The ESPN Friday Nite offering from Foxwoods Resort at
Mashantucket, CT had a little something for everyone - the main event saw
seasoned heavyweights Lawrence Clay-Bey and Derek Bryant in a ten round
standoff - and for those liking it short and sweet, it was Delvin Rodriguez
by KO in one.
The big ol’ guys, Clay-Bey at 6’-3 and tipping the ivories at 258, and
Bryant equal in height but lighter at 212, swapped leather and stanzas from
start to finish in an unsolvable pugilistic riddle.
The Clay-Bey game plan was to conserve energy while picking his shots in 15
seconds intervals of sustained power punching - the Bryant strategy was to
keep it busy with a rat-tat-tat offense at close quarters in hopes of
siphoning the bigger and older at 39 gas tank.
Early on it looked like the nite would belong to Clay-Bey - was stanza four
with Bryant in big trouble against the ropes and Lawrence tossing power
punches - but Derek shows true grit and survives.
From candle five on to the finis it was one for you and one for me, with a
coin flip here and there - truly a fight judges nightmare to score.
The official scoring went Clay-Bey 96-94, even on other cards 95-95, 95-95
… and this neutral corner had it Clay-Bey 96-95 in points, and 5-4-1 using
round by round method.
Post Scripts: Clay-Bey (21-3-1, 16) ~ Age 39 and competing at obese 258 is
too much an albatross. The pick and choose worked well against a southpaw
that elected to wage war up close and personal - thus the eye-catching
spurts of power punching. Next step up the ladder surely results in fite
version of the celebrated egg that couldn’t be put together again. Sad
story.
Bryant (18-4-1, 15) ~ Age 34, a southpaw that never
once gave outside game a chance. Thus, fun watch for the customers, but not
the way to go when the offense carries relative cap pistol effectiveness -
unanswered is identities of them 15 cadavers on the hit list.
………………………………..........................................................................
Welterweights Delvin Rodriguez (16-1-1, 9 KO) and Luther Smith (22-4-2, 12
KO) met briefly in scheduled 8-round prelim bout that saw Rodriguez closing
the curtain at 2:59 seconds mark of opening stanza.
This one was all Rodriguez from beginning to end … quicker in all
departments, with a finisher that sparkled - as in big right hand/double
hook combination that dropped Smith face down to the canvas. The 25
year-old Rodriguez earns himself another peek after a picture perfect
performance.
………………………………..........................................................................
In a middleweight 6-rounder it was Lenord Pierre (17-1, 12KO) out of the
Kevin Rooney Catskill stable of fallen stars powering his way to a lopsided
final round TKO win over hapless ("Contenders" or Pretenders? TV show) Les
Ralston (15-2, 9KO).
Entering stanza six it was wild-n-wacky winging Pierre missing more than
connecting, but managing to snatch every candle on aggressiveness, against
a light puncher short on anything resembling technique.
Only redeeming value in this mismatch is it qualified- for both licensed
fighters - as a clinic on how not to box.
GEL
Questions? Comments? Write George Elsasser
8-4-2005
