29.06.06 – By Jeff Bastasni: Heavyweight Dominick Guinn (26-4-1, 18 KO’s) lost a lopsided 12-round decision last night to Tony Thompson (28-1, 17 KO’s) at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. After getting off to a good start in the first round, Guinn quickly became reluctant to mix it up with the 6’5″ Thompson, who used his jab, and, surprisingly, superior inside fighting ability to punish and outwork Guinn over the course of the bout. Guinn, although the harder puncher, as usual, wouldn’t let his hands go, letting himself sustain vicious punishment from the 34-year-old Thompson.
In the early rounds, Guinn was aggressive, landing good body shots and straight rights to the head of Thompson. Unfazed by Guinn’s bull-like attacks, Thompson calmly used his long reach to safely jab Guinn from the outside and redden his face. By the 6th round, Guinn looked tired and ragged, and got caught by a big right hook thrown by Thompson that hurt Guinn. Thompson then followed up with a flurry of punches, all head shots that had Guinn reeling around the ring like a drunk. Following this round, Thompson was in the driver’s seat, and controlled the right for the remainder of the bout, basically giving a boxing clinic.
At this point, Guinn might as well have quit, because there was little fight left in him and he absorbed a lot of punishment for the next 6 rounds. In rounds 6-12, Thompson slowly stalked Guinn, beating him down on the inside with a massive amount of left and right hooks, none of which were thrown with much power but were still effective due to the accumulative effect they had. By the end of the bout, the fight was so one-sided, that I felt sympathy for Guinn, who looked sad and discouraged, as if he knew his career was going down the drain.
For Thompson, this was his 24th consecutive win, and it makes him one of the hottest heavyweights in the division despite his lack of power. Personally, based on what I saw of him last night, I’d pick him over the majority of the top ten fighters, especially fighters like Calvin Brock, Samuel Peter and Shannon Briggs, who I think he’d outwork with consistent work rate. Thompson is a rare breed of fighter that can dominate from the outside or inside, and if his chin holds up, he is a difficult fighter to beat.
What remains unclear, however, is what will come of Guinn. After winning his first 24 fights, he has lost 4 of his last 7 fights, with one draw. Sure, he has lost to some top fighters, in Sergei Liakhovich, James Toney and Monte Barrett, but with this latest loss, I think he needs to make a big decision about what he wants to do with the rest of his career. To be sure, I think he’s capable of turning things around, but he’s going to have to work on his conditioning and his mental outlook on learning to push through his fear of mixing it up. Nevertheless, he’s got a lot of things to be happy about in his career, with wins over Audley Harrison, Michael Grant, Derrick Banks, Duncan Dokiwari, but he badly needs some changes to be made for him to get back on the winning track.