Ringside Report: Wiggins vs Barrett

By Don Deane

05.04 - As usual, the Mohegan Sun Arena played host to a fabulous night of boxing on Friday April 4. This event was ESPN2's Friday Night Fights installment and was promoted by Joe DeGuardia's Star Boxing. The card was headlined by two tough heavyweights Monte Barrett and Robert Wiggins. The main support was a light heavyweight tussle between Daniel Judah and Glen Johnson.

Monte Barrett vs Robert Wiggins- Heavyweight Main Event

This fight was a very close fight on both the scorecards and in the ring. It was almost a tale of two fights; with Wiggins taking the rough and rugged rounds while Barrett handled the slow and steady stanzas. The fight started off slow with Barrett landing sharp left hands to the head and body during round one. In round two, Wiggins attempted to make it messy but fell victim to good counters from Barrett. Barrett is the more polished boxer and proved it early. Part way into round three Barrett stuck Wiggins with a tough left uppercut-hook combo and seemed to be coasting to a decision win. But then fight two started. In round four Wiggins came out gunning and made a scrap out of the fight. He came in hard and landed a few tough rights. Round five showed more rough stuff from Wiggins as he continued to be the aggressor and impose his will. Barrett did get off a nice combo about midway through. After both men caught a breather in round six, the following two rounds saw more Wiggins aggression. Wiggins was able to land hard shots as he fell in towards the lazy Barrett. In round eight the two traded tough shots with Barrett landing a nice right uppercut-cross combo and Wiggins came back with a hard left. The two ran out of gas down the stretch and the last two rounds showed a lot of hugging and mostly Barrett landing the shots. In the end the judges' cards told the tale with Barrett getting two 96-94 nods and Wiggins getting a 97-93 call. Eastside agreed with the former as Barrett did barely enough to win unimpressively 96-94. Barrett improves to 28-2 while Wiggins falls to 17-3-1.

Glen Johnson vs Daniel Judah- Light Heavyweight Supporting Bout

This was the classic crafty veteran versus untested youth and lived up to that label. Glen Johnson came out in the first three rounds being the aggressor behind a stiff jab. He was able to pick through the lax defenses of Judah. Judah used a flicking jab to try to figure out Johnson and did get the better of a good exchange in round three. In round four Judah landed a nice hook and danced around the ring trying to counter the aggressive Glen Johnson. In the middle rounds, Johnson relied heavily on that ramrod jab and some stiff right hands to frustrate Judah. The two exchanged a few cheap shots in parts of the fight that proved Judah's frustrated puzzlement. Judah attempted to make a mess of the fight, which may have worked if he was the type to employ that style. In round eight Judah got it sloppy and caught Johnson off guard, but Johnson came back with big right hands and combos in the last two rounds. When it came down to the judges, one judge had it correctly at 97-93 for Johnson while one judge had it a draw at 95 each. The last judge, to protect the innocent we will call him Robert Paolino, had the fight 97-93 for Daniel Judah. If it wasn't for the complete garbage put on Paolino's scorecard there may have been a fair decision. Eastside scored the bout 98-92 for Glen Johnson. Johnson is relegated to 38-9-1, while Judah remains unfairly unbeaten at 17-0-2. In a show of class, Judah lifted Johnson into the air to an ovation from the crowd. I'm appalled that Mr. Paolino can have such a crooked score card when even Judah knew he lost the fight.

Undercard Results

In a heavyweight tussle that aired in between the two main bouts, Queens, New York based fighter Vinny Maddalone improved to 19-1 with a 4 round decision Dennis McKinney. McKinney fell to 22-26-1. The cards read 39-37 twice for Maddalone and 39-37 for McKinney once. Eastside had it 39-37 for Maddalone.

In a lightweight attraction little known Greg Torres proved too much for come-backing ex-world champ Kennedy McKinney as he rolled 60-53 on two cards and 58-55 on another. Eastside had that one 58-55 for Torres. Torres improves to 15-2 and adds a name to his resume. McKinney falls to 36-6-1 and said that he will retire for good and train fighters.

In the opening bout, Connecticut cruiserweight Craig Salamone walked over Dan Sheehan 60-54 on all cards including Eastside's. Salamone is now 14-2-1 while Sheehan falls to 9-22.

Thanks to Mohegan Sun Arena, Star Boxing and ESPN2 for putting this excellent fight night together.