Vanda dominates as Hilario pushes through in Hinckley
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009, Mark Connor
Matt Vanda dominated his Super Middleweight fight against Phil Williams last Friday, November 13, at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, MN. From the opening bell Williams appeared hesitant as Vanda found his range, out jabbed his taller and heavier opponent, and landed just enough punches at critical stages of each round to win the majority of them in a convincing fashion. In the co-main event IBA Americas Super Featherweight Champion Wilton Hilario, of St. Louis Park, MN won a unanimous decision over Leon Bobo of St. Louis, MO. While Hilario began the fight explosively his momentum was shut down and all possibilities of a knockout were prevented by the highly skilled Bobo, who with a record falling to 18-4-1 proved too weak to effectively fight Hilario but too experienced to suffer serious damage or be knocked out. There were four preliminary fights on the card.
By the third round it was evident that Vanda had taken full control of the fight, landing good uppercuts and hooks to the body and head and easily out jabbing Williams. In the fourth Williams’ movement and punches slowed Vanda progress a bit, but couldn't stop it. In the fifth Vanda began mockingly copying Williams’ style and landed shots plentifully, and Williams seemed clueless about how to neutralize him. Williams finally started better in the sixth round, but he lost his momentum to Vanda’s efforts in the second half of it. I scored the seventh and ninth rounds even, but gave the rest of the fight to Vanda easily. However, I was not seated at ringside and know the judges always have the best view in the house. The seventh and ninth could have easily gone to Williams, and a couple of other rounds could have too. I found many of them to be close and believed that Vanda’s extra efforts near the end of them resulted in more clear and effective punching and ring generalship, allowing him to win otherwise competitive rounds. If I would have given the seventh and ninth to Williams my unofficial score would have been 98-94 rather than 100-92. Denny Nelson’s score was 97-93 in favor of Vanda, and I can’t argue with it. Nelson is the most experienced and also the most accurate judge in Minnesota. He has judged and refereed a large number of World Championship fights, and his score should serve as a good indicator that many of the rounds were close but Vanda was in control and decisively victorious. Vanda won by 10 round Split Decision.
Hilario showed the vulnerability inherent in his slugger’s style when he occasionally got caught with stunning left hands from the taller Southpaw, Bobo. The St. Louis fighter did not keep his distance though, mainly because Hilario was too strong and too relentless for him to do so. Hilario was just too strong for Bobo to pose a threat. He was also too light of a puncher (his only two career stoppages came in a TKO for his pro debut against an 0-9 fighter in 2003 and a KO of a 7-12 fighter in 2007) to pose any threat to Hilario. Hopefully the “Pretty Warrior” will learn from this fight, make adjustments for southpaws he may face in the future, and learn to gage his distance better so as not to have his power smothered or avoided by clinching, rolling and slipping masters of defense.
Cerresso “Wu Wu” Fort of St. Paul remained undefeated with a six round unanimous decision over former amateur nemesis Lamar “The Prince of Pain” Harris of St. Louis. He was quite fortunate in his victory, however, given how difficult he made the fight. He caught Harris with a heavy right hand in the first round and could have easily knocked him out before the card girl readily held the number 2, but he blotted strategy from his mind and became a headhunter for most of the night. A round or two later he did the same thing again, hurting Harris with the natural power in his right hand but ignored the body and battered the glove’s Harris used for protection while backing into the corner. Then Harris decided to smash a couple of shots into Fort’s body, landed a left hook and right hand to his head, and spun him onto the ropes and went on the attack. Yes, Fort won the fight, but he made the rounds close and expended more energy and took more punishment than a fighter wishing to challenge on the world class level and exit the sport without permanent injury can afford. He is obviously one of the strongest and hardest punchers to come out of Minnesota in the last decade, but at Middleweight and Super Middleweight he hardly compares at this point to the local legends of Dan Shcommer, who out boxed Chris Eubank for 12 rounds in the 1990s before losing a controversial WBO Super Middleweight title shot, or Doug Demmings, who went 15 rounds with Sugar Ray Seals, 10 rounds with Alan Minter, and gave Marvin Hagler all he could handle in the 1970s. Fort is in dire need of quality coaching and must stop relying on the long, looping overhand right that will get him hurt against higher quality competition. Also, for the sake of his career, he must avoid illegitimate competition like Bobby Kliewer, his teammate from St. Paul’s Rice Street Gym whom he stopped at the Target Center in Minneapolis last April 18.
Tim Taggert of Hinckley and Sam Morales of St. Paul fought to a 4 round majority draw in the opening bout. Taggert displayed an obvious preponderance of skill in the beginning, but he was evidently not conditioned well enough to handle Morales’ admirable determination. Neither one was the pinnacle of athletic prowess, but Morales had enough strength to keep himself in the fight and make it close. A few more miles of roadwork is all Taggert would have needed to outbox him and win.
Don Tierney showed the results of inactivity in his 4 round majority decision loss to Zach Schumach, whom he defeated in a mutual pro debut last April 18 at the Minneapolis Target Center. Schumach earned a draw in June and got knocked out in July, but the activity apparently sharpened him enough for this fight. I thought Tierney’s defense, which he no doubt learned from the wise instruction of former World Title challenger Mike Evgen who’s joined his corner, was enough to win the fight. I thought he was scoring more solid punches as he made Schumach chase him around the ring. However, as I said earlier, the judges have the best view in the house and Schumach got the decision. Tierney was lucky to fight a shorter man who could barely hit him, because he kept his chin in the air all night as if his life depended on it. These two are a good match because their skills are roughly even, but I’d hate to watch either one make the foolhardy mistake of fighting a skilled, serious boxer.
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009, Mark Connor
Matt Vanda dominated his Super Middleweight fight against Phil Williams last Friday, November 13, at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, MN. From the opening bell Williams appeared hesitant as Vanda found his range, out jabbed his taller and heavier opponent, and landed just enough punches at critical stages of each round to win the majority of them in a convincing fashion. In the co-main event IBA Americas Super Featherweight Champion Wilton Hilario, of St. Louis Park, MN won a unanimous decision over Leon Bobo of St. Louis, MO. While Hilario began the fight explosively his momentum was shut down and all possibilities of a knockout were prevented by the highly skilled Bobo, who with a record falling to 18-4-1 proved too weak to effectively fight Hilario but too experienced to suffer serious damage or be knocked out. There were four preliminary fights on the card.
By the third round it was evident that Vanda had taken full control of the fight, landing good uppercuts and hooks to the body and head and easily out jabbing Williams. In the fourth Williams’ movement and punches slowed Vanda progress a bit, but couldn't stop it. In the fifth Vanda began mockingly copying Williams’ style and landed shots plentifully, and Williams seemed clueless about how to neutralize him. Williams finally started better in the sixth round, but he lost his momentum to Vanda’s efforts in the second half of it. I scored the seventh and ninth rounds even, but gave the rest of the fight to Vanda easily. However, I was not seated at ringside and know the judges always have the best view in the house. The seventh and ninth could have easily gone to Williams, and a couple of other rounds could have too. I found many of them to be close and believed that Vanda’s extra efforts near the end of them resulted in more clear and effective punching and ring generalship, allowing him to win otherwise competitive rounds. If I would have given the seventh and ninth to Williams my unofficial score would have been 98-94 rather than 100-92. Denny Nelson’s score was 97-93 in favor of Vanda, and I can’t argue with it. Nelson is the most experienced and also the most accurate judge in Minnesota. He has judged and refereed a large number of World Championship fights, and his score should serve as a good indicator that many of the rounds were close but Vanda was in control and decisively victorious. Vanda won by 10 round Split Decision.
Hilario showed the vulnerability inherent in his slugger’s style when he occasionally got caught with stunning left hands from the taller Southpaw, Bobo. The St. Louis fighter did not keep his distance though, mainly because Hilario was too strong and too relentless for him to do so. Hilario was just too strong for Bobo to pose a threat. He was also too light of a puncher (his only two career stoppages came in a TKO for his pro debut against an 0-9 fighter in 2003 and a KO of a 7-12 fighter in 2007) to pose any threat to Hilario. Hopefully the “Pretty Warrior” will learn from this fight, make adjustments for southpaws he may face in the future, and learn to gage his distance better so as not to have his power smothered or avoided by clinching, rolling and slipping masters of defense.
Cerresso “Wu Wu” Fort of St. Paul remained undefeated with a six round unanimous decision over former amateur nemesis Lamar “The Prince of Pain” Harris of St. Louis. He was quite fortunate in his victory, however, given how difficult he made the fight. He caught Harris with a heavy right hand in the first round and could have easily knocked him out before the card girl readily held the number 2, but he blotted strategy from his mind and became a headhunter for most of the night. A round or two later he did the same thing again, hurting Harris with the natural power in his right hand but ignored the body and battered the glove’s Harris used for protection while backing into the corner. Then Harris decided to smash a couple of shots into Fort’s body, landed a left hook and right hand to his head, and spun him onto the ropes and went on the attack. Yes, Fort won the fight, but he made the rounds close and expended more energy and took more punishment than a fighter wishing to challenge on the world class level and exit the sport without permanent injury can afford. He is obviously one of the strongest and hardest punchers to come out of Minnesota in the last decade, but at Middleweight and Super Middleweight he hardly compares at this point to the local legends of Dan Shcommer, who out boxed Chris Eubank for 12 rounds in the 1990s before losing a controversial WBO Super Middleweight title shot, or Doug Demmings, who went 15 rounds with Sugar Ray Seals, 10 rounds with Alan Minter, and gave Marvin Hagler all he could handle in the 1970s. Fort is in dire need of quality coaching and must stop relying on the long, looping overhand right that will get him hurt against higher quality competition. Also, for the sake of his career, he must avoid illegitimate competition like Bobby Kliewer, his teammate from St. Paul’s Rice Street Gym whom he stopped at the Target Center in Minneapolis last April 18.
Tim Taggert of Hinckley and Sam Morales of St. Paul fought to a 4 round majority draw in the opening bout. Taggert displayed an obvious preponderance of skill in the beginning, but he was evidently not conditioned well enough to handle Morales’ admirable determination. Neither one was the pinnacle of athletic prowess, but Morales had enough strength to keep himself in the fight and make it close. A few more miles of roadwork is all Taggert would have needed to outbox him and win.
Don Tierney showed the results of inactivity in his 4 round majority decision loss to Zach Schumach, whom he defeated in a mutual pro debut last April 18 at the Minneapolis Target Center. Schumach earned a draw in June and got knocked out in July, but the activity apparently sharpened him enough for this fight. I thought Tierney’s defense, which he no doubt learned from the wise instruction of former World Title challenger Mike Evgen who’s joined his corner, was enough to win the fight. I thought he was scoring more solid punches as he made Schumach chase him around the ring. However, as I said earlier, the judges have the best view in the house and Schumach got the decision. Tierney was lucky to fight a shorter man who could barely hit him, because he kept his chin in the air all night as if his life depended on it. These two are a good match because their skills are roughly even, but I’d hate to watch either one make the foolhardy mistake of fighting a skilled, serious boxer.
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