March 11, 2007
Live! From the Grand Hall of the Sheraton, in Hartford CT. This is the return to the Northeast for WMC Boxing. This week in the Grand Hall we have a main even featuring one of the top rising star's of the WMC, Frank Klaus. Klaus will be taking on Gilbert Baptist. In the other feature bout of the evening. Willie Warren will face Jonathan Assous. Warren has been slowly climbing the ranks as well and is going to face another good fighter in Assous. Tonight also feartures the debuts of two of the newest fighters in the WMC. We have Ben Jeby and Odlanier Sarduy fighting separate bouts on the undercard. With that, let's get right to the action.
Red Cooke 0-2-0(0) v. Jonathan McGrath 2-7-0(0)
This fight had some good action for an opening fight. Too bad that all of the action was in the first 6 rounds and neither fighter did much afterward. McGrath did a better job with his jab and defense. Neither fighter was hurt at all. Scoring was 96-94, 95-95, 96-94 for Jonathan McGrath by Majority Decision.
Kevin Morrison 3-5-2(1) v. Ben Jeby 0-0-0(0)
If there was a textbook way to debut this would be it. Jeby totally destroyed Morrison in this fight. From the opening bell his skill was superior in every way. Morrison was never hurt, but the volume of the punishment that he received was amazing. In round 7 his eye started to swell and he defense was non existant. The ref halted the fight toward the end of the round.
Stuart Robinson 3-6-0(1) v. Odlanier Sarduy 0-0-0(0)
What was the ref thinking? Sarduy had a good opening round, and Robinson was penalized for a low blow, but round two was much closer. Something else happened but I have no idea what it was. Just 30 seconds into the 3
rd round it was stopped and Sarduy was given a TKO victory.
Leandro Rocha 3-5-0(2) v. Keith Tamlin 3-6-0(0)
This fight really should have been saved as an opener. Neither fighter is going to set the world on fire, and the crowd was not really into the fight. Tamlin wore Rocha out early but couldn't do more than that. Even though Rocha was the busier fighter Tamlin landed more blows and it showed on the scorecards. 99-94, 96-96 and 98-94 for Tamlin by majority decision.
Willie Warren 3-1-0(0) v. Jonathan Assous 4-7-0(1)
This was actually a pretty good fight. Assous was the underdog here to the up and coming Warren, and he held his own pretty well. Warren didn't land any hard punches but he was much more consistent over the course of the fight. Still, it turned into a dirty fight, with the ref constantly getting involved and warning the fighters. Warren did enough to get the win but not to truly impress. 96-94, 97-93, and 96-94.
Frank Klaus 5-1-0(4) v. Gilbert Baptist 6-5-1(2)
Klaus started the fight just like he said that he was going to, with a knockdown of Baptist. Baptist has proven to be one of the more difficult guys to knockdown. Klaus had better hand speed, power and stamina. In fact his superiority was evident halfway through the fight when Baptist appeared to be completely out of gas. Klaus kept the pressure on and scored another knockdown in the 8
th. In the 10
th he was on the move again and laid into Baptist. Baptist withstood the onslaught and finished the fight. Scoring was 100-90, 98-91 and 95-93. No idea which fight the last judge saw, but considering the other scores it is kind of scary. To Baptist's credit, he is only the second fighter to lose to Klaus and not get knocked out.
I was looking back at some of my dynasties and realized that this was a good premise that I didn't give a long enough run too. Welcome back. 