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Barrera Flushes Kelley!
King of Featherweights Retains Title
photos by chris cozzone
Ringside
reports by Bobby Mundy & Roger Grandgenett
BARRERA
DESTROYS KELLEY
--Bobby Mundy
In a fight that seemed to be a
huge mismatch, Marco Antonio Barrera (57-3-0, 40 KOs) dropped
"The Flushing Flash" Kevin Kelley (54-6-3, 36 KOs) three times
in route to a 4th round TKO victory at the MGM Grand Garden
Arena in Las Vegas.
Barrera used his exceptional
skills and power to outbox and outslug Kelley throughout the
entire bout. From the 1st round, it was evident that Barrera
didn't intend to toy with Kelley as Bernard Hopkins toyed with
Morrade Hakkar two weeks ago.
Barrera dropped Kelley early in
the 1st round with a counter left hook clean on the chin. The
punch did not appear to be the hardest punch Barrera has ever
thrown, but it was enough to send Kelley to the canvas. Kelley
appeared to be in trouble at that point, but he did manage to
make it out the round using his jab to keep Barrera from
attacking.
In the 2nd round, Kelley came out
more aggressive, intent on gaining Barrera's respect. Kelley
landed a good left hook upstairs that did send Barrera back. He
also got inside on Barrera and tried to slug and trade punches.
Wrong plan. Barrera opened up his arsenal with vicious body
punches that staggered Kelley immediately.
"Barrera is a solid puncher for a
featherweight", claimed Kelley after the fight. "I was too
anxious in this fight and I should have relaxed more. I wanted
to make history."
Barrera returned to a body attack
in the 3rd round which slowed Kelley's brief aggressiveness. The
3rd round also displayed Barrera's beautiful transition from the
classic slugger to the boxer-puncher as he used jabs, double
left hooks and straight right hands that all landed at will.
In the 4th round, Barrera hurt
Kelley to the body early in the round and sending him to the
canvas with a right hook to the temple. Kelley was obviously in
trouble at this point, but he did beat the 10 count to continue.
Barrera, however, went in for the kill as he began to attack
Kelley viciously, dropping him again with a left hand. Kelley
rose yet again, on wobbly legs showing his courage and will to
win, only to be bombarded with another flurry of Barrera's
furious vengeance. Barrera pinned Kelley against the ropes in
his own corner and began to unload with power shots. Right
before Kelley's corner was about to jump in and stop the fight,
referee Robert Byrd stopped the fight 1:32 seconds into the 4th.
"Barrera is the king of the
featherweights", said Kelley after the bout.
GAINER
WINS SPLIT DECISION OVER LEON
--Roger Grandgenett
WBA
featherweight champion Derrick Gainer withstood a strong early
assault to drop Oscar Leon twice and come away with a split
decision win at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Leon came out very
aggressively and took the fight to Gainer, but the champion
dropped Leon with a body shot in round eight and a counter right
hand in round ten to pull away in the late rounds. Judges had it
117-110, 114-112 (Gainer), 114-112 (Leon).
CARBAJAL
BEATS UP DOTSE
--Bobby Mundy
Cruz Carbajal
(23-11-1, 19KOs) made quick work of Steve "The Destroyer" Dotse
(22-6-2, 18KOs) scoring a 2nd round TKO. Carbajal controlled the
action the entire fight, whaling on Dotse against the ropes and
hurting him several times in the 1st round. In the 2nd round,
Carbajal dominated Dotse with power shot after power shot that
sent Dotse wobbling around the ring for the entire round. In
fact Carbajal landed 71 of 113 power shots in round 2 alone.
After the end of the 2nd round, referred Joe Cortez stopped the
fight on the advice of doctor James Game.
UNDERCARD:
GONZALEZ DECISIONS WELLIVER
--Bobby Mundy
Carlos
Gonzalez(51-5-1)43KOs won a majority decision over Spokane,
Washington's Dumont Welliver (13-4-1) in a special welterweight
attraction.
In the 1st
round, Welliver obviously came to fight has he stood toe to toe
with the more experienced Gonzalez and provided the crowd with
some exciting action. Gonzalez began to back Welliver up as the
round went on and controlled the second half of the round with
good jabs and left hooks. In the 2nd round, Welliver picked up
the pace again. Welliver used nice counter left hands to stun
Gonzalez as he came rushing in. Gonzalez was not able to sustain
the effective aggressiveness he had in the 1st round.
Gonzalez was
able to regain his aggressiveNss and backed Welliver against the
ropes, landing good punches. Welliver landed the harder shots,
but Gonzalez was busier and initiated the action. The judges
scored the bout 76-76, 77-75, 77-75 for Gonzalez which made a
pro-Welliver crowd boo loudly. Fightnews scored the bout 76-76.
GARZA DECISIONS
MENDOZA
In a six
rounder, Juan Garza (18-1) won a tough decision over game Victor
Mendoza (12-15). Garza played the aggressor while Mendoza landed
enough counter shots to make the fight appear a lot closer than
the scorecard results. All three judges had it 59-55.
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