By Neil Dennis: Last night, in the third installment of the ICB Knockout Series dubbed “The Showdown Downtown,” a crowd of about a thousand came to see a pair of main events that, like the whole event itself, was a mixed bag of good and not so good. Some of the fights were blink-and-you-missed-it blow outs, one was a borefest that should have been blowout, and a couple turned into some pretty damn good scraps.
It started with a pair of first round beatdowns in favor of middleweight Frankie “The Freight Train” Filipone and heavyweight Dorsett Barnwell. Their opponents Brandon McGowan and Wayne Gwynn stood pensive against them for about ten seconds each before Filipone and Barnwell started laying into them. Filipone finished with a left uppercut. Barnwell finished with a left hook and a straight. McGowan and Gwynn were out of there in 56 and 34 seconds, respectively.
The first real fight of the night was a four-rounder between light middleweights Mardoette Olivier and Philip Bernette. This was the professional debut for both fighters. Olivier had the amateur pedigree, but both fighters seemed hell-bent on winning it. The first round saw Olivier boxing smart as Bernette swung powerful, yet wild, overhand rights. Although one good overhand right did catch Olivier, Olivier’s jab had Bernette under complete control. What’s more, Bernette’s feet seemed unsteady, and he even slipped to the canvas early in the opening round. The second round was all Bernette, however, as his hooks and jabs seemed to land at will, while Olivier just seemed to futily shell up. Olivier was rocked several times, but weathered the storm well and refused to go down. The third round saw Bernette tiring early and Olivier was scoring with heavy-handed power shots that had him stumbling and holding constantly. Strangely, Bernette got a second wind despite all the damage he was taking, and caught Olivier with a few hooks late in the round to stifle the offensive and put Olivier against the ropes.
Trying to keep the momentum, Bernette came out the gates flooring Olivier with a right hook that people at ringside screamed was a slip, but on the replay was shown to be clean knockdown. However, that seemed to be all Bernette had as he as looked gassed for much of the remaining round while Olivier peppered him with straights and jabs. Bernette may have even gone down himself, but referee Larry Doggett called a time out late in the fight that allowed Bernette to regain his senses and stay out of Olivier’s range for the remaining ten seconds and survive. It all ended in a split decision in Olivier’s favor, and rightfully could have gone either way thanks to the knockdown. People cheered both fighters, even if they expressed disapproval of the way the decision went. They also applauded loudly when announcer Henry Jones asked the crowd about the idea of a rematch.
Following this, we went back to the blowouts. Heavyweight Joe “The Italian Nightmare” Cusumano trashed flabby Marcus Patterson, dropping him twice with hooks before referee Chris Wollesen called a stop to it. Fellow heavyweight Eric Newell was given equally flabby Octavius Davis, though Davis lasted into the second round thanks to his running about while throwing comical windmill punches as Newell pursued him. When both Newell and Cusumano landed on their outclassed opponents, they landed hard and flush while knocking their opponent about like ragdolls. One could only have wished Newell and Cusumano had gotten the chance to fight each other, rather than have to waste their time with these tubs of lard.
During intermission, ring announcer Henry Jones was nice enough to call both Stephan Alexander and Cecil McCalla out to the ring, as their respective opponents has dropped out, saying it was “hard to find opponents to fight these men.” He also called attention to former journeyman Scott “The Manassas Mauler” Farmer, who was sitting along the ring apron. Fellow announcer Mike Hanson then came out over the loudspeaker and lauded Jones’s credentials as the most prominent African-American fight announcer in the sport and his being a protégé of the legendary Michael Buffer. These pleasantries were capped by fight promoter Jack Fulton, who gave out an honorary ICB “Champion for Life” title belt to Bobby Jordan, Sr. for his tireless efforts in support of youth sports in the Hampton Roads area.
Coming back to the co-main events, we were we given a barn-burner and a borefest. First, the borefest featuring Hasim Rahman and Damon Reed. Rahman, who seemed at the pre-fight press conference rather nonchalant about the whole the thing, brought that same uncaring attitude into the ring as he pecked at a shelled up Reed for the first four rounds. In the fifth, you were given the false belief that Reed had planned to tire Rahman all along, as he came out of his shell and rocked The Rock several times in the first minute and a half, but this only seemed to finally wake up the sleeping giant. Rahman took Reed to the ropes late in the fifth and seemed to be buckling Reed against them as the bell sounded. In the sixth, it was just waiting for the inevitable. Reed slipped up early as he tried to tie Rahman up. But all was to no avail as Rahman floored Reed with a series of uppercuts to the head and body. Reed just stayed down, his knees, head, and forearms glued to the floor as Chris Wollesen counted him out.
Rahman should have been able to get a tomato can like Reed out of there in one round. Shannon Briggs faced tougher opposition in Rob Calloway back in May, and he had “The All-American Prizefighter” out of there in 98 seconds. Letting a man like Reed survive even six rounds speaks volumes as to the bleak future Rahman has in the heavyweight division, should he choose to continue.
Thankfully, this was not the final fight of the night as the crowd was treated to a hotly anticipated rematch between Henry “Sugar Poo” Buchanan and Bobby Jordan, Jr. Their first fight in Washington, D.C. was a closely contested bout that somehow translated into a blowout for Buchanan when it went to the scorecards. Both Jordan and Buchanan seemed determined to not win thanks to the judges’ opinions, and it showed in spades in the ring. From the opening bell, they came out trading bombs, trying to put the other away early. Jordan seemed to be taking the harder beating though, as he was rocked against the ropes just before the first bell sounded.
From then on, it was a saw-saw battle of wills as round after round, Buchanan and Jordan alternated between being the aggressor and having their man backed into the corner. However, as the rounds passed, the toll of the battle was showing on Bobby Jordan’s face. His nose was bloodied up in the fifth and his left eye was cut in the eighth, but in spite of it all, he was managing to be the one landing the more powerful shots on Buchanan, tiring and wobbling Sugar Poo repeatedly. By the ninth, both looked weary, but nonetheless determined to end things on their terms. Sadly for Jordan, it quickly turned out to be on Buchanan’s terms as a hard left jab and a loaded straight right buckled Jordan’s legs, prompting Larry Doggett to stop the fight twenty-two seconds into the ninth round. People were on their feet applauding both fighters as all those in attendance knew they got see something special. Buchanan said in the post-fight interview he wanted a rematch with Jean-Paul Mendy. That’s unlikely now that Mendy is lined up as a mandatory for IBF champ Lucian Bute, but one more go around with Jordan wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
Although it did not equal the fireworks of May 28th‘s card, The Downtown Showdown at the Norfolk Scope was still fairly good night at the fights. Buchanan and Jordan as well as Olivier and Bernette brought fight fans to a fever pitch, while others merely gave those in attendance a nice highlight reel KO and little else. But regardless of the outcomes, it is highly commendable that Jack Fulton and his ICB Knockout Series have continued to move forward trying to once again cement boxing’s place at the Norfolk Scope. In that sense, there were no losers last night.