Golota pounds Mollo in "fight of the Night" co-feature
By Mike Indri
Retired Boxers Foundation
January 19, 2008

New York - Madison Square Garden was not nearly as filled as had been expected; quite possibly even the most ardent supporter of legendary five-time World Champion Felix "Tito" Trinidad knew the obvious. Their Puerto Rican boxing hero, who had not fought since getting thoroughly dominated nearly three years ago in his embarrassing 12 round unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Ronald "Winky" Wright, was bought out of retirement (for the not so embarrassing price of 9 million dollars) to face a bigger, stronger and faster fighter in Roy Jones, Jr.

While Trinidad tried as best he could, fighting at his heaviest weight ever only slowed him down. From the early rounds it was clear that Jones was able to handle Trinidad's biggest punches, while Tito was not able to take Roy's.

Jones methodically began controlling the action, besting Tito jab for jab, body shot for body shot - essentially beating Trinidad "mentally" before he began his physical beating of the former boxing superstar who defeated Oscar De La Hoya, and destroyed Fernando Vargas.

While the crowd was rooting for Tito, by round three or four the "Roy-Roy-Roy" chants were growing louder. By the time Jones dropped Trinidad with his first knockdown of the fight in round seven the "Tito - Tito" chants were silent and the bongo drums had stopped. It was all over.

Being the one-dimensional fighter as he is, Trinidad still came forward and was getting beaten like the smaller kid at the schoolyard.

Trinidad was getting hurt more often, and Jones was now enjoying his "coming back party". Tito reverted to backing up and throwing meaningless punches, which simply delayed the inevitable. A quick, snapping left jab, following by a grazing right dropped the wounded Puerto Rican fighter as Jones shuffled, danced and pranced like the untouchable former great champion we were all so used to seeing, especially as HBO's premier boxer.

Trinidad summoned all his heart and managed to survive the one-sided affair on his feet. The 12,162 fans that were crazily cheering for their hero did not even wait for the three judges' scorecards to be read. It was solely academic as Michael Buffer announced the 117-109 and two 116-110's for Roy Jones; there would be no rumble tonight. I saw it 118-108.

Jones can now be included with Bernard Hopkins, and the aforementioned Wright as the fighters to have beaten Trinidad, who also has 42 wins to his credit; 35 by knockout. With the career enhancing victory, Jones improves to 52-4 (38 KO's) and now is looking to fight "anyone - anytime". Let's just hope the next one is a fair fight!

In the night's co-feature bout heavyweight contender Andrew Golota made like Arturo Gatti and fought twelve rounds of no holds barred, old school, back in the alley-type fighting.

With his left eye bruised and grotesquely closed shut since the sixth round, Andrew Golota sucked it up and took control of a fight against a confident, up and coming Mike Mollo; twelve years his junior. Practically an even fight after eight rounds, Golota withstood a heavy-handed pounding from the twenty-eight year fighter nicknamed "Merciless" and hurt his fellow Chicago neighbor with several big right hands in round nine, which had Mollo holding on to survive. Continuing the assault in the tenth, Golota landed a left hook, and how Mollo was able to wobble back to his corner amazed the exhilarated crowd. How Mollo ever finished the bout on his feet is truly a testament to the heart and fortitude of this young hopeful, who definitely gained more than he lost in defeat tonight. Golota, unable to see out of his left eye, smartly turned southpaw at times late, so as to continue the battle - there surely was no quit in Mr. Golota tonight, and the boxing fans appreciated the effort from a fighter who always had the tools and talent to be a champion. At forty years old, Golota fought one of his best fights and will get another chance to prove his merit. With the spectacular win Golota improved to 41-6-1 (33 KO's), Mollo, who put up a valiant fight, now is 19-2 (12 KO's). Nothing but great things can be said about both these giant-hearted fighters, who both left it all in the Madison Square Garden ring tonight. Afterwards a very bruised and swollen, yet extremely proud Andrew Golota beamed, "At lease now no one can ever can me a quitter!"

The HBO Pay-Per-View portion of the night began with a twelve round sleeper between former World Boxing Organization World Champion DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley and the undefeated Devon Alexander.

The twenty-year old Alexander used his used his advantage of youth, beating Corley to the punch and well as outworking the tough veteran. Even getting penalized a point by referee Gary Rosato, for low blows, in the final round did not hamper Alexander "The Great", cruising in the eyes of the judges who saw it 116-111 and 118-109 twice for the undefeated St. Louis resident. According to Compu-box numbers, Alexander doubled the production of his fellow southpaw, out-landing Corley 271-127 in total punches, a main reason for the decisive decision win which upped Alexander to 14-0 (9 KO's), while the once-mighty Corley, who has now lost his last four fights, falls to 31-8-1 (17 KO's). Alexander picked up the vacant WBC Continental Americas super lightweight Championship title with the victory.

It took a little over eight rounds for a fight to break out between the dangerous, hard punching Roman "Made in Hell" Karmazin and Alex "The Technician" Bunema. Scheduled for 12 rounds and fighting for the WBA Intercontinental Super Welterweight title it was Karmazin who was controlling the bout, and the limited action going into the ninth round. Surprisingly it was the "Technician" who was now doing the damage, landing some big punches late in the round, which had Karmazin holding on. Starting round ten where he left off, Bunema landed often and caught his Russian foe with a crippling left hook, dropping the usually steady chinned Karmazin. To his credit Karmazin bounced up and wanted back in the fight, unfortunately - he got it!

Another hurtful left hook drove the still dazed Karmazin into his own corner where he absorbed a tremendous barrage of two-fisted punishment, finished by a big right hand which sent the heavily favored Karmazin crumpling to the canvas as Johnny Callas waved off the bout; a moot point as the former IBF jr. middleweight champion was out cold!

Bunema, a native of Zaire who now calls Atlanta, GA his home, woke up the Madison Square Garden crowd by putting Karmazin to sleep - the likable fighter also woke up the boxing world with his big time victory and deserves a bigger fight, and a bigger payday, in the very near future. Bunema jumps to 29-5-2 with his impressive fifteenth career knockout win, while the highly regarded Karmazin, now 36-3-1 (23 KO's), suffers his first stoppage loss.

On the non-televised portion of the Don King promoted, HBO PPV card:
Former World Boxing Association Welterweight World Champion Luis Collazo out-boxed Edvan Dos Santos Barros, now 9-5-1 (7 KO's), over ten rounds to pick up a unanimous decision and get back on the winning track. While controlling the entire fight through eight uneventful rounds, Collazo hurt his opponent late in round nine and showed his fast hands and pinpoint precision the rest of the way, nailing Dos Santos Barros relentlessly until the end.

After losing to Shane Mosley nearly a year ago (02/10/07), the Brooklyn native was sidelined with tore tendons and a broken thumb on his left hand; which required extensive surgery. Now injury free and ready, Collazo, who dethroned WBA champion Jose Rivera of his title in 2005 and beat up on Ricky Hatton, only to lose a razor thin decision in 2006, looks to 2008 as his year to get back to the top of the welterweight division.

Emmanuel N'Wodo made short work of Ezra Sellers, stopping the Maryland southpaw late in round two of their scheduled eight round heavyweight bout. N'Wodo, a Baltimore, MD native by way of Nigeria, won the first round and hurt Sellers with a big two-handed combination towards the end of round two. Sellers was knocked to the canvas twice and counted out, face down, by referee Jim Santa with one second left in the round. N'Wodo saw his record improve to 22-4 (18 KO's), while Sellers, who began his pro career in the same fashion, suffering a second round knockout at the hands of former world champion Bruce Seldon over eighteen years ago, dropped to 29-8 (26 KO's).

Cuban lightweight Angelo Santana excited the sparse, early gathering crowd with his first round technical knockout win. It took the highly touted Santana a mere 33 seconds to finish off mismatched Kenny Keaton, from Indianapolis, Indiana. Keaton, now 0-2, never had a chance as the Cuban defector jumped on him from the opening bell, forcing Keaton to turn his back before getting blistered to the canvas with a nasty barrage. Referee Jim Santa did not even bother to start a count, waving off the one-sided match.

Heavyweight Gabe Brown opened the show in a very "big" way, as the 340lb. Pensacola, Florida native battled to an eight round majority draw against forty year-old Paul Marinaccio, from Buffalo, NY. Marinaccio, now 23-3-2 (10 KO's) overcame a one hundred pound weight disadvantage (actually 104!), winning the last round on all three judge's scorecards to salvage the draw. Brown, originally from Newark, NJ saw his record move to 18-7-4 (12 KO's).

A big night on boxing, compliments of promoter extraordinaire Don King, in the most sacred and hallowed venue in all of boxing -the mystical, magical world of Madison Square Garden!

Mike Indri can be contacted at RBFMIKE@aol.com.