By Bill Calogero

Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com

Despite hitting the canvas not once, not twice, but three times last Saturday night, Samuel Peter hung on to his Interim WBC Heavyweight Title with a unanimous 12-round decision over Jameel McCline. The show was promoted by Don King and was broadcast live from Madison Square Garden in New York City on Showtime.

When the first round began, it looked like the fight was going to be what everyone I spoke to had expected. Peter dominated the round. The first half had both fighters feeling each other out, but during the second half of the round, Peter began landing several hard right hands that appeared to stun McCline.

The second round picked up where the first one ended. Peter began to establish his jab and was landing overhand rights and right hooks to the head of Jameel McCline, stunning him several times. He continued landing shots until the ten-second warning. As the ten seconds ticked away to end the round, McCline landed a left followed by a pulverizing uppercut that sent Samuel Peter tumbling to the canvas. Peter was able to beat the count, was examined by the ringside doctor in his corner and was allowed to continue.

At the start of the third, it was obvious that McCline knew he had his opponent in trouble. He came out very aggressively throwing punches in bunches. Peter, still feeling the effects of the knockdown tried to hold on, but Jameel landed a powerful left-right combination to Sam’s head that sent him down again. He was up by the count of eight and was ready to go. Peter attempted to hold on, but there was a lot of time left in the round and thirty seconds later, McCline landed a hard right followed by a devastating short left that put Peter down again. This time he struggled a little to get back to his feet but was ready to continue before the ten-count. With his fuel supply running low, McCline was not able to finish a “ready to go” Samuel Peter as the bell sounded to end the third round.

When the bell sounded to start the forth Peter had some bounce back in his step and began using his jab to set up his right hand, which he was able to land effectively. The fifth round was a carbon copy of the fourth with the exception of Referee Michael Ortega giving Peter a warning for hitting behind McCline’s head. Both rounds were close, but I gave the edge to Peter.

The sixth round was very close and really could have gone either way. I scored the round even.

The remainder of the fight featured Samuel Peter using his jab and right hand effectively to steal the rounds. Jameel McCline was also fighting and landing punches, but Peter seemed to land the harder shots. Although McCline was stunned several times during the bout, he never once was in any kind of serious trouble. Peter was also able to work the body of McCline, which began setting up his shots to Jameel’s head.

The twelfth and final round was very busy. Both fighters fought with urgency and again could have gone either way. I scored the round for Peter only because during the first half of the round, he was landing the majority of the power shots and for the final half they both were landing crisp punches. Because of this, I gave the slight edge to Peter giving him the round on my scorecard.

One judge scored the bout 115-112; one had it 115-111 while the third had it 115-110, all in favor of Samuel Peter. BoxingScene.com scored the bout 115-111, also in favor of Peter.

Samuel Peter improves to 29-1 (22 KOs) and retains his Interim WBC Heavyweight Title, while Jameel McCline drops to 38-8-3 (23 KOs).

I talked about it in depth on my radio show, “Talkin Boxing With Billy C” about how foolish Samuel Peter was to continue with this fight once Oleg Maskaev had to drop out due to injury. One had to assume Peter was in great shape. He was preparing for his fight against Maskaev and his goal was to win the WBC title he felt he deserved.

Once Maskaev had to drop out of the fight, the WBC handed Samuel Peter the “interim” title. Since he made the decision to go on and fight McCline, I thought that he (Peter) should have used this fight to show the world he deserved the title and that he in fact is a force to be reckoned with. In my opinion, he failed miserably at that. He won the fight by the skin of his teeth!

Where does that leave us concerning Samuel Peter? Are we to assume that he took McCline lightly? Are we to assume that McCline got lucky? Is Jameel McCline much better than we thought or is Samuel Peter not as good as we thought? These questions, hopefully, will be answered when and if Oleg Maskaev steps back into the ring.

On the under card, Andrew Golota stopped Kevin McBride in the 6th round to improve to 40-6-1 (33 KOs) and will now once again, be in the Heavyweight picture.

Barrera Goes The Distance

Manny Pacquiao scored a unanimous twelve-round decision over Marco Antonio Barrera in a not too exciting Main Event of an otherwise action-packed card from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, broadcast live on HBO PPV also this past Saturday evening.

In what was supposed to be the continuation of the brawl fought four years ago, the rematch was slightly over a hoe-hum affair. The usual relentless Barrera, seemed to have nothing but going the distance on his mind.

From the opening bell, until the final second ticked off the clock, ending the bout, this fight was definitely not what I expected. With the exception (on my scorecard) of rounds one, two and twelve, Pacquiao controlled the fight while Barrera was in “survival” mode and seemed like his main goal was NOT to hit the canvas, rather than actually win the contest.

Pacman, which wasn’t his normal MO, did not press the fight. He seemed to extend too much respect towards Barrera and let the fight go through the motions. There is not much more I can say about this fight. Pacman did not press the fight and force Barrera into getting away from his survival mode tactic. The end result was a 12-round fight that had no one in trouble, no knockdowns and very light in the action department.

Two of the three judges at ringside scored the fight 118-109, while the third had it 115-112. Manny Pacquiao improves to 45-3-2 (34 KOs) while Marco Antonio Barrera drops to 63-6 (42 KOs).

Pacquiao is expected by some to move up to 135 lbs for his next fight and Barrera officially retired.

In other action, Steven Luevano retained his WBO Featherweight Title by winning a unanimous twelve-round decision over Antonio Davis.

Luevano fought a great fight. He was able to use his awkward style and his accurate punches to control this fight. Two of the three judges scored the fight 119-108, while the third had it 118-109.

Luevano improves to 34-1 (15 KOs), while Antonio Davis drops to 24-4 (12 KOs).

In the Super Middleweight Division, Top-Ten contender Librado Andrade used his toughness to tire out Yusaf Mack and win the vacant USBA Super Middleweight Title with a 7th round TKO.

Andrade is the true master of the “face block”! There was no doubt in my mind, nor in anyone else’s who watched this fight, that Yusaf Mack was the more talented boxer. His problem was that he ran out of gas and when that tank was dry, Andrade was there to finish the show.

Librado Andrade improves to 26-1 (10 KOs) and should get another world title shot in the very near future. Yusaf Mack loses for only the second time of his career, dropping to 23-2-2 (14 KOs).

The under card also featured one-time highly regarded Francisco Bojado battle the always prepared and always tough Steve Forbes in a scheduled ten-round welterweight contest.

Both fighters came to fight. Bojado appeared to be the stronger and faster of the two, but it was Steve Forbes who came out with the W. It was an extremely close fight. One judge scored the bout 96-94 in favor of Bojado, while the other two had it in Forbes’ favor with scores of 97-93 & 96-94 to give Forbes the split-decision victory.

Steve Forbes improves to 33-5 (9 KOs) and remains in the mix. Francisco Bojado drops to 18-3 (12 KOs) and most certainly will be back.

All in all, in my opinion, another great weekend of pro boxing. Boxing continues to beat the odds and prevail regardless of all of the sentiment out there that feels that boxing is dead. Based on the last few months, boxing continues its resurgence and continues to put fans in the seats and produce decent PPV sales. As it has for hundreds of years, boxing continues to be alive and well.