SMITH DECISIONS LONG IN ESPN2 FNF 2005 SERIES ENDER
By George Elsasser
The ESPN2 Friday Night Fight series dropped the
curtain on its year 2005 run, with a competitive heavyweight
pairing that saw Terry Smith besting Julius Long over ten stanzas
of somewhat entertaining flailing.
Entertaining, in that neither big guy has a clue when it comes to
the science of a game that wears the label "Sweet Science" - but
try they did, with the 7 feet tall Long, abandoning the height and
reach edge while making himself available in an inside battle of
attrition.
It was pretty much Smith, with the "Trouble Maker" sobriquet,
having the better over the front side stanzas - and then candle six
arrives with Long exploding with a two-fisted barrage of bad
intentions that turns the tide.
As quick as one could say "Long will not be long if continuing to
fight on the inside" - and a ho-ho-ho to that bit of all knowing
Teddy - there’s Smith readying to do the ol’ Zaba-Dabba hucklebuck,
but help arrives quickly, with timely action from homey hack, aka
referee Randy Phillips.
Phillips notices a cut to the left eye of the Little Rock home-
town Smith, and opts to temporarily call a halt to invite the house
medicine man in for a peek - sure enough, the pause that refreshes
clears the Smith cloudy mind, along with a stemming of the blood
flow from the cut eye.
To his credit, Smith regains control during the run to the wire,
and the Long gas tank begins showing need of refueling over the
"championship" rounds - although the tall one does manage to make
those stanzas tough to call.
The scoring went unanimous for Smith to the tune of 99-91, 97-93,
96-94 - my numbers also went to Smith 97-93 in points and 7-3 under
the round by round method.
Post Scripts ~ Terry Smith ( 25-1-1, 16 KO’s) you can forget the
neat resumé if the search is for still another new "prospect"
among the heavyweight clientele. Game yes, punching power not big
enough to offset the limited skills - and at age 34 the clock is
ticking. ESPN- Sho-Box is the level today, tomorrow, and for
eternity.
Julius Long (14-7, 12 KO’s) I refuse to
make funny, as the Atlas-Tessie duo did prior to the opening bell
when questioning how long, Long would be around. Still, if the
round ball genes are there as they were with the family tree,
someone should find him a team to join. Gives it his best in a
fight, but something missing come the basics. Showed some excellent
inside left-hooks but coulda, shoulda, and woulda likely had an
easy night, had he been taught the stick and counter game.
Prelim 8-rounder once again replayed the Peterson brothers younger
days roaming the DC street scene - and the pre-fight tape has
pretty much run out in the interest department.
The Tessie-Teddy act as well has joined it, in its weekly repeat
cliches of amateur experience and pedigree, being the big edge over
the selected pablum they are still being fed.
What next, The Contenders show maybe? Count me out.
Lamont, surprise, went to 14-0, 6 KO’s (in a gift wrapped ESPN2
going away party until later picking it up come 2006) unanimous
decision win over a Denver cowboy tough Rob Frankel who now drops
to 11-4, 1 KO.
It goes the full six stanzas due to the good chin and no quit
Frankel, who accepted every Peterson offering from start to finish
while answering with volleys of harmless blanks of his own.
It gave the Tessitore - Atlas act mucho ammunition to praise the
amateur tutoring of them Peterson brothers while declaring them as
top ten material come year 2006 - and the returning "No-Clue" Kenny
of studio comedy sit down shtick chimes in with opinion that today,
Lamont could beat the 6-10 rated welters.
Closing comment ~ Bright side of ESPN2 FNF shutting down until
January, it can provide Teddy-Tessie enough time to research
improved cliches … the pedigree laugher, fighting tall, and
assorted Atlas-isms, are in need of fine tuning.
