Photo: Danish-Boxing.dk

By Carsten Rylander

09.11 - Friday night was "J-night" in Copenhagen. J for "Julebryg", the popular Christmas beer, released by the Tuborg brewery at exactly 8.59 pm. And J for Johnny Bredahl, the Danish WBA bantamweight champion, who made his first defense of the crown a successful one at the Falconer Center in Copenhagen, by outscoring Venezuelan veteran and four-weight champion Leo "Torito" Gamez over 12 rounds. The unanimous decision seemed a formality to most, but an inexplicable scorecard of 115-114 from Puerto Rican judge Samuel Conde made for a few anxious moments in the Bredahl camp. Scores of 117-112 (Charlem Prayadsab, Thailand) and 117-113 (Franco Priami, Italy) were far more indicative of the fight. This writer had it 118-112 for the champion, giving Gamez only the last two rounds.

Bredahl (now 53-2, 26 KO) was led into the ring by Mike Andersen, recently named Denmark's best Elvis Presley look-a-like. The champion had announced that he intended to use his massive height and reach advantage to keep the more powerful Gamez (34-9-1, 26 KO) on the outside, then pepper him with jabs. He did that well in the first round, forcing Gamez to jump in with lunging punches that came up short. Bredahl landed the first telling blow of the fight early in the second, a right hand that sent Gamez to the ropes. With 30 seconds to go, Gamez caught Bredahl at the ropes, but the Dane moved well, and he shook off the glancing blows. Later in the round, referee Steve Smoger warned Gamez for low blows, an indication of Gamez' troubles with finding his range against Bredahl's 8-inch height advantage.

Before the third round, Bredahl's trainer, Freddie Roach, told his man to double up on the jab to keep Gamez off-balance. But the Venezuelan started the round aggressively, although he was unable to catch Bredahl clean. The champion's jab was still the dominant punch, and it won him the round. The fourth through eighth were carbon copies of the third round. Gamez put on pressure but caught only air most of the time. Bredahl jabbed and moved, and he countered well when Gamez was open. Gamez was wobbled in the fourth, which was the champion's best round yet, and it seemed like a matter of time before Bredahl would close the show. Gamez did better in the fifth, though, and by the sixth, he was more in the fight - but it was still the Dane who piled up the points. By the midway point, I had given Bredahl five rounds with one even.

Bredahl took the seventh as well, and he hurt Gamez in the eighth, but "Torito" was landing more than before, and although Bredahl won the round, he appeared to be tiring. Bredahl was caught on the ropes in the ninth, but he was more accurate than the challenger, and he closed the round well by hurting Gamez in the final seconds to split the round. With three rounds to go, Gamez knew he needed a knockout to win, but he failed to put consistent pressure on the champion. Bredahl's counterpunching won him the tenth, but surprisingly, the 39-year old Gamez had enough left to pressure the younger (by five years) champion in the championship rounds. He never came close to scoring the needed stoppage, though, and with the exception of a brief, but furious exchange in the 12th, Bredahl jabbed and moved his way home. He looked the worse for wear with both eyes swollen, and as he told Roach "Now I look like a real fighter", Johnny's brother Jimmi (himself a world class fighter in the early 1990's) countered "It's about time, Johnny"...

Afterwards, Bredahl almost apologized to the fans for a subpar performance, and promised to fight better next time. He may have been a little hard on himself, because while Bredahl didn't fight as good as when he took the title from Gamez' compatriot Eidy Moya in April, Gamez was a better fighter than Moya. In the end, Bredahl outboxed the number one challenger by a wide margin, and paved the way for future unification fights. First, Bredahl will probably have to go to Japan, as Japanese promoter Akihiko Honda acquired the rights to Bredahl's first two defenses as part of the deal that gave the Dane a shot at Moya.

On the undercard, WBA #10 bantam, Spend Abazi (24-1, (8 KO), avenged his only defeat by clearly outpointing Kenyan Athanas Nzau (13-4-1, 4 KO) over 8 rounds. Abazi was down in the 4th, but not seriously hurt. Nzau had outpointed Abazi in 2001...WBA#5/WBC#6 supermiddle, Mikkel Kessler, moved to 29-0 with a first-round knockout of American Dean Williams (now 16-3, 11 KO). It was Kessler's 22nd win inside the distance, and he will now fight former world champ Dingaan Thobela for a minor title on November 29th...IBF#4 supermiddle, WBC#3 and WBA#5 lightheavy, Mads Larsen (43-1, 36 KO), widely outscored Roberto Coelho (30-8, 21 KO), to run his record against Brazilian fighters to 3-0. Coelho was in survival mode from the first bell, which didn't make for an entertaining fight...Cruiserweight Johny Jensen (9-0, 5 KO), outpointed American Robert Marsh (9-18, 3 KO) over 6. Marsh took a standing 8-count in the second round...Martin Kristjansen (2-0, 1 KO) knocked out not very talented actor Anthony Viorel (2-3, 1 KO) of the US in the first round, lightweights. Viorel went down for a right to the chin that didn't seem too hard, so he simulated that he had been hit to the body...Martin Nielsen (3-0, 3 KO) scored a 3rd round stoppage of American Matt Gockel (4-2, 2 KO). Gockel was down in the second...Two Swedish prospects also scored wins in Copenhagen. Lightheavy Giovanni Alvarez (11-0, 7 KO) scored a spectacular 3rd round KO of American Chris Holt (4-1, 3 KO). Holt was down twice in the third...Heavyweight Aldo Colliander ran his record to 3-0, 1 KO with a 4-round decision over American Jeff Ford (4-5, 3 KO). Ford holds a KO win over Tye Fields, but was outboxed by the technically gifted Colliander, who seems to lack power.

Comments or questions? carstenrylander@hotmail.com