25.03.04 – By Marc Abrams – HBO’s Boxing After Dark emanates Saturday March 27 from Little Rock, Arkansas. The State most recently known for Bill Clinton, and The Simple Life, boasts 2 of boxing rising stars; That being Middleweight Jermain Taylor, and heavyweight Dominick Guinn. Guinn will open the show with a fight against the tough Monte Barrett. The headliner, Taylor will be squaring off against Alex Bunema.
Guinn, a 28 year old Hot Springs native, brings a perfect record of 24-0 (17 KO’s) into his fight with Barrett. The versatile Guinn wasn’t that well known until he burst onto the scene with a sensational 7th round TKO over one time “heir-apparent” Michael Grant in June, 2003. Just 3 months later, Guinn engaged in a hard fought unanimous decision victory over the mammoth Duncan Dokiwari. However, Guinn struggled in his last bout, winning a tougher then expected unanimous decision over Derrick Banks last November.
Barrett is a 32 years old resident of Queens, NY, and has been a pro since 1996. He brings a record of 29-3 (16 KO’s) and like Guinn, he is a versatile boxer-puncher with sneaky power. Barrett’s level of opposition is slightly better than which Guinn has faced. Barrett won his first twenty-one fights. He then ran into Lance Whitaker and lost a very tough split decision in August, 1999. After wins against Banks (UD 10), and Jimmy Thunder (TKO 7), Barrett traveled to London, and was brutally beaten and knocked down 5 times in a 7th round TKO loss to Wladimir Klitschko. Barrett then racked up 6 straight wins. During his winning streak, Barrett won a split decision over an well aged and over-the-hill Tim Witherspoon. In Barrett’s last bout, he lost a close, maybe a bit controversial majority decision to fast rising Joe Mesi in Madison Square Garden. In that fight, Barrett started really slowly in losing the 1st half of the fight, as he lost the first 5 rounds of the scheduled 10 round fight. The fight really turned in the 7th round when Barrett dropped Mesi for the 1st time in his career. Despite looking good in the final 3 rounds, Barrett losing the first five rounds of the fight was too much of an obstacle to overcome and Mesi was awarded a close decision.
Both Guinn and Barrett have similar styles. Barrett will not be easily intimated, due to the fact he has been in with some big punchers who are probably light years better than Guinn can ever hope to be. He also has faced better competition. Guinn is a better puncher, and has looked more impressive in his recent bouts. Guinn also has home field advantage in this contest, which might be the deciding factor. I believe this will be a chess match early, as both fighters are cautious but then Guinn’s superior punching power will take over, scoring either a late knockout or easy decision. With a victory for Guinn, he will further ascend up the heavyweight ladder and should be 1 or 2 fights away from a world title shot against the winner of the April 24 bout between Corrie Sanders and Vitali Klitschko.
The 25 year old Jermain Taylor, whose nickname is “Bad Intentions”, is fighting in his hometown of Little Rock. The 2000 Olympic silver medalist has racked up a perfect record of 19-0 (14), although the competition has been pretty marginal at best. Taylor has done what fighters with his ability should do, and that is to win and win impressively. He is coming off a one round destruction of Alex Rios in January.
Bunema is 28 years old from Seattle, and brings a record of 24-3-2 (12 Ko’s). Bunema has a 6 fight win streak, and has a notable win over the notorious Reggie Strickland, who has been featured for his futility due to the fact his record was 6-248-15, But he has faced a lot better opposition then that.such as a split decision victory over the highly regarded J.C Candelo in January 2000. His next fight was a 4th round knockout defeat at the hands of #1 ranked Kassim Ouma in May of 2000. In January 2001, Bunema dropped another split decision to another highly ranked Bronko McKart. His last fight was at the 154 pound division, a unanimous decision victory over Anthony Shuler.
Although Bunema is on a nice little streak, he has not fought a well rounded puncher like Taylor and will likely find himself over his head. Besides the obvious gifts that Taylor displays, he is a very mature fighter in the ring, as he knows when to use his combinations and body work to set up his big right hand. This looks like a early blowout for Taylor. After this fight, Taylor may fight Christian Sanavia of Italy in a eliminator bout for a chance at a belt.