Ray Olivera Battles His Way To
A Draw In Connecticut
Words and Pictures by Alex Pierpaoli
14.12.01 - On Thursday night at the
Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, Junior
Welterweight, Ray Olivera earned a draw against Argentina’s
tough Omar Weis. The fight card kicked off ESPN’s
new Thursday Night Fights show and gave the crowd
the first taste of boxing from the Mohegan Sun’s
brand new arena.
In the Main Event, after a slow start,
Ray Olivera rallied back in the later rounds to secure
the draw using good body-punching and defense under
Weis’ assault. Olivera,, who in his last fight
brawled his way through 12 spectacular rounds against
Ben Tackie in August, showed the effects of having
to shed several pounds on Wednesday afternoon in order
to come close to the contracted weight limit of 140
pounds for the bout. Olivera finally tipped the scales
at 143, which was acceptable to the Weis camp, and
the fight went on as planned. Omar Weis took full
advantage of the dried out Olivera and landed steadily
with straight accurate punches through the first five
rounds. In the fifth Olivera seemed to finally hit
his stride and banged away at the body bringing down
Weis’ guard. From a distance Olivera was able
to time Weis’ forward motion and could out jab
him at times but Weis did damage with hard uppercuts
and right crosses throughout, all set up by his own
quick jab. Going into round 8 it seemed Olivera needed
to win all three rounds in order to eke out a draw,
and on this observer’s card at least, he did
just that.
All three ringside officials scored
the bout 95-95, or five rounds a piece.
In other televised bouts, Junior Middleweight
southpaw Kassim Ouma battered Pedro Ortega en route
to a TKO victory when Ortega was unable to come out
for round five. Ouma connected with power punches,
almost at will, and had Ortega staggered several times
during the bout but never knocked him down.
In an exciting Junior Welterweight
bout, Hartford, CT’s own Ike Ezeji dropped a
6 round unanimous decision to Demetrius Hopkins. Ezeji
put Hopkins down in the first and fought hard throughout
the fight but lost every round after the first. Hopkins
seemed to wake up after the knockdown and blasted
away at Ezeji, especially in the second when Ezeji
was hurt along the ropes in his corner by round’s
end.
In off-tv action, Providence, Rhode
Island’s Peter Manfreddo, a crowd favorite, won
a unanimous decision over John Lennox Lewis. Manfreddo,
who is a strong supermiddle with decent punching power,
desperately needs to improve his left jab if he hopes
to create openings for his power punches.
In an exciting middleweight bout,
Dennis Sharpe blasted away at Donald Labbe stopping
him by TKO in the last round of their four rounder.
Both men connected with heavy leather but Sharpe did
more damage and Referee Richard Flarrety rescued Labbe
in the fourth after a flurry of punches.
Lightweight Jose "El Gallo"
Reyes elicited numerous boos from the crowd en route
to his unanimous decision victory over Calvin Shepard.
El Gallo was fast and a lot busier than his opponent,
but his slick footwork and occasional showboat antics
were unappreciated by the gritting New England fans.
In the first bout of the night New
Haven, CT’s "Bad" Chad Dawson won by
first round KO over severely outclassed James Orzo.
The southpaw, Dawson, ran his record to a perfect
3-0 with 3 KO’s with the win, and left the crowd
eager to see this snappy puncher make his way up the
rankings.
In the final bout of the night heavyweight
T.J. Wilson took all of 22 seconds to crush "Juggernaut"
Steve Griffin. Griffin, who scaled a soft 306 pounds,
entered the ring without his mouthpiece and caused
a delay of several minutes as his corner men ran off
to find it. From the look of the Juggernaut and his
lack of effort, it was likely he left the mouthpiece
by the pork chops in the Mohegan Sun’s beautiful
new buffet.
