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08/15/2005 Archived Entry: "Garcia Defeats Messi, Kamya Outpoints Bunema!"
Garcia Defeats Messi, Kamya Outpoints Bunema!
By Rafael Tenorio at Ringside
Messi (right) and Garcia mix it up in close (Tom Glunz photo)
CHICAGO, August 13 - On the undercard of Rahman vs. Barrett and Mayorga vs. Piccirillo at the United Center, Mexico's Alejandro "Terra" Garcia won a hard fought battle over Italy's Luca Messi, retaining his WBA Superwelterweight Interim Title and Robert "Doctor" Kamya won the WBC Continental Americas Super Welterweight Championship from Alex "The Technician" Bunema. Here are details of their bouts, as well as the rest of the evening's undercard.
Bout 1
Adam Stewart (2-9-2, 2 KO’s) v. Josiah Judah (3-0, 1 KO). Middleweights.
Josiah -Zab’s younger brother- a big, ripped middleweight, had an unexpectedly hard time against the tough journeyman Stewart.
Round 1: Stewart plods forward without much of a jab. Judah backs up and counters, but his lateral movement is lacking, thus giving Stewart plenty of chances to land some thudding shots. Both of them land a handful of clean shots.
Round 2 unfolds very similarly to round 1. Judah shows good fundamentals except for his go-straight back-when-pressured defense. Stewart tags him with some heavy shots.
Round 3: Stewart starts getting fatigued and his pressure is not as consistent. Judah lands some nice stiff counters from the outside.
Round 4. Stewart looks exhausted and gets rocked by a nice Judah combination. However, Judah never finds a consistent range to get extension on his long shots as Stewart exerts some undisciplined pressure.
Judah scores a split decision. 39-37., 40-36, and 37-39. My card 39-38 Judah.
Bout 2
Michael Middleton (11-14-1, 5 KO’s) vs. Volodia Lazebnik (7-0, 4 KO’s). Heavyweights.
Lazebnik (Kiev, Ukraine via Poland) is considered a promising heavyweight prospect in Eastern Europe. Journeyman Middleton was there to make Lazebnik look good, and that he did.
Round 1. Middleton dances around and flurries throughput most of the round. Lazebnik stalks patiently and eventually catches up with Middleton and drops him with a solid combination at the bell. Middleton is shaken-up but gets up after a 4 count.
Round 2: Lazebnik sensing Middleton is still not completely recovered, started the round putting immediate pressure on Middleton. The Ukranian lands some heavy shots (the ones you ca really hear several rows back on ringside), and rocks Middleton repeatedly. Middleton fights back gamely instead of running or going into his shell. Eventually, however, Lazebnik’s punishment cumulates and Middleton goes down twice within a short period of time. The referee stops the bout at 2:23 for a Lazebnik TKO 2.
Bout 3
Matt Zegan (34-1, 19 KO’s) vs. Jesus Perez (24, 10-2, 14 KO’s). Lightweights.
Perez (left) ducks under a Zegan straight left (Tom Glunz photo)
World ranked left-hander Zegan (Wroclaw, Poland), makes his U.S. debut against designated opponent Perez (Cordoba, Colombia, via Miami, Florida). Zegan’s only pro defeat was a very questionable one against Artur Grigorian for the WBO belt two years ago. He’s in very soft in his American debut against a natural bantamweight who had lost 12 of his last 14 (admittedly against tough competition).
Round 1: Perez appears very small next to the Zegan, who looks like a big lightweight. Zegan, normally a counter-puncher, stalks the smaller Perez from the get go. Perez circles and throws some flicking punches. Nothing solid landed.
Round 2: Same pattern as round 1, but mid-way through the round, Zegan lands a sold left that wobbles Perez.
Round 3: Perez paws repeatedly with the left, which finds the mark consistently. Zegan chases him patiently until he letting a straight left go and dropping Perez for a flash KD. Perez gets up and continues to circle and paw.
Round 4: Zegan loses his balance after a shot by Perez but it's not ruled a KD. Perez circles throughout the round and lands more punches than Zegan (who is not letting his hands go.
Round 5: Same pattern as the previous rounds, but Zegan manages to land a solid flurry that rocks Perez towards the end of the round. Perez did most of the work, however.
Round 6: Starts as a carbon copy of the preceding stanzas. However, as Perez starts slowing down, Zegan lands more consistent flurries and drops Perez twice within a very short interval (the second time with a body shot). The difference in strength becomes more obvious as Perez turns more stationary and Zegan finds the mark more consistently. Perez’s corner see the writing on the wall and stop the fight in between rounds 6 and 7.
So so performance by Zegan in his American debut. He looked a bit uncomfortable taking the role of the aggressor (which he pretty much had to against a small guy like Perez), but did not let his hands go consistently, and lacked the early body attack necessary to slow someone like Perez down.
Bout 4
Alex Bunema (26-4-2, 12 KO’s vs. Robert Kamya (14-5, 4 KO’s). Jr. middleweights.
Bunema (Kinshasa, Congo via Atlanta, Georgia) takes on Kamya (Kampala, Uganda, via West Palm Beach, Florida) for something called the WBC Continental Americas Super Welterweight championship. This makes two Africans fighting for a continental Americas title! Bunema’s last significant bout was a KO loss to Jermain Taylor at middleweight. Here he tries to rebound against the tough Kamya at a more comfortable weight for him. This fight was devoid of good action and the crowd was booing throughout. The highlight reel for this one would come and go in the blink of an eye.
Bunema (left) dodges Dodges Kamya's right hand (Tom Glunz photo)
Round 1: Both tentative. No punches landed. Crowd boos.
Round 2: More of the same. Kamya moves forward and Bunema retreats and tries to counter, but nothing solid lands for either man. Rounds 1 and 2 are an example of why the 10 point-must system is flawed. Do we really have to give 10 points to either fighter if they don’t do anything of note?
Round 3: Kamya doing better work with his forward motion and aggression, until Bunema drops him with a perfect right-hand counter. Kamya stunned but not hurt. Kamya dominates the round except for the KD.
Round 4: Kamya carries most of the round once again, but Bunema catches him with a couple of nice counter combinations.
Round 5: Kamya more aggressive but gets second low blow warning (I must have missed the first one!). Bunema scores with some decent shots at the end of the round.
Round 6: Kamya once again more aggressive, but Bunema lands the crisper -yet fewer- shots. Nice double left hook stuns Kamya in the middle of the round. Alex also lands some body shots. Better round for Bunema.
Round 7: Referee Tim Adams takes a point away from Kamya after another low blow. Kamya stuns Bunema with a straight right at the end of the round, but probably does no better than a tie because of the point deduction.
Round 8: Bunema, perhaps sensing he might be behind, moves forward now but Kamya does well countering. Buneman’s aggression fades and Kamya is back on the attack. Bunema does much of nothing on the second half of the round.
Round 9: More of the same. Kamya wins round on workrate.
Round 10: Bunema unable to land when Kamya bulls his way into the inside. Kamya lands some nice short punches and also jabs his way in pretty decently. Bunema lands a good left hook at the bell, but not enough to give him the round.
Round 11: Kamya the aggressor and busier fighter again. Bunema lands a nice combo at the end but once again, too little too late.
Round 12: Kamya outhustles Bunema once again. Hard to imagine what is going through Bunema’s mind because he seems to be surrendering his belt rather meekly.
Judges score it 113-113, 115-112, 114-112 for Kamya, who takes the belt on a majority decision. I scored it 114-112 Kamya.
Bout 5
Alejandro Garcia (24-1, 23 KO’s) vs. Luca Messi (28-5-1, 11 KO’s). Jr. middleweights.
Hard punching “Terra” Garcia (Tijuana, Mexico) takes on extremely tough Messi (Bergamo, Italy) for the interim WBA jr. welterweight belt (I don’t know if this is a “real” belt anymore; I’m confused!). This was, in my opinion, the best fight of the night by far. This fight also provides an insight as to why, despite his near perfect KO percentage, Garcia has not been promoted more aggressively and featured on the major TV networks. I believe the reason is that, in spite of his great power, Garcia does not have the temperament of a puncher. He is not the typical aggressive Mexican fighter who would try to milk his power to the max. He takes his time, waits for openings, and unloads heavy combinations when the opportunity presents itself, but his style is not necessarily what appeals to fans looking for action fights.
Round 1: The compact Messi matches forward and lands some nice short shots. Garcia gets the chance to counter because of Messi is looking for close quarter action. Mesi rocks Garcia at the end of the round!
Garcia (left) and Messi trade blows in a heated exchange (Tom Glunz photo)
Roud 2: Messi still going forward but Garcia lands the harder shots. Messi is brave, but can he sustain this pace against a murderous puncher like Garcia? Hard head clash at the bell (Garcia gets the worse of it).
Round 3: Garcia stuns Messi with a hard overhand right. Messi wobbled but gamely stays in the pocket. Messi manages to connect a couple of nice short shots on the inside. They trade hard shots at the end of the round, but Garcia is smothering himself by giving inside terrain to the shorter Messi.
Round 4: Messi continues to do well when he closes the gap and shoots short combinations at Garcia. Garcia hits -ever so slightly- low consistently but gets no warnings from the referee so far. Garcia does well when he gets some distance and extension on his shots. Both had their moments, but Garcia lands the harder shots.
Round 5: Messi faster than Garcia but gets tagged by a multi-punch combination after hot-dogging. Messi gets stunned. Both posture and taunt and do some more trading. Garcia more effective overall.
Round 6: Messi hit with a hard body shot and his knee just about touches the canvas. He keeps on coming back, however. Messi hits Garcia with to nice chopping rights in the last minute of the round. Messi outworks Garcia.
Round 7: Garcia lands a hard combination to start the round. Hard right hand by Messi that stuns Garcia. Messi goes for the kill as Garcia staggers back, but gets careless and is dropped by a hard right hand by Garcia when opening up. Bell rings.
Round 8: Messi does great when not engaging in careless trades but he's too brave for his own good. Luca lands some nice quick shots and uses his jab and lateral movement. Garcia can’t touch him. Garcia hits low again. No penalties so far.
Round 9: Messi lands more shots but Garcia lands the harder ones. Nice right hook by Messi. Garcia biding his time and looking to land only big shots, which he mostly misses.
Round 10: Nice straight right by Garcia. Garcia throwing more punches (perhaps sensing the fight is close). Another nice right counter by Garcia. Hard flurry by Garcia. Messi looks tired and is starting to take more clean shots, but still willing to bravely mix it up.
Round 11: Garcia landing the better shots. Messi fatigued and more stationary. Nice left hook by Messi; nice right hand too. They trade pretty evenly, but Garcia has got more pop in his punches.
Round 12: Messi going for broke (what a tough guy!) Garcia sits back and counters with hard punches, but Messi keeps on pressing. They trade nicely in the last minute. Good fight!
Judges score it 119-109 (!), 117-110, and 117-110 for Garcia. I had it a much closer 115-112 for Garcia.
Best fight of the night!
Rafael Tenorio (right) with Chris Byrd (center) and Juan C. Ayllon
(Tom Glunz photo)
