"But make no mistake, promoter Scott Wagner and matchmaker Chris Middendorf are doing their best to put a good card on for tomorrow night." -- From March 9 post
It's safe to say that they succeeded, especially during the main event.
As I said earlier, the junior middleweight matchup between Baltimore's Maxell "The General" Taylor and undefeated Derek Ennis of Philadelphia will have Beltway Boxing fans talking for a long time to come.
The folks who knew anything about either man knew how dangerous this bout could be. You may also know that both guys were scheduled to face different opponents. It took the brains of Chris Middendorf to put the two against one another.
The result was a tremendous gut-check of a bout delivered by both men. In the third round, Ennis dropped Taylor with a right hand. Taylor was off-balance but a punch was delivered and referee Malik Waleed made the correct call.
As the round came to a close, it was Taylor who continued the offense. It looked like Ennis may have lost his wind. Taylor took advantage of that in the fourth when sent Ennis to the canvas twice. It was a 10-7 round and Ennis looked like he was done.
But Ennis fought back bravely and the two men battled to a deserved draw. I scored the bout 56-56 as did one of the judges. The other two were split. No one booed the decision. I think the majority of fans felt that neither man deserved to lose the bout.
Taylor's record is now 12-2-1 with five KO's while Ennis is 9-0-1, six KO's.
For the other locals on the card, it was not a good night. Manassas, VA junior middleweight Orazio "The Razor" Robinson lost a six-round majority decision to undefeated New Yorker Jose Rodriguez. Robinson got off to a good start only to falter in the second half of the contest. Stamina seemed to be a major issue for Robinson. Rodriguez fought well through a nasty gash along the side of his left eye as a result of a nasty head clash.
Robinson is 5-3-2 with four KO's. After recovering well from a tough start to his career, he has suffered two defeats that could be devastating to his career. Rodriguez is 5-0, one KO.
Featherweight Andre Nichols of Dale City, VA had a tough outing against James Franks of Newport News, VA. Franks was just a little too powerful for Nichols, who was boxing against a taller opponent. Nichols was stopped at 1:55 of the third. Nichols is now 1-1 while Franks is 2-1.
Those were the only bouts featuring Beltway Boxers on the card.
In other news from the card, there is talk that hall of fame promoter and trainer Lou Duva will be putting on a card in the Baltimore area in the next couple of months. People are telling me that the site will be DuBurns Arena. Duva was in attendance in Glen Burnie and he told me personally that they are working on putting something together, but he gave no official date or site.
Man, it's too bad that Glen Burnie's not Metro-accessible. That seemed like a good main event. I remember seeing Ennis at the "Clash of the Contenders" show in Fairfax a few weeks back-he destroyed his opponent.
ReplyDeleteEnnis was very impressive. He not only continuously pressured Taylor, he kept going to the body, even after he had Taylor down in round three. Ennis' brave rally in the final round, when he appeared to be done, saved his undefeated record.
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