero taking his first loss at 8-1 (4 KO).
On the first pay-per-view bout, local Rocco Santamauro won a shut-out decision against Karl Hammer. Hammer, for what it's worth, did his best but he was winded by round two, and allowed Santamauro to tee off on him, and tee off he did. Unfortunately, he couldn't finish someone whose knockout was there for the taking, so his team will have to evaluate whether this was a worthy win. The judges and 411mania were in agreement, 40-36 across the board.
In the night's women's bout, Jennifer Han picked up her first professional win as she out-fired Crystal Hoy in a four-round super featherweight bout. Hoy was able to slip the punches early, but Han was the more aggressive, harder puncher throughout the four rounds, and if round one had been a full three-minute round, Hoy may have gone down. 411Mania agreed with the scorecards of the judges, 40-36 for Han. She climbs to 1-1-1; Hoy picks up the loss and falls to 3-2-2 (2 KO).
It's a bad sign when your opponent comes in wearing boxing trunks and shoes, and you've been sent in with basketball shorts and sneakers. This is how the scene looked when Alexis Santiago took on Brice Yeniki in the opening bout. Yeniki, winless in four fights, was again clearly outmatched, took a lot of punishment, and didn't win a single round on 411's card or the judges' cards. It's hard to tell what Santiago has to offer against such a poor opponent. Santiago is now 3-0-1 (1 KO); Yeniki falls to 0-5 and really should rethink his career.
The swing bout came right after the Namauu/Johnson slobberknocker, and brought the energy of the arena way down. Again, if the guy comes to the fight in proper gear, and you show up in basketball shorts, it's not a good sign. Juan Alcolea showed up in basketball shorts. The action was few and far between but Lawrence Hughes' not-much was more accurate than Alcolea's not-much. The judges' scorecards all found in favor of Johnson, 40-36, 40-36, and 39-37. 411mania Boxing ruled the fight 40-36 for Johnson.
Source: 411mania.com
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