ATLANTA FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS – A BIG “DRAW” ALL THE WAY AROUND

By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist

(IB – Atlanta 22, 2003) – David Oblas and Austin Wingo, who makeup Undisputed Productions have teamed up once again to provide professional boxing entertainment to the Atlanta boxing fans. The fights took place at the Tabernacle in the heart of Downtown Atlanta on 8/22/03.

When you think of the term “Draw” in the sport of boxing, you think pretty even, both sides gave as well as they took. This is how this event could be dubbed. Based on the amount of attendance on hand, practically a sell out, I would think the promoters received what they were seeking. As a result of the competitiveness of the bouts, I would say the crowd also received what they paid to see, competitive boxing for their entertainment. So it’s a Draw!

In the main event, the Atlanta crowd was anticipating seeing the hometown favorite, Lawrence “King” Chapman (17-1-1, 12 KOs), dispose of journeyman Tyrus Armstead (10-18-4, 4 KOs). This was a scheduled 8 round Super Middleweight fight.
However in the sport of boxing, anything can happen.

Although the beginning of this fight seemed to point toward an easy night for Chapman, apparently Armstead had other plans to make Chapman really work for it. About midway through the 4th round, Chapman landed a couple of right hands to the back of Armstead’s head, which sent him to the canvas. Referee James Korb ruled this a foul and deducted not 1, but 2 points from Chapman and this was now becoming a close fight.

The two had their moments in the next few rounds leading up to Armstead landing a solid left hook to the jaw that flattened Chapman late in the 7th round. Chapman was able to beat the count and hang on for dear life to survive the round.

The 8th round was very close and I actually had Chapman losing the fight. However, when the judges rendered their scores, two of them scored the fight even at 74-74, while one judge had Armstead winning the fight 75-74. So for Chapman, this was a BIG draw., a draw that rescued him from leaving the ring with another big L on his record. It’s something about being in the main event on Atlanta’s Friday Nights series. The last few fights have ended with the Main Event favorite either losing or fighting to draw. The last Main Event favorite to win was heavyweight Cedric Boswell back in December of 2002.

Hats off to the promoters and matchmakers for putting these competitive bouts together.

In other action on the card:

Xavier Tolliver improved his record to (12-3, 8 KOs) with an impressive 6th round unanimous decision win over Gary Grant (10-15, 5 KOs)
Calvin Dixon was victorious in his 4 round debut with a win over Donavan Craig.

Tony Foster (2-6, 0) gets a decision win over Baki Zymberi

Fred Tukes, Jr Middleweight, made his debut with a smashing KO victory in the 2nd round over Darrien Scott.

Throw in some No Holds Barred events and you end up with a wonderful night of entertainment. So if you are in the Atlanta area and Friday Night Fights series is taking place, you just may want to come on out and see some exciting fighting for yourself.

This event also had 3 of Atlanta’s elite boxers on hand, such as top 10 Middleweight contender Robert Allen, former Welterweight Champion Vernon Forrest and Heavyweight prospect Cedric Boswell

You have just gone InsideBoxing.com

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