Better Late Than Never?

Jones Jr. defeats Trinidad by unanimous decision

By Moncayo Blackbull     Photo: Will Hart/HBO (Click picture for larger view)

January 20, 2008 (InsideBoxing.com) - By winning this fight against Felix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr. continues to pave the way to a bigger money fight, while for Trinidad this may have been his last hurrah.

Trinidad started the fight strong and aggressive, moving forward and unleashing barrages of punches. Jones not knowing what to expect with the “power” level of Trinidad was content to clam up in a defensive mode. Jones fought most cautiously for the first three rounds while Trinidad continued to pound away winning the rounds easily. The third round may have been Tito’s biggest round as he unloaded and scored with a multitude of punches.

However, it was the third round that Jones seemed to figure out and believe that Tito did not have the punching power to hurt him. Toward the end of the round Jones did the shimmy, shake and shiver. The clowning was a clear indication that Tito was not hurting Jones.

In the fourth round Jones puts together his own little attack, less cautious while letting his hands go and using his superior speed against Tito. Tito continues with an aggressive body attack but like the previous rounds, they have little effect. Jones wins his first round of the fight.

The next few rounds are more of the same with both fighters exchanging punches, the rounds are close and could go either way. Tito sticking with a body attack laying many blows on the belt line while Jones showing he still maintains the speed and accuracy he had as a champion.

The end for Tito came midway in the seventh round when Jones catches him with a solid overhand right that dropped him. Tito gets up and finishes the round.

The next couple of rounds Jones had his way with Tito. The no-respect and clowning of Jones becomes dominant as Tito continues with an ill fated attempt to hurt Jones.

Tito fights well in the tenth round and was convincingly winning the round but at the end of the round he gets dropped negating him winning the round.

Tom Kazmarek and Nelson Vazquez score the fight 116-110 while Julie Lederman had it 117-109 all in favor of Jones Jr.

In undercard action we saw Andrew Golota up the odds of fighting for another world title as he fought with determination and heart in defeating Mike Mollo.

Had this contest been a six-rounder, Mollo would be walking around with victory on his face but the fight consisted of a dozen segments and Mollo could not hang with the veteran fighter.

The first five rounds Mollo would battle hard landing many punches, even closing Golota’s left eye with a couple of overhand right hands. Being aggressive and throwing many punches, but sometimes being over anxious and squaring up after his combinations.

Golota fighting the second half of the fight with his left eye completely closed was very effective in figuring out the straight forward style of Mollo, landing strong hard shots. Golota had Mollo hurt on several occasions and had Mollo clinching for dear life as the referee struggled to keep the two apart.

Bob Gilson and Tom Schreck had the score at 116-110 while Robin Taylor had it 118-109 in favor of Golota

In a junior middleweight title contest, Alex Bunema upset Roman Karmazin by KO in the tenth round.

Karmazin fought slow and seemed to be waiting too long in releasing his punches. The opening for a knock out punch never came as Bunema stood busy in letting his hands go. Bunema’s consistency paid off in the tenth round when he caught Karmazin with a left hook sending him to the canvas. Karmazin beats the count but Bunema jumps on the injured fighter ending the fight with a left uppercut followed with a straight right hand.

The opening televised bout, a match up having the potential to be a great starter to a great night of boxing turned out to be quite the dud.

Pairing up up-and-coming Devon Alexander against veteran fighter DeMarcus Corley had all the makings of a good fight but the lack of experience of Alexander combined with the lack of fighting by Corley simply made this contest a segment of sparring.

Alexander tried hard but just could not figure out the crafty veteran while Corley did not throw a single punch with any authority.

Alexander wins on all score cards, Don Trella and Steve Weisfeld score 118-109 while John McKaie has it 116-11

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