Number One on 'My Favorite Beltway Boxing Bouts' Countdown!

Here is the number one bout on my Favorite Beltway Boxing Bouts countdown! I wrote about this bout back in August of 2005, but here it is again.

1. Lloyd "Jabba" Bryan vs. Bernice "The Heat" Barber, November 30, 1995, Martin's Crosswinds, Greenbelt, MD.

WHY IT MAKES THE LIST: The bout was a true war of attrition on a night where everything surrounding my boxing career came together.

The bout was a 12-rounder for the vacant USBA Intercontinental Middleweight title and we were going to televise it on Boxing Spotlight. We had just received a spot on what was then Home Team Sports (now Comcast Sportsnet) and the show expanded from one to two hours.

Jabba Bryan was originally from Jamaica, but lived in Capitol Heights, MD. He was a rising undefeated middleweight prospect at the time. Barber was out of Virginia Beach, VA and was a former kickboxing champ who had started to win some state boxing titles. I suggested to our crew that we build this bout up as big as we can. We went to Jabba's gym and interviewed him there. We did pre-fight interviews with both men that looked similar to the ones shown on ESPN, HBO and Showtime. The announcers studied tape on both men to see what kind of bout we might have. Now it was up to the fighters to give us the bout worthy of the buildup.

The bout exceeded the buildup, eventually, although there was a scary moment in the first round. Barber caught Bryan with a vicious right hand and dropped him. Bryan landed awkwardly on his right ankle. Bryan barely survived the round. From the second round on, the excitement kept building. However, Bryan started gaining little advantages and set a new pace for the bout. The advantages seemed to culminate in the 11th round when Bryan dropped Barber with a right hand of his own. But Barber came back later in the round, pressured Bryan and sent him to the canvas for the second time.

During the final round, it seemed like EVERYBODY was drained: the boxers, the fans and the announcers. Bryan had enough, however, to pull out the 12th round and win the title. It was the first time I had ever called a full 12-round bout and I felt like I had BOXED 12 rounds. I had never had that feeling before and haven't had it since. But it was a feeling of total accomplishment. Those two boxers gave it their best and those who saw it are STILL talking about it.

AFTERMATH: The two men fought again in July of 1999 in Atlanta, GA. It apparently is true that the sequel is almost never as good as the original. Bryan knocked out Barber in the first round.

Bryan is still an active boxer. He now fights as a cruiserweight and will be taking on undefeated Matt Godfrey on December 1 in Providence, RI. Barber fought and lost two more bouts before calling it a career in February of 2000.