Showtime ShoBox Recap
October 24, 2008
Bell Centre-Montreal, Quebec
Montreal has the best boxing crowds in either the United States or Canada. This event is officially a sellout with an attendance of 16,266.
1. Junior Middleweight (154 pounds) 10-Round Match:
Ronald Hearns (20-0, 16 KO's, 154 pounds) vs. Paul Clavette (14-1-1, 2 KO's, 154.2 pounds)
Hearns is the son of the legendary Thomas "Hitman" Hearns, and began his athletic career as a basketball player. Ronald played basketball at American University and only began to box against his father's wisher after he graduated college.
The Southfield, Michigan resident's last match was a technical knockout victory at 2:10 of round 1 over Alexander Pacheco Quiroz on September 17, 2008 at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Hearns is unranked by The Ring magazine, and the number 67 ranked boxer in the world at 154 pounds by boxrec.com.
Clavette started out as a kickboxer and is used to working shorter matches. This is Clavette's first match that is scheduled to go past 8 rounds.
Clavette's last match was a 6-round unanimous decision victory over Andres Pablo Villafane on July 8, 2008 at Salle de Spectacles L Etoile in Brossard, Quebec. This is Clavette's seventeenth match as a pro and all of them have been in Quebec.
Clavette is unranked by The Ring and the number 65 ranked boxer in the world at 154 pounds by boxrec.com.
At 25-years-old, Clavette is 4 years younger the 29-year-old Hearns. Hearns has the height advantage standing 6' 3" tall, while Clavette stands 5' 10" tall. The American has the reach advantage with a 73" wingspan, compared to the 72" wingspan of Clavette. There are no unofficial weights of the boxers approaching match time available. However, Hearns should be the larger competitor in the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.
The Quebec rules of boxing are in effect for this match. They are the unified rules of boxing with the only major change being that the 3 knockdown rule is in effect. The home areas of the official judges keeping score of this match are not shown. The referee is Michael Griffin.
To show this crowd's greatness, they cheer Clavette when he enters to the Limp Bizkit song "Rollin'". That may the first time that song was played in public since 2003.
Thomas Hearns is accompanying his son to the ring in a very stylish 3-piece purple suit, with a purple tie and purple pocket square. That is among the greatest suits ever worn at a boxing event. They are coming out to what sounds like Gospel music and the look on Thomas' face makes it appear that he is praying for the soul of Ronald's opponent. This also creates one interesting moment as the somber Thomas leads the procession by the ever present dancers that are brought in from gentleman's clubs to perform at boxing events in Montreal. The dancer is still performing a dance at a frenetic pace that is completely inappropriate for the music, and Thomas methodically walks on by without a glance up at the ridiculous sight.
Ronald Hearns easily wins round 1, 10-9. The Southfield, Michigan resident wins an uneventful round 2, 10-9. Round 3 is the closest of the match, but Hearns landed more power punches to take the round, 10-9. After 3 rounds, Hearns leads on my scorecard, 30-27.
Hearns is throwing straighter punches than Clavette, which is giving the American an even greater hand speed advantage then he already possesses. The American wins round 4, 10-9. Hearns wins round 5, 10-9. After 5 rounds, Hearns leads on my scorecard, 50-45.
Steve Farhood, who is doing color commentary of this event for Showtime, is now interviewing Steve Molitor between rounds 5 and 6. Molitor is promoting his November 21 title unification match at 122 pounds with Celestino Caballero on Showtime. The winner of that match would be the likely next opponent at 122 pounds for Israel Vazquez' Ring Championship at 122 pounds, which would also air on Showtime. Showtime has promoted their future events well the last few weeks. Unfortunately Molitor cuts a terrible promo, but at least viewers now know about the match and the seeds have been for the ultimate showdown with Vazquez.
With 1:42 to go in round 6, Hearns had Clavette in trouble pinned in a corner, so the Canadian dropped to a knee. That is the first time Clavette has been knocked down in his pro career. Clavette stands at the count of 8 and after some deliberation, the referee allows Clavette to continue with 1:27 to go in the round. The Canadian looks like he is in bad shape and seconds away from being finished. With 1:08 to go in round 6, Clavette bounced off the ropes, and the referees rules it a knock down. The referee is saying the ropes were the only thing that kept Clavette standing. That appears to be a very weak call to protect a hometown boxer. It gives Clavette extra time to recover without him taking much more damage. The referee rules Clavette is okay to continue with 58 seconds to go in the round. The 3 knockdown rule is in effect. Clavette stopped fighting back, forcing the referee to step in to end the contest with 25 seconds to go in round 6.
The official outcome is that: at 2:37 of round 6 the referee has called a stop to this contest making the winner by technical knockout and still undefeated, "The Chosen One" Ronald Hearns. The win moves Hearns to 21-0 with 17 of those wins coming by way of knockout.
Hearns looked good here in what was a glorified sparring match. He is scheduled to face John Duddy on January 17 in New York City, New York for HBO in his next match. At 29-years-old, the clock is Hearns enemy. He has very little experience for a boxer his age and the boxers at the top of the 154 pound division have lots of it. However, part of that can work in his favor. The Ring's number 1 ranked boxer at 154 pounds is Vernon Forrest and he will not be around the sport much longer. The number 3 ranked boxer at 154 pounds is Oscar De La Hoya who said he is retiring in December. That should open up some spots for younger boxers to take over the division. Hearns is concerned about the reputation he is being pushed, because of his last name. The truth is that he is. Hearns should take advantage of it, rather then resent it. A win over Duddy and the last name Hearns will probably land him a title shot. No one else is getting that shortcut to the top. If Hearns wins the title match, no one will care how he got there. Vincent Kennedy McMahon would never be the owner of WWE if his last name were not McMahon. However, history will remember him most as the greatest wrestling promoter of all time, not the guy who took over a regional promotion from his dad. That is because he took the opportunity he was given and excelled, rather then whine about the stigma of being given preferential treatment.
Clavette works a job full time and boxes as a side career. This means he will probably continue boxing successfully on the undercard of major events in Quebec against soft opponents.
2. IBF Super Middleweight (168 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:
Lucian Bute (22-0, 18 KO's, 168 pounds) (c) vs. Librado Andrade (27-1, 21 KO's, 167.8 pounds)
Bute won this title from Alejandro Berrio via technical knockout at 1:27 of round 11 on October 19, 2007 in the Bell Centre. The champion is attempting to make his second defense of this title.
The native of Romania who now resides in Montreal had a strong amateur boxing career that was highlighted by winning a bronze medal at the 1999 World Amateur Championships .
The champion's last match was a technical knockout victory at 1:08 of round 10 over William Joppy on February 29, 2008 in the Bell Centre. Bute controlled Joppy the entire match, winning every round on all of the judges scorecards prior to the stoppage. Tonight's match will be Bute's tenth straight match at the Bell Centre.
Bute is The Ring's number 3 contender at 168 pounds to their vacant championship in the weight class. (Joe Calzaghe recently vacated The Ring Championship at 168 pounds.)
Andrade has an unorthodox defensive styles that makes it difficult for him to win matches via decision. He does not like to block punches with his arms and gloves. Andrade says blocking the punches makes his arms go numb. Therefore, he chooses to in effect block the punches with his face. Andrade will let his opponents deliver clean shots to his head and try to roll with the punches so that they do no damage. This may be an effective defensive technique. However, to the official scorers it looks like Andrade is being hit in the head very hard the entire round. Therefore, Andrade will lose many rounds where he took no damage. Using that defensive technique, Mikkel Kessler dealt what appeared to be a scary life altering beating on Andrade winning the their match 120-108 on all of the official judges' scorecards. However, at the end of the night Andrade did not have a mark on his face and apparently left the match with no significant damage. The original recap of that match can be found here:
http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/10/24/preview-of-lucian-bute-vs-librado-andrade.html Andrade is The Ring's number 4 contender at 168 pounds.
At 28-years-old, Bute is 2 years younger then the 30 year old Andrade. Bute has the height advantage standing 6' 2.5" tall, while Andrade stands 6' 2" tall. The champion has the reach advantage with a 74" wingspan compared to a 73" wingspan of the challenger. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, the IBF requires boxers to weigh-in within 10 pounds of their official weigh-in weights on the day of the match. Therefore, both boxers should be about the same size in the ring. Bute will employ the southpaw stance, while Andrade will box out of the orthodox stance.
The unified rules of boxing are in effect for this match. The official judges keeping score of this match are from Florida, Quebec and England. The referee is Marlon B. Wright.
The sustained crowd noise for Bute's entrance is so loud the Showtime announcers have to yell into their headsets to be heard. They eventually made the decision to layout during the ring walk and introduction, rather then lose their voices with possibly an hour left in the show. The Showtime announcers point out with this crowd behind him and Andrade's style there is virtually no chance the American is leaving this arena with a decision victory.
Andrade blocks more punches then he usually does in round 1. However, Andrade still blocked a lot of Bute's power punches with his face, allowing the hometown boxer to take round 1, 10-9. Showing superior movement, Bute wins round 2, 10-9. Bute leads on my scorecard after 2 rounds, 20-18.
After round 2, Showtime ran an a video package ad for next week's event featuring Vic Darchinyan vs. Cristian Mijares to unify their titles at 115 pounds. Showtime's play-by-play man for this event, Nick Charles, coming out of the video package made about the greatest unintentionally funny transition, ever. They returned to live action with one of the cameramen trying for an upskirt shot of one of the dancers and Charles said, "Talk about beautiful style match-ups." Charles then went on to talk about Darchinyan vs. Mijares. Therefore, it does not appear Charles was working the Mauro Ranallo angle. Nonetheless it was great comedy.
Bute seems to land straight left hands at will to take round 3, 10-9. Round 4 is Andrade's best of the night, but Bute still wins it, 10-9. To open round 5, Bute has a mark under his right eye. Round 5 is full of rough house tactics and a bit of free style wrestling when Bute had one of Andrade's legs up in the air for a single leg takedown. This is the style Andrade needs to win. The American takes round 5, 10-9. With 2:28 to go in round 6, the referee calls time to have some spilled water in Bute's corner wiped up to prevent an accident. After a short pause the action is resumed. Round 6 is contested on the outside, therefore Bute wins it easily, 10-9. After 6 rounds, Bute leads on my scorecard, 59-55. Both Farhood and Charles have Bute ahead on their scorecards after 6 rounds, 59-55.
Bute wins round 7, 10-9. The crowd was so loud for a Bute combination at the end of round 7, that the bell was barely audible. This has been the loudest crowd throughout an event all year. The champion wins round 8 big, 10-9. With 22 seconds to go in round 9, the referee calls time to admonish Andrade for headbutting. After a 5 second pause, where the clock may not have been stopped, the action is resumed. Bute wins round 9, 10-9. After 9 rounds, the champion leads on my scorecard, 89-82.
A punch from Bute causes blood to start flowing from Andrade's nose with over 2:00 to go in round 10. With 1:50 to go in round 10, Andrade goes down to the mat. It appeared to be a slip, but the referee is ruling it a knockdown. That is only the second time Andrade has been knocked down as a pro. Unhurt, Andrade successfully answers the referee's count to continue with 1:38 to go in the round. With 46 seconds to go in round 10, the referee calls time to admonish Andrade for not listening to the referee's instructions after the boxer kept throwing punches when he was ordered to break. This results in about a 5 second delay before the action is resumed. Bute wins round 10, 10-8. Andrade knows he needs a knockout at this point. Replays show that Andrade clearly went down from getting his feet tangled up with Bute's, not a punch. The referee blew the call. That should not have been ruled a knockdown. However, Andrade would still have been so behind in the match at this point that he would need a knockout to win. That makes the call irrelevant. The blown call may actually help Andrade, because it may make him realize that he must score a knockout to win. Andrade responded to a brutal combination from Bute by using a belly to belly throw to send the champion flying into the padded turnbuckle. This causes the referee to call time with 1:17 to go in round 11 to warn Andrade for a number of things. After the few second pause, the action is resumed. Towards the end of round 11, Bute received his final warning from the referee for holding. The referee told Bute that the next holding infraction will cost the champion a meaningless point. Bute takes round 11, 10-9. With less then 5 seconds to go in the match, a completely spent and out of it Bute goes to his knees in the corner following a right-left combination from Andrade. This is the first time Bute has been to the canvas as a pro. Bute's title cannot be saved by the bell. The crowd is on their feet cheering for the hometown champion to beat the count. Bute makes his feet, but is wobbly and his eyes appear completely vacant. However, the referee was yelling at Andrade to go to the neutral corner and was not counting. The referee can still stop the match, because Bute is obviously in no shape to continue even though he did manage to make his feet. The referee rules Bute is fit to continue, even though the champion is leaning against the corner and has a vacant look on his face. The referee never made Bute walk to him. The champion probably would have failed that test. Immediately after the referee ruled Bute was fit to continue, the bell sounded to end the match. There was no chance for the action to resume and Bute had never left his post leaning against the corner. Andrade just experienced a Montreal screw job. He did knock out the champion, but will not be leaving with the title belt. Andrade was dominating round 12 before the knockdown to the point it would have been a borderline 10-8 round anyway. The challenger wins an unsatisfying round 12, 10-8. My unofficial scorecard has Andrade winning by knockout at 2:59 of round 12. However, based on the refereeing Bute wins on my scorecard, 117-109. Following the bell, Andrade's trainer went after the referee and shoved him several times before he was restrained.
The official decision is that the judges have scored the match: 117-109, 115-111, 115-110, all for the winner by unanimous decision, still undefeated, and still the IBF Super Middleweight Champion of the World, Lucian "Le Tombeur" Bute. The win moves Bute to 23-0 with 18 of those wins coming by way of knockout.
Andrade in his post match interview said that he felt he was cheated. The American said if he had to lose, this was the way he would like to lose. Andrade said he knew he was not going to win a decision, before the match and knew he needed a knockout to win. He said he would like a rematch, but doubts it will happen. Andrade knows Bute will not want to do this match, again. Therefore, Andrade will take whatever match his people can get for him next. The judges' scoring did not upset him, because he never expected to win a decision. His point is that he scored a knockout and everyone saw what happened so it does not matter. Andrade was very classy in this interview.
A likely concussed Bute said in his post match interview that Andrade took advantage of the fact he had gotten tired. Bute said Andrade won round 12 and possibly 1 more round, but that he (Bute) won the match. The champion was unwilling to discuss the knockdown. This is probably in part due to the fact he does not remember it. Bute staggered going back to his corner following the final bell and his eyes were vacant for several minutes following the end of the match. The champion said he was unaware of the fact that the ending of this match was controversial. Considering some of the fans in the building were half-booing the finish, Bute clearly has no memory of what happened. As suspected, Bute was out on his feet. Bute said he will face anyone next including Andrade. Bute's head is still foggy. Therefore, this interview does not count.
Now Farhood is going to interview the referee, who is from Montreal. Wright said Andrade left the neutral corner and that is why he stopped his count. The referee said if he had not stopped the count, Bute would have been stopped via technical knockout. The thing is that Andrade was only about 4 feet out of the neutral corner and Bute was already standing when the referee halted his count. That means the referee used a very broad definition to require Andrade to stay in the neutral. Then since, Bute had not made a miraculous recovery in that 10 seconds, essentially decided not to stop the match out of spite. Very rarely do you have referee's explain quite so clearly how they screwed someone out of a title. That is among the worst refereeing decisions of the last few years. The fact Wright explained it the way he did only makes the call more of an abomination. Wright had clearly decided that he was not going to let Andrade win, which is an unconscionable thing for a referee to do. Add that to the completely blown knockdown call in round 10 that went against Andrade and this almost appears to be a series of actions by a rogue official who at some point determined Andrade was doing the job tonight, regardless of what happened in the match.
A victory here was designed to springboard Bute into a match with Kessler to determine a new Ring Champion at 168 pounds. However, this victory was disastrous. After the final bell sounded Bute's corner people were consoling each other like friends coming out of the latest Indiana Jones movie. They knew Bute was clearly hurt badly by this victory. The public perception is that he lost. Had Bute dominated round 12 the only thing that would have delayed a match with Kessler would have been an agreement over where to host the match. Instead, Bute was knocked out by a boxer Kessler dominated. The only real interest in Kessler-Bute now is in how fast the Dane would knockout Bute. Bute is going to have no interest in a rematch with Andrade. However, it appears that following the controversial finish the IBF is going to mandate a rematch.
There is a saying in boxing that when you challenge a guy in his hometown you need to score a knockout to earn a draw. Andrade proved that statement is not true. He went to Bute's adopted hometown of Montreal, scored a knockout, and came away with a loss. Andrade's performance tonight is the text book case of getting over more in a loss then he would have with a win. He came off as he good guy who won, but got screwed. Had he won the title it would have been a great story, but he would have been probably been rematched with Kessler in his next match. That meant Andrade would have been a guy that was a good story for 1 night, but was then promptly proved to be a second tier boxer when Kessler dominated him, again. It appears Andrade will now get a mandatory rematch with Bute. The crowds in Montreal are the best in the United States and Canada, but it would be best for Andrade if this match ends up on the undercard of a PPV in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This event is a recommended watch. The crowds make all Montreal events good. The finish of the main event is one that should have viewers talking, but not in a good way. However, it was a dramatic end to what had been a good show.
News and Notes: Bernard Hopkins has silenced all of his critics, myself included, again. Last weekend, Hopkins dominated Kelly Pavlik to win every round of a 12-round match at 170 pounds on October 18 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hopkins had dropped one spot to become the The Ring's number 2 ranked contender at 175 pounds, after Chad Dawson dominated Antonio Tarver on October 11 to assume the number 1 contender's spot. This week's rankings corrected that mistake and Hopkins is back as the number 1 contender to Calzaghe's Ring Championship in the weight class.
After the match, Hopkins walked over to the assembled media on press row and on the verge of tears and said, "I'm tired of proving myself." All of the media is very sorry they doubted you, Bernard. This motivated Hopkins is clearly better then ever.
Hopkins says he now intends to box for possibly 3 more years, with the Calzaghe-Roy Jones, Jr. winner as his preferred next opponent. Calzaghe says he is going to retire after the match with Jones win or lose. That will mean Hopkins will rematch Jones who has a win over the Philadelphia native that has gone unavenged for over 15 years. Jones is probably on the downside of his career and Hopkins has never looked better then he did defeating Pavlik.
Pavlik entered the match with Hopkins as The Ring's number 7 ranked boxer pound-for-pound in the world. This week's rankings have Pavlik out of The Ring's rankings of best pound-for-pound boxers in the world. Pavlik is going to return to 160 pounds where he is The Ring Champion and has no intentions of leaving that weight class again any time soon.
On the undercard of Pavlik-Hopkins, Marco Antonio Rubio defeated Enrique Ornelas via 12-round split decision. Rubio is now a mandatory contender to Pavlik and looks to be the Youngstown, Ohio native's next opponent. That match will be held at Boardwalk Hall in late February or early March and televised on HBO.
Kessler retained his belt at 168 pounds on Saturday by knocking out Danilo Haeussler at 1:08 of round 3 in Oldenburg, Germany. This win would have positioned Kessler perfectly to face Bute on Showtime in February. However, it now appears the match making at the top of the division is going to get jostled.
Shane Mosley will return to the ring on HBO on January 24. He will face either Antonio Margarito or Andre Berto depending on which match will bring him the biggest payday.
Miguel Cotto will return to the ring in February and has narrowed his potential list of opponents down to 2. He will either face Kermit Cintron or Jesus Soto Karass. A win in the match will have Cotto rematching Margarito in June.
The first episode of 24/7 that was Mayweather free aired Sunday and it was a disappointment. Calzaghe/Jones 24/7 featured the boxers showing mutual respect and mostly talking about themselves. There were 0 promos about how the other guy was overrated or on the other boxer's family. This show was a complete failure and made me less interested to see the match. The fact that Calzaghe said this will be his last match was never brought up in the entire special. There was lots of talk of Jones new found spirituality, which does not make him unique as a boxer or worth paying lots of money to watch. It did lead to lots of promos on how Jones hitting people in the face for millions of dollars was him acting as "God's instrument". (I went to a Jesuit high school and apparently missed that lesson.) If the goal was to make Jones a subtle annoying heel, that mission was accomplished. Otherwise this show was frustratingly bad based on how good the others have been. De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7 averaged 4.7 million viewers per week and convinced over half of those viewers to buy that event. Mayweather/Hatton averaged 3 million viewers per week and convinced about 30% of those to buy the show. This show is going to do well below those numbers, unless Jones starts saying how Joe Calzaghe looks nothing like his father/trainer Enzo. Enzo is a small man with red hair who was a professional musician. Joe is a gigantic 6' athlete with brown hair. HBO should be able to get at least 20 minutes of material to air based on those sentences.
Demetrius Andrade became the first of the boxers off the 2008 United States Olympic boxing team to have a pro match. He debuted Thursday with a technical knockout victory 24 seconds into round 2 over Patrick Cape on Versus.
Paul Williams, who holds a title at 147 pounds, has a new opponent for his November 29 HBO match. After boxing at 160 pounds about a month ago, Williams will face Verno Phillips for a vacant interim belt at 154 pounds.
The undercard of that November 29 event will feature Chris Arreola facing Travis Walker to determine a mandatory challenger to one of Wladimir Klitschko's heavyweight titles.
Evander Holyfield reached an out of court settlement this week to stay out of prison. The 4-time heavyweight champion had stopped paying child support and had even stopped paying for the health insurance for 1 of the at least 9 illegitimate children he has fathered. The case is going to remain open should Holyfield fail to keep up with his payments. Considering Holyfield owes his gardeners over $500,000 and currently has no match scheduled, things look bad for the longtime abuser of performance enhancing drugs. Holyfield was reportedly in negotiations to challenge Nikolai Valuev for a heavyweight belt on December 20, but no contract is signed.
Alexander Povetkin, who was scheduled to challenge for Wladimir Klitschko's heavyweight titles on December 13 in Germany has been forced to pull out of the match. Povetkin tripped over a tree root while running in Russia and tore a ligament in his left foot on Thursday. Klitschko is committed to boxing on that date and is now in need of an opponent. Valuev holds the only major heavyweight title not held by a Klitschko and was preparing for a match on December 20. That match had not been signed or had an arena been booked for that event. Therefore, it would make a lot of sense to have Klitschko face Valuev on that day. That would be very bad news for Holyfield, but good for boxing.
Since the defensive problems of the Denver sports teams was brought on this week's Vinny V Sports Report, there is a stat to help the city feel better. Denver played host to this year's Democratic National Convention. Every city dating back to 1972 that has hosted the Democratic National Convention has won a major sports championship by the time of the next convention. The last convention city that came up empty was Chicago in 1968. That town has the unique distinction of having the team that has gone the longest without winning the World Series and the team that has gone the longest without winning the Stanley Cup. Hubert Humphrey was not going to help bring home any hardware for the city. The stadium that bares his namesake has been rather good to the Minnesota Twins, though. They won 2 World Series shortly after moving into that ballpark.
The next recap will come out November 2 covering the previous night's Showtime event featuring Vic Darchinyan vs. Cristian Mijares to unify their titles at 115 pounds.
Sincerely,
Jereme Warneck
number1contender.net
Boxing and Video Game Correspondent for f4wonline.com
Hidden Valley Lake, CA
