Mike Indri
Retired Boxers Foundation
(NJ State representative)
July 1, 2003

Former World Featherweight Champion Clarence "Bones" Adams had to settle for a technical decision majority's draw against a gritty Manuel Sepeda (now 15-6-3, 5 KO's) due to a brutal accidental head-butt in round three of their scheduled 10 round bout. Adams, now 41-6-4 with 19 KO's, started out slowly and both fighter's recent ring inactivity (Adams 8 months, Sepeda 9 respectively) showed as each struggled tentatively through the first two rounds.

As round three began "Bones" landed a couple of clean shots before a sudden clash of heads opened a nasty cut over Sepeda's left eye as well as a deep gouge high on the left side of Adam's forehead- which bled profusely. After the ring doctor signaled for the fight to continue the 28-year-old Adams, now living in Las Vegas, fired a low blow, which sent a pained Sepeda to his knees. The round ended with "Bones" landing a flurry of power shots against the still hurting Sepeda.

Round four started with "Bones" still bleeding, which was an obvious indication of his cuts severity as Adam's cutman, Miquel Diaz, is one of the best in the business. As the action was picking up "Bones", fighting professionally since the age of 15, was landing the better punches and appeared to be gaining control of the fight as the bell sounded ending round four.

In between rounds the ring doctor again examined "Bones" cut and advised the ref to stop the fight due to the damage - which would later require a hospital visit and stitches for Adams. As per the unified rules the contest would now go to the scorecards. While 1 judge scored it 39-37 for Adams, the 2 other judges called it a 38-38 draw.

Neither fighter wanted the bout to be stopped, and obviously both sides were disappointed and frustrated with the outcome. The 2,300 plus fans in attendance at Carfaro Field in Niles, Ohio weren't satisfied either as the "boos" rang out until well after both fighters left the ring.

The fans had something to be pleased with in the earlier co-feature bout shown on this ESPN "Tuesday night Fights" card as hometown hero Kelly Pavlik raised his record to 18-0 (17KO's) with a overpowering 2nd round knockout over Rico Cason. The 6'3" middleweight prospect Pavlik made short work of Cason, sending him to the canvas with a strong right hand to the back of the head and keeping the overmatched Cason on the deck with a damaging left hook to the body.

On the undercard the judges robbed Jose Spearman in his 6 round Super Middleweight bout against Romero Johnson (now 7-1). Johnson sent the more experienced Spearman (now 20-6-2) to the canvas in the 5th round with a surprise right hand which did hurt Spearman, but that was all Johnson would offer in this battle of Ohio residents. Spearman landed the harder punches, hurt Johnson often and controlled the fight yet suffered the split-decision loss. While 1 judge did have it 57-56 for Spearman, the other 2 judges (who must have been watching a different fight) both scored it 58-55 for Johnson.