Echols Wins Over Reluctant Chapman
By Kent Appel
23.12
- This past Friday night at the Pechanga Entertainment
Center in Temecula California, on a live ESPN 2 broadcast,
Antwun Echols (photo: Banner-Promotions.com) was awarded
a fifth round disqualification victory over a very
reluctant Lawrence Chapman to retain the NABA super
middleweight title. Echols goes to 26-4-1, 24 knockouts;
while Chapman falls to 16-1, 12 knockouts. Chapman
seemed so intent on avoiding getting hit by the hard
punching Echols that he clamped on hard to Echols
during the fifth round and the referee could not pry
the fighters apart. The fighters then tumbled hard
to the canvas with Chapman still holding on for dear
life in a "vise like grip." The referee,
Dr. James Jen Kim, who had already issued a stern
warning to follow his instructions near the end of
the third round when he had trouble separating the
fighters, wasted no time in disqualifying Chapman
even before he learned that Echols appeared to injure
his lower back in the fall to the ring floor.
As the bout wore on Chapman seemed
to use less and less of any kind of boxing strategy
or even a hint of an offense except for an occasional
tentative left jab. Chapman was reduced to holding
on to Echols almost exclusively in feeble attempts
to keep the hard charging Echols off of him. That
Chapman was merely trying to survive was apparent
early in the fifth round when he went down to one
knee and he took the mandatory eight count to avoid
getting hit by Echols. Chapman had already suffered
a questionable knockdown near the end of the first
round courtesy of a hard right hand by Echols that
landed on Chapman's upper chest.
Maybe after the knockdown in the first
round is when Chapman decided that survival at any
cost was his best option or maybe he is just in the
wrong business. Because although most if not all fighters
can't say that they enjoy getting hit, it is part
of the game. It is amazing that the Chapman who showed
up Friday night could have actually come into the
fight with an undefeated record of 16-0. I have heard
of padded records but based on what I saw, such a
fine record is surprising. I am not going to say,
as one of the fans seated behind me at ringside said
after learning about Chapman's undefeated record,
"who were some of his opponents? Snow White And
The Seven Dwarfs?" But clearly Chapman was in
over his head in this bout.
As for Echols, his charge in awkward
full steam ahead style can make any opponent look
bad but it is not his fault that he wasn't given quality
opposition. Maybe next time he will get an opponent
who will truly test him. I look forward to seeing
more of him in the future.
On the undercard in the best fight
of the night, Derrick Harmon scored a unanimous twelve
round decision over Demitrius Jenkins in a light heavyweight
fight which saw a lot of give and take action. Harmon
raises his record to 21-2, 10 knockouts, while Jenkins
is now 20-7-1, 15 knockouts. Harmon won by scores
of; 115 to 113, 116 to 112, and 117 to 111. I Thought
the fight was much closer than the official verdict
as I scored it 115 to 114 for Harmon; with six rounds
going to Harmon and five rounds for Jenkins with one
round even. The live audience clearly disagreed with
the scores announced, as they showed by loudly booing
the announcement of the decision. I am not sure if
they felt that Jenkins had won or if they were disagreeing
with the amount that Harmon had won by. I thought
the fight was close enough that it could have gone
one way or the other. A decision for either man would
have been fair but I am sure though there were some
people in the crowd who thought Jenkins had won
Jenkins had the edge in the first
half of the bout on the basis of hard right hands
throughout; while Harmon, a southpaw, came on stronger
in the second half of the fight behind fine right
jabs and strong left crosses. Going into the last
two rounds it was anybody's fight. Harmon pulled off
the narrow victory by boxing well in these last rounds,
while Jenkins seemed to be missing his punches more
than he had earlier in the fight.
Looking at the fight as a whole; Harmon
landed more punches, while Jenkins landed the harder
punches and pressed the action throughout the contest.
It is the subjective opinion of the judges as to which
style they thought was more effective. One thing I
do know for sure, and that is the Harmon verses Jenkins
fight was the most professional on the card and it
should have been the headliner.
Also on the undercard: In a Jr. middleweight
fight; Miguel Espino scored a fourth round TKO over
Ishwar Amandor. Espino goes to 5-0, 2 knockouts, while
Amandor falls to 2-2, 2 knockouts. In a heavyweight
bout, Chester Hughes scored a second round TKO over
Tim Martin. Hughes raises his record to 14-1, 10 knockouts,
while Hughes falls to 6-10, 5 knockouts. In a woman's
lightweight bout; Olga Vlasova scored a second round
knockout over Janae Romero. Vlasova goes to 3--0.
2 knockouts, while Romero falls to 2-1-1, 1 knockout.
In a flyweight fight; George Diaz won a four round
split decision over Adrian Cuevas, no records available.
Finally; Felix Cora Jr. knocked out Harold Lowe in
round one of a crusierweight bout. Cora is now 6-0,
6 knockouts, while Lowe is 1-8, 1 knockout.
