"RICHARD HALL OVERCOMES ADVERSITY TO STOP JULIAN 'MR. KO' LETTERLOUGH"

By Elisa Harrison


Photo Credit: Brian Cannon


Following very serious accusations hurled at Roy Jones, Jr. -as well as the World Boxing Association- in an exclusive interview with Bragging Rights Corner's Aladdin Freeman, Richard "The Destroyer" Hall went to work Friday night in the ESPN FNF's main event which was hosted by the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Pro boxing's newest promoter, Hank Tuohy, titled his inaugural promotion "Battle Zone at the Tent;" as it turned out, the event lived up to expectation.

Richard Hall looked adversity in the face and refused to fall prey to it. Adversity wore black trunks with white trim, came to fight, hoping to add another victory via the quick route to his resume, after all, they don't call him "Mr. KO" for nothing.

For a hot minute it looked as though Hall was going to be history, courtesy of a very vicious Julian Letterlough left hook that folded the Jamaican's legs with over a minute to go in the round. Oh, but here is where they separate the men from the boys... Richard Hall got up, shook the cobwebs and decked Julian Letterlough with a left of his own to even the round and win the psychological warfare.

As the bell rang for the second stanza Hall hurt his opponent with a seemingly lazy right, then a flush left, and more than 20 unanswered punches thrown at a hurt and defenseless Julian Letterlough. Dick Flaherty, the third man in the ring, intervened, stopping the merciless beating 47 seconds into the round. Hall improves his record to 26-4, 25 KOs, Letterlough drops to 19-4, 18 KOs.

Keeping up with what has become a stomach turning pattern, Max Kellerman et al called the stoppage premature... I suppose if you are sitting in a comfy television studio miles away from the real deal, any stoppage could seem premature.

Antonio Tarver has been put on notice by Team Hall, but is he up to the challenge? Richard "The Destroyer" Hall may just be the man who can inject life to a semi-comatose and boring light heavyweight division.

In the co-feature of the evening, welterweights Ray Oliveira and Brian Mackie duked it out for ten rounds of non-stop action. Mackie was to have fought Julio "The Cuban Lover" Garcia some weeks ago in Las Vegas, but the Canadian reportedly had visa problems and was unable to keep the date. In the end, "Sucra" Oliveira earned a majority decision, which was erroneously called a split decision by the ring announcer. The official scores were 97-93, 98-92 and 95-95.

Oliveira improves to 45-9-2, 21 KOs while Mackie drops to 21-9, 5 KOs, and one can only wonder what is next for the ever popular Ray Ray.

Tuohy's Cape Cod-based sports marketing company, Old Colony Sports, promoted "The Battle Zone at the Tent," in association with Mohegan Sun, Jimmy Burchfield's Classic Entertainment Sports, Inc. and Gary Shaw Productions, LLC.

7-19-2003

 

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