06.07.08 – by James Slater, photo by Tom Casino / Showtime – In what may well have been the single most dramatic one round fight seen in recent memory, New Jersey’s Kendal Holt got up from two hurtful knockdowns to knock out cold Colombia’s Ricardo Torres last night in Las Vegas. With his sensational win “Rated R” snatched the WBO light-welterweight tile and improved his record to 24-2(13). The deposed Torres, who remained prostrate for quite some time after being KO’d, fell to 32-2(28). The fight was all over at one minute and one second of the opening round.
The action came amazingly fast as soon as the opening bell had sounded. Rushing right at his man, 28-year-old Torres caught Holt with a superb right hand over the top.. Sent down and on his back, Holt was up instantly, but he was badly hurt. Torres wasted no time in going for the finish and soon had Holt down for a second time. A somewhat messy combination of a left and a right sent Holt down, but it was more a case of the 27-year-old’s legs not having recovered from the first knockdown. The fight looked all but over.
But then, in a scene that will be talked about for a very long time, Holt was able to come back and knock Torres cold with a perfect right hand to the head. Torres went down as though shot and crumpled to his knees. Remaining slumped along the ropes with his leg twitching, it was obvious the Colombian was very seriously hurt. Assisted by ringside medical staff, Torres was thankfully okay.
As with the first meeting between these two fighters, there was more than a touch of controversy last night, however. An accidental, but without doubt debilitating, head butt from Holt crashed into Torres’ skull mere seconds before the fight ending right hand. Torres was badly hurt by the butt and without it he may have been able to have avoided the right hand that came after it. The action came so thick and fast that at first it was very hard to see that the butt had landed. But in replay it was clear to see the clash of heads had stunned Torres and hurt him seriously.
No doubt making a protest in the near future, the Torres camp will have a case. However, referee Jay Nady had absolutely no chance of getting in between the two men to warn Holt for the head-butt. Neither Nady of any other referee is that fast. Maybe if he’d been given some time to recover from the clash Torres would not have been dispatched so quickly? We will never know. In all likelihood a third and deciding bout will be called for.
For now, though, despite the controversy, we can all reflect on one of the most savage, one of the most dramatic and one of the most sensational opening rounds in boxing history!