(Kendall Holt seen here in happier times, just prior to the start of the bout with WBO super lightweight champion Ricardo Torres) 05.09.07 – By Jaime Castro-Núñez: What follows next is an overview of the social, cultural, human, and boxing factors involved in the Torres-Holt bout that took place last September 1, 2007, in Barranquilla.
Kendall Holt Barranquilla
In search of the belt. Resigned not to fight in Las Vegas or Los Angeles, Kendall Holt packed up his bags and traveled to Barranquilla full of expectations. At the beginning he was concerned about his safety, but soon he discovered the sweet face of Colombia and started to enjoy it.
Ever since Holt arrived in Barranquilla, he showed himself as a charismatic, playful person who joked all the time not only with the press, but also with the boxing fans. Later, he would say in a press release that Colombians loved him so much, that everybody wanted a picture, an autograph, headbands…He described them as “happy” people.
Barranquilla: Colombia’s Happiest City
(Ricardo Torres, looking relaxed and ready to do battle with Holt) Happy people. Kendall Holt was certainly right when he described the Barranquilleros as happy people. Known as the home-city of Junior de Barranquilla soccer team, Barranquilla is better known around the world for the Carnival of Barranquilla, a 4-day festivity in which Barranquilla’s normal activities are paralyzed because the city gets busy with parades, concerts, party, and cultural events. A Barranquillero, by definition, is a sincere, happy person who lives to enjoy life. And they enjoy life by dancing, shouting, and working hard.
The Fight: Holt Became Overconfident
(Ricardo Torres, shown here after being knocked down in the sixth round) “Soy nueva champion.” It was in this happy city where Kendall Holt was fulfilling his dream of becoming the new WBO Light Welterweight champion of the world. He was ahead on the scorecards and every single person watching the fight knew it, including the defending champion Ricardo Torres. Using an exquisite, refined boxing technique, the challenger was outboxing the champ. Using the one-two, jab, step back style, Kendall sent Ricardo to the canvas in round six. It was as if Junior de Barranquilla soccer team was wining 1-0 and fifteen minutes to the end of the game, América de Cali team scored a goal: 1-1.
Ricardo went up and Kendall did not want to risk the belt by exchanging with the hard-hitting champion. He decided to keep doing what was serving him well: jab, jab, run away, jab, jab, one-two. At the end of round ten, the challenger suspected he was the new champion. He was confident…overconfident, perhaps. “Veni, vidi, vici,” said Julius Caesar to the Roman Senate describing his victory over Pharnaces II of Pontus in the Battle of Zela.
The Vicious Left Hook
Eleventh round. Just six minutes away from the belt, Holt started to do what he had to do: avoid Ricardo’s wrath. Surely he did not want to risk the belt by banging with a banger. So it was that Kendall put on his roller skates and started to skate. When he saw that Ricardo was trying to chase him, he forgot about the skates and started to run away. “Ran away if you want to survive,” a song says. No mistakes so far avoiding the banger. De la Hoya couldn’t do so better. Few moments later, Kendall got cornered by Torres and made his only mistake: to exchange with Torres, to bang with a banger. Then he felt pure dynamite exploding right in his chin.
At this particular moment, the Barranquilleros were no longer at Salón Jumbo del Country Club. They were at Estadio Metropolitano de Barranquilla and soccer team Junior de Barranquilla had scored a goal, another goal, 2-1, the one that gave them the victory. What follows next needs no description. Ricardo Torres had put together, with his vicious hook, the Carnival of Barranquilla and Junior’s last-minute goal. Water, ice, cups with ice…
Visibly hurt, Kendall showed his heart and his willingness to take the belt home. The referee, Geno Rodríguez, approached him and started the count. For a moment, he thought of stopping the fight right there, but “it was a championship match and I knew that Holt was ahead on the scorecards, so I decided to give him a chance and I let him continue,” he said to Luis Carlos Trout of boxeocolombiano.com. The crocodile saw the cow trying to cross the river and resumed a disorganized, yet effective assault. At least six more bombs exploded on Holt’s humanity. Trying to protect his countryman, Geno Rodríguez decided to stop the fight. “Holt was in bad shape and he wasn’t throwing anything back to the champion,” he said. An early stoppage? If you love Holt, then yes, big time, the worst early stoppage ever since God created the heavens and the earth. If you love Torres, then no, it wasn’t an early stoppage at all.
We boxing fans and writers have had a couple of days –actually 72 hours- to analyze and make a decision. Geno only had ten seconds and he didn’t want that cross upon his shoulder. Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez wrote in his acclaimed novel One Hundred Years of Solitude: “Nothing weights more than a corpse.”
Frustrations And Deceptions
Pandemonium, chaos. Five or four Americans in the middle of this chaos –actually Barranquilla celebrating Junior’s goal- thinking that they were ready to be lynched. Lynched? This is what Cuadrilátero said in a press release: “They [Holt’s team] merely misinterpreted and confused an emotional and excessive joy display of the crowd that watched how his champion, after being closely behind in the cards, in round eleven turned over the fight and knocked down Holt. He [Kendall Holt] was in a very bad shape and referee acted wisely stopping the fight.”
At the end of the fight, visibly upset and spitting bad words and pure fire as a mad dragon, Kendall Holt said to the journalists: “I was cheated, I was cheated.”
Torres-Holt: The Aftermath
“I was cheated,” he kept saying. The following question should be: By whom? Who cheated on Kendall Holt? I am not the right person to answer this open question, but there are some options.
Was it Top Rank by losing the purse bid?
Was it Cuadrilátero?
Was it the entire Colombian people?
Was it the boxing fans at Salón Jumbo?
Was it his overconfidence?
Was it the vicious left hook that exploded in his chin?
Was it the ice and the water?
Was it the referee?
Options A and B.
Options E and F.
All of the above.
k. None of the above.
Who cheated on Kendall Holt? Perhaps that vicious left hook has something to do in this discussion.