A fter a rousing ten round battle between Miami, Florida's Lamar Murphy and San Juan, Puerto Rican Daniel Alicea, Louisiana's Will "Kid Fire" McIntyre absorbed jab after jab in losing a dull (to put it mildly), one-sided decision to "Dangerous" Dana Rosenblatt of Malden, MA. All three ringside judges awarded Rosenblatt 120-114 scores, as did the CBZ. I cringed over awarding McIntyre any points at all.

Though Rosenblatt and McIntyre had a tough act to follow after the Murphy-Alicea battle, they would have only needed to put some kind of effort to please the couple thousand hometown fans in attendance at the Fox Theater at Foxwoods Casino Resort. In 12 lackluster rounds, McIntyre averaged just over 14 punches thrown a round (176 the entire fight). The Louisiana Hurricanes (an extremely powerful beverage in the Big Easy) I had during Mardi Gras a few years back had more punch in them than Kid Fire.

Though McIntyre conceded his deplorable performance, that doesn't excuse Rosenblatt's. It takes two to tango but when your opponent isn't running around or clinching, there is no reason not to attack him. Rosenblatt spent the better part of the fight circling McIntyre and popping him with his stiff jab. Sure Rosenblatt's jab is an impressive weapon but, for 12 rounds, watching it becomes as trite as someone blurting, "WAZZUP?"

Since avenging his only defeat to a one-handed, Vinny Pazienza, Rosenblatt, now 37-1-1 (23 KO's), appears to have taken a safety-first route to a world title shot. Rosenblatt's last appearance on ESPN's Friday Night Fights, which also aired last night's card, ended when he was the recipient of an accidental cut from a clash of heads. That fight, against Jimmy Crawford, and last night's fight against McIntyre were far cries from stepping up in class. The fact of the matter is Rosenblatt has fought tentative over his last several fights, possibly because of his haunting loss to Pazienza in '96 or the fact that he has been consistently cut during his last several fights. It could also be the fact that he too was concerned with a pace his conditioning might not have been able to uphold. It appeared to the CBZ that Rosenblatt, not just McIntyre could have taken considerably more risks since neither appeared to stun each other. There should be more to a fight than a couple hundred of jabs. As a result, the nickname "Dangerous," is losing some of its credibility since Rosenblatt has failed to put away his last 7 opponents.

In the co-feature, as mentioned earlier, Lamar Murphy won a hard-fought, 10-round majority decision over well-conditioned, Daniel Alicea. Unlike their co-featured participants, Murphy and Alicea took turns rifling shots at each other round after round. They did this because so that they wanted to win. They wanted to look impressive and they want to be called onto bigger and better events, namely title fights. Murphy, 133, began attacking the body earlier on of his smaller 132 pound foe, but Alicea never showed signs of the damaging attack. It was clear to those at ringside that Alicea had prepared himself for a tough fight. After absorbing the tremendous body attack of the first two rounds, Alicea gave his best Ray Oliveira impression by wielding hundreds of shots per round. It seemed to be his best defense as a frustrated Murphy spent most of the night trying to slip and roll with the 1311 punches thrown at him. Many of them landed but it wasn't enough to convince the three ringside judges that Alicea won the fight. Larry Hazzard Jr. had the bout a 95-95 draw (as did the CBZ) and judges Alan Rubinstein and Frank Lombardi favored Murphy by identical scores of 96-94.

The win which improved Murphy's record to 26-4 with 18 KO's puts him back into lightweight title picture. Murphy lost in his two previous attempts: once controversially to Miguel Angel Gonzalez, the other to Jean Baptiste Mendy. Alicea, who fought as if it was his last is now 24-3-1 with 19 KO's. Look for, or I should say, hope for Alicea -- the first boxer to floor Prince Naseem Hamed -- to appear on ESPN again very soon.

In earlier bouts, super-bantamweight, Wilisinbi Kizito (and you thought Mark Beiro had an easy job) of Brooklyn, NY won his first professional fight when he shut out Tito Ramos over 4 rounds. Kizito didn't appear to be a boxer who had drawn and lost twice in his lone three bouts. His smooth counterpunching style troubled Ramos who lost for the first time in four fights.

Broctonite, Marcus Davis, formerly out of Bangor, ME lost his first bout as a professional when Eddie Bryant of Brooklyn, NY stopped him at 2:39 of the fourth round. Davis was dropped in the first round when it appeared that he tripped over Bryant's right hand. In the fourth frame, an accidental head butt opened a serious looking gash over Davis' left eye. Had the ringside physician stopped the fight, as it probably should have been, the bout would have been recorded as a technical draw. Bryant, 164, who normally fights at or above 170 pounds jumped all over the bloody Davis who usually fights at the 154 limit and didn't let up until referee, Ken Ezzo stopped the contest. Davis falls to 15-1-1 (9 KO's) while Bryant extends his mark to 11-6 (4 KO's).

In a four-round contest of unbeaten welterweights, Freddie Cardenas won a unanimous 4-round decision over Andre Eason. Cardenas is now 3-0 (2 KO's) while Eason is now 2-1. Also losing for the first time was Uzbekistan prospect, Kuvanichbek Toingonbave (Mark Beiro really had his work cut out for him last night), who was outpointed over 6 rounds by Kasim "The Dream" Ouma of West Palm Beach, FL. Kasim floored his fellow jr. middleweight during the fifth round but couldn't put away his now 12-1 foe. Kasim, who won by scores of 58-55 twice and 60-54 is now 12-1 with 9 KO's.

Promoter - Explosion Promotions
Matchmaker - Ron Katz
Ring Announcer - Mark Beiro
Time Keeper Lou Dell
Referees - Steve "SS" Smoger and Ken Ezzo
Judges - Larry Hazzard, Jr., Melvina Lathan, Alan Rubinstein and Frank Lombardi