Battle Star XIX May 26 2004

Battle Star XIX May 26 2004

Event was held at Ameristar Casino in Kansas City.

Review by Mark Graves

It was a very entertaining night of boxing even though only one bout went the distance. The KO's, except for one, were after a few rounds of fighting. I was very impressed with the show.

Steve Vincent (2-0) vs Aaron Boldridge (0-0)

There was not a lot of action in the first round. I gave the round to Vincent based on landed punches in the last 10 seconds of the round. Round two also lacked action with Steve landing a good Left Hook for the round. So much for the lack of action. Vincent landed heavy shots in the third. A clean Right Hook landed clean and should have ended the fight but somehow Aaron got up for only an eight count. Unfortunately for Aaron, Steve connected on a powerful Left Hook shortly after he got up. I have to give Aaron credit; he did make it up before the ten count but his legs were not under him and the ref stopped the fight. TKO victory for Vincent at 1:56 of the third round.

Isaac Mendoza (8-0) vs Shad Howard (10-4-3)

Nice first round by Isaac. He landed good Left Hooks to the head and body by doubling them up. Shad landed only one clean punch in the first despite throwing many. The second round was very active for both fighters. Shad actually landed his hard shots this round which was enough for me to give him the round. The third round was a toss-up as not much happened. The fourth round started the same as the third ended up - dull. Well that changed when Isaac landed a Straight Right followed by an Upper Cut that promptly ended the fight at 3:00 of the fourth round.

Will Cook (6-0) vs Clinton Boldridge (1-1)

This bout did not last long and the outcome was not what I expected. It looked to me like Will had better skills than Clinton. That being said, Clinton caught Will with a Right Jab (I guess that is what you would call it. It was more like a Straight Right Upper Cut but that is not really a punch). Will went down flat on his back and appeared hurt. He stayed down up to about the seven or eight count then started to get up. When he did, he missed the ropes and fell again which prompted the ref to stop the fight. At this point, Will jumped up and looked at the ref with a look of 'What are you doing?' That gave Clinton the TKO victory. I suspect that Cook was hamming it up and that the stumble on the way up made the ref think he was really hurt. A strange fight any way you look at it.

Lisa Brown (8-0-2) vs Jerri Sitzes (5-3-1)

Lisa controlled the first round because she was able to beat Jerri to the punch. Then at the end of the round, Lisa landed a punch that knocked Jerri down. Jerri felt it was a slip but the ref gave the eight count anyway. Lots of action in the second round. Lisa controlled the start and end of the round with Jerri pinning Lisa in the corner during the middle of the round. Even while in the corner, Lisa was able to trade shots with Jerri. As a whole, I gave the round to Lisa. Round three was a close round with not as much action. I gave this round to Jerri. Lisa returned to beating Jerri to the punch in the fourth round. Jerri finshed the fifth round with a flurry but it was too little too late to get the round because Lisa controlled most of the round. The sixth round was close as well so I gave it to Jerri. Overall, Lisa dictated the action and the judges agreed. One judge had the score 59-54 and the other two had it 60-53 for a unanimous decision.

------------------

I am going to take a moment here and give a commentary on Jerri. I have seen Jerri fight at least six times. I first saw her fight in a kickboxing fight. Following the kickboxing match, I saw her handle a very talented Mary Ortega in two fights - one going to each fighter. Since the Ortega fights, Jerri has continued to fight high quality fighters. The problem she has run into is the opponents have been able to beat her to the punch.

Jerri's style is to come forward and attack while her body is in a more upright position than her recent opponents. That has hurt her. I attribute her upright stance to kickboxing. A kick-boxer needs to be in a position to kick at any time so the balance point needs to be higher than a boxer who can lean over. I have talked with Jerri a couple of times and know that she likes boxing but kickboxing is her favorite. She will continue to do both.

I hope she can find a way to learn how to box with a lower position than she currently does. Maybe fights with lower competition is where she need to go for a while before moving back up to these high quality fighters. I always know I will see Jerri give maximum effort in her fights and always look forward to seeing her fight.

------------------

Ronnie Warrior Jr. (8-1) vs Keith Sims (21-11-1)

You get one of two things with Keith Sims. If he gets hit early, you get a quality fight. If he does not get hit, you get more show than substance. Well, he did not get hit early thus setting up for a less than stellar fight as a whole. Not much happened in the first round although Keith did more work. Another non-descript round in the second I gave to Sims. Despite two warnings to Ronnie for leaning on Sims, I gave round three to Ronnie. It took until the fourth round for Ronnie to figure out how to effectively land punches with Sims smothering him so I gave the fourth to Warrior. The fifth round consisted of both fighters leaning on each other and not much else. I gave Ronnie the round because there was a stretch in the middle of the round that he was able to actually land some punches. Sims earned the sixth round with effective inside work. Things changed in the seventh. Sims decided to try to work from the outside. This turned out to be a mistake. Warrior was able to win the seventh. Now its the eighth and Sims is still on the outside. Ronnie took full advantage be landing a beautiful Over Hand Right that put Sims down for an eight count. Warrior finished Sims off with a Left/Right combination followed by a Left Upper Cut for the KO win at 1:49 of the 8th round.

Jeff Ford (4-7) vs Rob Calloway (47-4-1)

Rob took control early with double Left Hooks to the head and body. Rob also landed two good Straight Rights to easily take round 1. More of the same in the second round which culminated with an incredible Straight Right that KO'd Ford. Two more hard punches were landed by Calloway before Ford finally fell to defeat at 2:45 of second round.