Those of us who watched last night's HBO broadcast of Wladimir Klitschko vs Jameel McCline were forced to witness Shannon Briggs being knocked down by "Big Time" McCline ad nauseum. More often than not, when sports networks show some of the greatest KOs in history, once again Shannon Briggs takes center stage, as he folds courtesy of one Lennox Lewis.
On Friday, December 6, Mr. Briggs -now CEO of American Top Team- ventured into very deep waters as a promoter. The card was held at the Palladium Athletic Village, a state of the arts facility in Davie, Florida.
Have you ever heard of Murphy's law? It applied to this night in a major way. An over zealous ticket taker, who saw fit to put his hands on me as I was being escorted into the venue, set the tone for the remainder of the evening.
Don't get me wrong, I am not hating on Shannon Briggs or his people. However, it is my job to report facts and not fantasy. The word 'team' means a group of people working together for a common purpose. With that in mind, why didn't this 'team' have the ring set up properly by fight time? At 7:00 pm the ring had been dismantled under direct orders of the Florida State boxing commission who upon close inspection had found it unsafe.
With a rather enthusiastic and very patient crowd waiting in the wings, the proceedings were held up for an hour and a half or better while the square circle was reassembled properly. Certain press members were given the privilege of sitting ringside while this went on, others were kept outside standing, and at the mercy of the enforcer at the door.
Allow me to take a moment to thank PR agent Erika Lukas-Alvarez and her sister Carrie-Ann Lukas for being the class act of the evening. These young women adamantly sold raffle tickets to benefit the children at St. Jude's Hospital; and also saw to it that we were allowed into the venue safely. Erika took special care of press row, and in my humble opinion, was the best representative Mr. Briggs had in his team on this night.
On with the show, and what a show it was...
Greg Pierre and David Womack were making their debut in the heavyweight division. Opa Locka represented well for Greg Pierre, who didn't disappoint his fans stopping Womack within 25 seconds of the first round.
Big man Stephen Griffin, 312 lbs., took care of Dennis Malley 2:10 into the first round. Malley improves to 3-1, 1 KO, while Griffin drops to 3-6, 3 KOs.
Heavyweight Timur Ibragimov, from the Republic of Uzbakistan and now a South Florida resident, met up with John James, who earned the nickname "Mat Sponsor." James ran for his life from the opening bell, fell at the drop of a hat, and was put out of his misery 2:50 into the 1st round. James' performance was far from professional or ethical. Timur pushes his record to 2-0, 2 KOs, the "Mat Sponsor" drops (no pun intended) to 1-1, 1 KO.
Another heavy, Sultan Ibragimov, a 2000 Olympics silver medallist followed the order against Clarence Goins, 5-10-2, 3 KOs. It didn't last long, with Sultan dominating and stopping Goins 1:36 into the first round.
Julian "Super Bad" Townsend, a hot prospect from Coconut Creek, Florida met up with Cornelius Drane in another four rounder. "Super Bad" weighed in at 156 lbs., Drane at 154.25 lbs.
Julian has an effective piston like jab, nice foot movement and great speed. After knocking down his opponent and rocking him badly, the fight was waved off by referee Jorge Alonso, with the blessings of ringside physician Dr. Allan Fields, who had also seen enough. This was the first fight of the night to go pass one round. Official time 1:30 of the 3rd assault. Drane drops to 10-13-1, 6 KOs, while Townsend improves to 2-0, 1 KO.
Picking up the pace, a 6 rounder between southpaw Brian Adams, (15-3-1, 7 KOs) and Rudy "Rude Dog" Lunsford, (12-21-2, 7 KOs). Adams, from Queens, New York, is managed by cousin Shannon Briggs, and trained by Olympic star Mark Breland. He weighed in at 136.75 lbs., while his opponent, from St. Petersburg, Florida, hit the scale at 141.25.
Brian Adams is a flashy fighter, with good defensive skills; his jab is solid, and he proved to be too much for Lunsford, who tried to press the action but was totally dominated by the New York fighter. Lunsford was cut over the left eye in the fourth round, as a result of an unintentional head butt; he also managed to hit Adams with a huge right to the head in that round, probably his best punch of the night. Brian shook it off and neutralized Rudy's power with accurate uppercuts.
Adams re-injured his right hand during the fight. He broke it against Daniel Attah in June of '98, re-injuring it against Richard Kiley in November of 2001. The judges saw it 59-55, 58-56, 58-56 all for Brian Adams.
The main event followed; a much anticipated match between Dominican Julio Aquino (9-2, 9 KOs) and Colombian Fray Luis Sierra, (15-8, 13 KOs). Aquino came in at 144.25 lbs, Sierra at 142.5 lbs. The bout was scheduled for 8 rounds.
From the opening bell Aquino went after Sierra, knocking him down, and hitting him while he was down with more than one blow, which cost him 2 points. Eventually Aquino caught Sierra with a clean shot to the liver, and as Sierra was dropping to a knee, Aquino, already in the process of throwing another punch, hit Sierra low. Referee Alonso called it a low blow, and told Sierra he had 5 minutes to recover.
The doctors rushed into the ring, since the fighter was down and obviously in pain. For some yet to be explained reason(s) the Commission inspectors jumped up in the ring, although at this point the fight had not been stopped. Both corners stepped up as well, and mayhem ensued.
In an exclusive statement to Bragging Rights Corner, referee Jorge Alonso informed us that he did not count the fall as a knockdown because he couldn't make the judgment call on whether the guy went down from the body shot or from the low blow. He added that he informed Fray Luis Sierra that he had 5 minutes to recover, and several minutes later told him that he would give him more time if he felt he needed it in order to continue fighting.
Alonso stated that Sierra said he didn't want to continue, that he was in too much pain, and it was at this time that the fight was officially called off. A lot of discussion followed, Sierra's corner was not very happy at the outcome but in the end, it stands as a first round TKO win for Aquino. Official time 1:48.
The card ended on this note, but before I close this report, allow me to fill you in on some of the oddities of the evening...
The crowd was told to stand up for the singing of the National Anthem... at which point we were asked if anyone in the crowd knew how to sing it? Obviously, there wasn't a designated singer. However, Shannon's better half stepped up to the plate -or the ring- as the case may be, and did a convincing job of it.
In the first bout, winner Greg Pierre exited the ring before the official decision was announced. He had to be brought back in.
At the end of the third bout, "Mat Sponsor" John James carried his own bucket back to the dressing room.
Club Cheetah ring card girls vs the All American Top Team squad... The ring card girls belonged to Club Cheetah, and they brought their own cards, with the establishment's name printed on the back. The All American Team girls only brought themselves and very skimpy attire. At one point, one of the All American Team girls went up in the ring with a Round 1 card from the Cheetah girls, and when she stepped down, the Cheetahs were ready to rumble. A major argument ensued, ringside, face to face, $#$% to %^%$, and the two groups had to be separated.
But it gets better... Cheetah's crew left and took the ring cards with them. American Top Team girls had to announce the rounds with their fingers for the remainder of the evening. I wonder if this has ever happened before? Hmmmm....
Who was in da house? Martin (Lawrence) must have been looking for Gina, Will (Smith) must have been chasing aliens; they were no shows. A very gracious and funny Tommy Ford was in, signing autographs, gloves, posing for pictures and just talking to the fans. Ricky Williams was in the VIP section, didn't see him mingle much. O.J. Simpson continues to look for Nicole's murderer at sports events, he was there, too.
Local fighters came to lend their support to the cause: Richard Hall, Jaime "Punisher" Palma, Lou del Valle and his sister Melissa, Ricky Quiles, Ramón Garbey, among others.
Oh, and please, please, please! The announcer... His name is Billy Luper, and I hope that he will take this for what is worth, constructive criticism... Billy, the ill fitting white tuxedo was a NO-NO!!! Most of us tried to figure out if you had missed your prom, your wedding or perhaps even your communion. When announcing, you need to speak loudly and clearly, it is important for some of us to hear official scores and time of stoppages.
May I suggest that you return the tux, and assuming that you will be back for the next card, wear something more in tune with the evening's proceedings... No disrespect, bro, just the facts. I keep it real.
Check out the pictures...
