McCLINE COMES FROM BEHIND TO STOP BOSWELL

By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist

LAS VEGAS, NV (IB – October 3, 2003) – Cedric “The Boss” Boswell (21-1, 16 KOs) came within the final 3 minutes of pulling off an impressive upset over Jameel “Big Time” McCline in their heavyweight showdown in Las Vegas. However, it goes to show that in the fight game, it isn’t over, until it’s over!

Boswell, who was relatively an unknown to the larger boxing mass, showcased superior boxing skills over McCline over a nine round span of action. I had Boswell winning 6 out of 9 rounds heading into the 10th and final round. Boswell showed the better hand speed, and better combination punching than McCline.

As the fight went into the late rounds, you could sense that McCline’s size advantage was starting to take control of the fight and was beginning to wear on Boswell’s stamina. McCline caught Boswell with a right-uppercut late in the 9th round that turned this fight completely around. While Boswell survived the round, the damage was apparent as the 10th round began. In this final round, McCline showed increased confidence and attacked Boswell with combinations to the head that sent Boswell to the canvas early in the round.

Cedric rose to feet to beat the 10 count and made desperate attempts to hold on but there was too much time left on the clock. At 2:07 of the round, referee Kenny Bayless felt he had seen enough and had given Boswell ample opportunities to demonstrate whether or not he could continue the fight.

So, this was a BIG TIME comeback to overturn what was about to be a huge upset victory for Boswell. Given this, the fight actually did a lot for both of these fighters. Although Boswell ran out of gas at the end, I believe he did enough to show the boxing world that he possesses sufficient boxing skills to compete at the top level. He is encouraged to keep his head up high and know that he put on a very impressive performance throughout this fight and has something to build upon after this experience.

As for McCline, he should feel good about turning the tide on a fighter that clearly possessed better skills and had dominated him over a nine round period. Perhaps this will be the confidence booster that he needed to invoke his 269 lb will on the heavyweight division and refrain from letting the smaller fighters back him up. McCline improved his record to 30-3-3, with 18 KOs.

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Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com