25.06.06 – By Vanessa McConnell, photos by CJ Cansler – Caesars Palace, Main Events, All-Star Boxing, Warriors Boxing and Northeast Promotions know how to book a fight. They hosted a double-header undefeated fight card under the hot smoldering sun at the Caesars Palace Open-Air Roman Amphitheatre where sweat was the determining factor of how hard a hit was. Four undefeated boxers went head-to-head in an HBO Boxing After Dark series broadcast on HBO. As the sun went down and the alcohol settled in, the fans threw everything from Mike Tyson to bootie in the air to get the fighters motivated to “fight.”
The WBC FECAR Box and IBA Continental Americas Heavyweight Elimination bout between heavyweights Calvin Brock (29-0, 22 KOs) and Timur Ibragimov (21-1-1, 13 KOs) went the full twelve rounds, landing in the judge’s hand. Brock won the fight by a unanimous decision. From the start, it was obvious that Brock was the crowd’s favorite; even Mike Tyson coached and cheered him on from his ringside seat. As Timur was announced, the crowd booed and began to chant “U.S.A.” For the record, one of the controversies surrounding this fight was the fact that U.S.A. was up against the former Soviet Union, and everybody wanted to see who was the stronger and better boxer and what country they were from mattered the most to the fans. However, Brock showed Timur that not all American boxers are lazy and come just as prepared to fight as Russian boxers.
To his credit, Timur had a heavy hands but his punches didn’t have much of an effect on Brock. Clearly, Timur was tired early in the fight, from all his running and hugging to stall Brock’s flurry but nothing seemed to work. Brock gave Timur a run for his money, making him earn it the hard way. Brock dominated Timur by jabbing him close, working his body with heavy shots and sticking him with solid left and rights. Although Brock dominated the entire fight, the crowd was not happy with his performance. As they danced around the ring and Brock waited patiently for his opportunity to slam Timur, the crowd booed and begged for some action from either fighter. Brock was waiting on something that was already there; he just wouldn’t take the shots.
No one thought Timur would last the full twelve rounds, since he was not in Brock’s league, and the only chance he had of winning the fight was to knock Brock out early and not go the distance. When Brock lost his balance from a punch and fell early in the fight, things were looking great for Timur, but once Brock was on his feet, he chased Timur around the ring the entire fight. However, Brock kept his eye on his target and concentrated a little too hard on waiting for the perfect punch.
Brock threw a total of 319 punches, but only 104 actually landed on his opponent. He threw a total of 179 power punches with 66 landing. While Timur threw a total of 321 punches with 59 landing. He also threw 150 power punches with only 41 landing on target. Overall, it was painfully obvious who the better and stronger fighter. Brock is on his way to a promising heavyweight career and has every intention on achieving the heavyweight championship title, hopefully for him, very soon.
The WBA Welterweight Eliminator bout between Joel Julio (27-1, 24 KOs) and Carlos Quintana (23-0, 18 KOs) was another full twelve round fight but with more action. Quintana won the fight by unanimous decision. Quintana went down in the first round and it seemed as if the fight was near over, but he shocked us all by turning the fight around in his favor and dominated the rest of the fight.
Quintana took some mean blows as Julio tried to unleash his inner beast on him. Quintana shook it all off and gave just as great punches as he received. Both fighters were still going strong by the sixth round, and even through Quintana suffered a few low blows he came back stronger and faster. It was like his frustration took over after he looked to the ref for help and was ignored.
By this time of the fight, fans were on there feet pounding the ground in excitement. Both fighters were still going strong. Towards the end of the fight Quintana kept off the ropes and kept Julio running in circles. Quintana turned it around and unleashed his upper cuts, lefts and right on Julio. Julio could not handle rain.
Julio was trying his best to hang with Quintana, both fighters poured their hearts in the ring, but Quintana was a little too much for Julio. At the end of the fight Julio was playing the tango. Both fighters were tired, but Quintana began to reach down from his stomach and throw the hardest punches Julio probably ever felt in his life. Julio tried to redeem himself in the last round but by then it was over for him, Quintana totally dominated the fight.
The preliminary fights leading up to the double-header fights warmed the crowd up, as if the sun was not doing a great job of that already. In the prelim fight between Dorin Spivey and Eleazar Contreras, Contreras won the fight by a split decision when the eight round fight went to the judges score card. This match was a perfect example of how looks can be deceiving.
Spivey started out low and confident, but towards the end of the fight he looked upright terrified of his opponent. The confidence he projected early on in the fight was turned around as Contreras woke up in the second round and ripped into Spivey. If he could have picked him up and slammed him on the mat he would have. Actually he tried but the referee intervened.
The fight between Raul Martinez and Alex Becerra was over before it began. Martinez landed two headshots and Becerra hit the floor. Martinez laid him out in 1:55 of the first round. He ran and jumped around the ring showing off to fans before he hugged his opponent and exited the ring. It would have been nice to see the feisty fighter go the distance and give the fans a full four rounds of action, but it was quick and sweet for Martinez.
In the four round fight between Jailer Berrio and Jose Angel Roman, Berrio won by a unanimous decision. The crowd was not happy with the decision, and it was clear that it was pure luck that won Berrio that fight. Berrio spent most of the fight on the ropes and was even warned by the referee for hugging Martinez too much, but overall, he is a good fighter and fought hard. Boo’s rang out through the open arena, it was obvious that no one was happy about Berrio winning by unanimous decision, maybe a split decision would have fit the fight.