[Previous entry: "Oliveira is gatekeeper of welterweight division"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Corrales tops Casamayor, issues left to be decided"]
03/07/2004 Archived Entry: "For Kopytko, DQ doesn't stand for ice cream and summer time"
For Kopytko, DQ doesn't stand for ice cream and summer time
By Juan C. Ayllon at ringside
Photos by Tom Glunz
Chicago, Illinois—With a week of unseasonable warmth and the beginning of the baseball season just around the corner, Chicagoans were reminded, once again, of the sublime joys of summer: shorts and short sleeves, cheering for the Cubs at Wrigley Field and standing in line for soft serve ice cream at the local Dairy Queen.
However, on Friday night, for super middleweight boxer Vitaliy Kopytko, thoughts of DQ were anything but pleasant.
Kopytko was the main attraction in Bobby Hitz’ March 5th Ramada Rumble “Budweiser Championship Boxing” fight card. In a hard-fought, but short-lived main event, the ever-popular Chicago favorite who captained the 1996 Ukrainian Olympic team, Vitaliy Kopytko (23-5-0) suffered a shocking loss by disqualification—or DQ—in the second round to Georgian Manu “the Bull” Ntoh (14-6-1).
The lithe and taller Kopytko—who, at 169 pounds, appeared a good six inches taller than the shorter and more compactly muscular Ntoh, at 172—initiated matters on the offensive behind a series of hard right jabs. Backing up, Ntoh covered up momentarily.
However, it wasn’t long before Ntoh opened up. As Kopytko continued to jab away, suddenly Ntoh landed a hard right to the head. Turning his body powerfully behind looping punches, Ntoh landed a heavy left-right combination, then commenced boring in with both hands as Kopytko retreated. Pressing in close towards Kopytko’s chest, Ntoh drove Vitaliy to the ropes with a trio of left-rights.
Countering, Vitaliy fired hard hooks to the body with both hands. He followed up with sharp and straight left rights, backing Ntoh up in the process. Generating heavy torque, Manu dove back in with looping left-rights of his own, drawing a collective “ooh” from the crowd as Kopytko covered along the ropes. He definitely appeared to have the edge in power. The two exchanged furious combinations. As the two fought at close quarters, Ntoh landed a hard left uppercut and straight right.
.
Ntoh on the attack
The more conventional and longer limbed boxer, Kopytko sought to reestablish space more suitable to his European, standup boxing style. He incorporated a little movement and then pressed forward behind a charged up, right jab-straight left attack.
Momentarily backing up, Manu planted and landed a big right. Following up with another heavy right hand, he backed up Vitaliy yet another time with a furious, two handed attack of his own. However, a heavy right to the head caught his attention and stopped him momentarily in his tracks as round one wound down. The round was very close, but appeared to favor Ntoh in terms of more effective aggression.
Round two began in similar to round one: Vitaliy landed a succession of three right jabs. Then, Manu staggered Kopytko with a torrid volley of lefts and rights. To the stunned crowd’s amazement, this exchange deposited Kopytko on the ropes looking outward, his back turned from his tormentor. He caught a punch or two from this precarious position before the referee intervened.
Reset, Vitaliy backed up Manu with hard one-twos to the head and body. Ntoh landed two retaliatory right uppercuts. In the heat of the mix, Kopytko landed a straight left that clearly landed below the beltline. The referee issued a warning.
The two continued mixing it up at close quarters when suddenly, another heavy low blow landed, this one clearly hurting Ntoh. The referee indicated a point’s deduction to the judges and allowed him time to collect himself.
Ntoh came back with a vengeance, letting go with a furious, two-handed attack. Retreating, Kopytko fired back hard. Seeking to stem his antagonist’s surge, he planted both feet and landed two hard blows flush on the beltline. Infuriated, Ntoh landed a flurry of chopping and looping lefts and rights to the head, staggered and knocked down Vitaliy. After he rose, he was issued an eight count by the referee.
Immediately, Ntoh jumped on Kopytko with a swarming, two handed attack, staggering him again. The battle was pitched as Manu pressed his advantage and Vitaliy fought back with guttural abandon. Boxing went out the window as both fought a primordial battle for survival.
Make no mistake about it: this was a fight. Kopytko backed Ntoh up towards the ropes with a punishing body attack and wrinkled Ntoh’s trunks with yet another, looping low blow. This went unheeded as the two exchanged furiously.
Backed into a corner, Manu swung hard with both hands. Vitaliy continued raining down punches on his shorter opponent, dipping low and driving his hips behind his punches. Ostensibly, he was targeting Ntoh’s midriff, which appeared somewhat soft and sported a generous glazing of fat. In the throws of frenzy, Kopytko drove three looping uppercuts below the beltline.
The referee had seen enough. Jumping in, he waived off Kopytko. Officially after several warnings, at 2:46 of round two, Manu was the winner by disqualification.
Afterwards, a dejected Vitaliy Kopytko said in his broken English, “Low blow. Low blow! First time it was low blow. I didn’t expect it. I didn’t want to. No, never! It wasn’t deliberate. I expected to fight 12 rounds, to show good boxing. I didn’t want to box him with low blows.”
Somewhat philosophically, he allowed, “It was good lesson, good experience. He’s okay. He’s okay. I didn’t ignore him. But it’s quite unexpected for me. He’s dirty boxer. He hit me low blow, on back, on back of head several times! My low blow was much harder [than his].”
Commenting afterwards on the fight and the low blows, promoter Bobby Hitz said, “Now, if this was a tennis match, this would be inappropriate. It’s a fight! Let the fighters fight.” Physically demonstrating how Kopytko wound up, dipped down and drove upwards with his hips behind looping uppercuts to the midsection, Hitz presented a compelling argument of how easy it was to accidentally land low blows when thrown in a close and pitched battle, as opposed to throwing uppercuts to the midsection from a more upright stance.
Perez lands a right
Jimmy Sandoval (2-0-0), younger brother of recently deposed world jr. lightweight champ, Jesus Chavez, boxed smartly and dropped his opponent multiple times as he continued on his winning ways, stopping game but overmatched Gabriel Perez (0-9-0)—who looked a good seven to eight inches shorter than Sandoval—at 21 seconds into the second round. Both weighed 130 for the fight.
In the heavily hyped, heavyweight bout between Carl “Iron Fist” Davis (3-0, 2 Kayos) and Lamar “Big T” Stevens (1-0, 1 KO), the old adage, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” proved to be very appropriate. Standing taller than his bulkier opponent, Carl took the fight to Stevens for the majority of their short-lived affair.
Other adages came to mind in this fight: one, when faced with a hurricane, you don’t try and fight it head on, you just hold on for dear life until it blows itself out; two, as Carl Davis ironically suggested in a preflight interview, fundamentals are the key to success.
Davis on the attack
The shorter and stouter fighter of the two, Lamar Stevens at 246 covered up and countered conservatively as Davis swarmed. Davis, for his part, largely eschewed his jabs, favoring lead rights and showy, but hard combinations. He demonstrated an alarming tendency to hold his hands low, especially his left, which he kept in front of his left hip where he often hooked and jabbed—when he elected to do so—from.
Biding his time, Stevens held when he needed to, survived as best he could and, when opportunity presented itself, caught an attacking, but wide open Davis on the ropes with a couple of rights and won via TKO 50 seconds into round three. The referee began a standing eight count but halted matters at three.
.
Davis seeing stars
The cruiserweight tussle between John Williams (13-3-0) and Vinson Durham (21-32-3) was stopped one second into round four and ruled, “no contest in accordance with Illinois State rules.” Williams demonstrated a very nervous and frenetic manner—prompting one ringsider to say out loud, “what brand of coffee does he drink”—while Durham often stood at rings center and merely pivoted to face his circling foe.
.
.
.
Riley corners Blakely
Lastly, Chicago Golden Gloves Super Heavyweight Champion, Christopher Riley at 210 pounds, kicked off his professional debut with a very dominating win over Bryan Blakely (13-20-1) at 200 pounds. Although a bit more disciplined, Riley’s efforts were somewhat reminiscent of a young George Foreman’s versus Ali during the first four rounds of their fight. As you might recall, Foreman was dominating those rounds as he flailed away and Ali mostly covered up. Riley won the four round bout by unanimous decision with scores of 40-36, 40-35 and 40-36.
Overall, the evening proved both entertaining and surprising at times. As one up and coming Chicago fighter and—on this night—spectator pointed out afterwards, “That’s boxing.” It certainly is.
Promoter - Hitz Promotions
Replies: 3 Comments on this article
Great Night of Boxing. Had A Blast.Cant Wait Until The Next One.
Edwin
Posted by edwin @ 03/09/2004 05:56 PM EST
good article!
Posted by john bhatty @ 03/09/2004 12:37 AM EST
By the way, if you want to see more pictures from the event, click on or go to:
http://www.comvantage.com/webpage/BoxingPics03052004/
Cheers,
Juan C. Ayllon
Posted by Juan C. Ayllon @ 03/08/2004 02:40 PM EST
