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ESPN Friday Night Fights Recap

January 30, 2009

Bell Centre-Montreal, Quebec

ESPN has canceled their Wednesday Night Fights series and this has allowed them to use some of the money they saved in that move to load up their Friday Night Fights shows with better matches.

1. Cruiserweight (200 pounds) 4-Round Match:

Martin Hudon (2-1-1, 2 KO's,194 pounds) vs. Lukasz Janik (11-0, 5 KO's, 197.25 pounds)

Hudon is the local boxer, being sent out to warm up the audience in this match. His record is not particularly good, but this show is probably going to run short and they willneed to fill time.

The draw on Hudon's record cameonSeptember 5, 2008 at the Pierre-Charbonneau Centrein Montreal at heavyweight to Stephane Tessier. Tessier was 3-18 entering the match having lost his last 16 matches over a span of nearly 4 years.

Hudon's last match was a 4-round unanimous decision loss to Pasteur Mbuyi, who was making his pro-debut, on November 29, 2008 at the Montreal Casino in Montreal.

Hudon is unranked by The Ring magazine, and the number 251 ranked boxer in the world at 200 pounds by boxrec.com.

Janik is from Poland and making his North American pro boxing debutin this match. So far, all of Janik's matches have been in Europe with 1 in Switzerland, 1 in Russia, 8 in Germany and the other in his native Poland.

This may be a one-off situation for Janik, rather then a permanent moveto relocate to the Americas. According to boxrec.com, Janikis scheduled to face an opponent that is yet to be announced on February 28 in a scheduled8-rounder in Lublin, Poland. That means he may be looking to get this match over with quickly.

Janik's last match was the first scheduled 8-rounder of his career. Janik defeated the 1-8 Peter Oravec via technical knockout at 2:00 of round 1 on December 13, 2008 in Poland.

Janik is unranked by The Ring, and the number 120 ranked boxer at 200 pounds by boxrec.com.

At 23 or 24-years-old, Janik is 7 years younger then the 30-year-old Hudon. Janik has the height advantage standing 6' 3" tall, while Hudon stands 6' 2" tall. There are no reach numbers available on the boxers, but Hudon appears to have the longer arms then Janik. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, since they both came in under the weight limit it is unlikely either of their weights have changed substantially since the official weigh-ins. That will make Janik the heavier boxer in the ring.Hudon will box out of the southpaw stance and Janik will employ the orthodox stance.

The unified rules of boxing with the modification that both the referee and doctor can stop a match will be in effect for this event. The home areas of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are not announced. The referee is Michael Griffin. Teddy Atlas will be doing color commentary of this event and keeping ESPN's unofficial scorecard.

Janik wins round 1, 10-9. Hudon has a very soft body and a few clean body punches from Janik in round 2 would probably end the match. With about 2 minutes to go in round 2, Janik hit Hudon with a right hand to the body that caused the Canadian to fall into the ropes so that they were the only thing keeping him standing. That should have been scored as a knockdown. However, the referee does not rule it that way to potentially the benefit of the hometown boxer. Janik takes round 2 big. However, without the official knockdown the Pole only wins the round, 10-9. With 1:22 to go in round 3, the referee is forced to halt the action after Hudon slams Janik in the cup with a big left hook. That foul may have not been unintentional. The referee is issuing a warning and giving Janik time to recover. It is also buying Hudon some much needed time to recover. After abouta 10 second break, the action is resumed. Janik wins round 3, 10-9. After 3 rounds, Janik lead on my scorecard, 30-27. Through 3 rounds, Atlas has Janik ahead 30-27.

To open round 4, there is severe swelling around the left eye of Hudon to the point it may be impeding his vision. It is unlikely the swelling around Hudon's eye would allow him to go several more rounds. However, this is the final round and his eye should hold up for this round. The swelling was probably caused by repeated hard right hands from Janik. With around 2:30 to go in round 4, Janik pinned Hudon against the ropes and began unleashing a series of power punches on the Canadian. Hudon did not punch back from that position which forced the referee to step in to stop the match.The referee stepped in with Hudon still standing with 2:24 to go in round 4. Excellent stoppage by the referee. The referee missed the call on the knockdown in round 2, but that turned out to be irrelevant. The important thing was thathe made the appropriate call on when to end the match.

The official outcome courtesy of Christian Gauthier is that at: 40 seconds of round 4 the winner by way of technical knockout and still undefeated, Lukasz Janik. The win moves Janik to 12-0 with now 6 wins coming by way of knockout.

Janik was good, but very flawed in this match. He is still green. Janik gets off balance punching and is very hittable. He will need to continue to progress against much better opposition in the future. Janik will probably spend the next couple years doing that in Europe and off American television, before potentially returning for a higher profile match on ShoBox.

Hudon showed some skills in this match. However, he does not belong at 200 pounds. At 175 pounds he could be effective boxing from the outside. It is very difficult to judge what he will be able to do at that weight class from this match. Hudon will probably continue boxing 4-round matches inQuebec, while he determines what direction to take his boxing career.

2. WBO NABO Welterweight (147 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Antonin Decarie (20-0, 6 KO's, 146 pounds) (c) vs. Dorin Spivey (35-5, 1 NC, 28 KO's, 145 pounds)

Decarie won this championship when it was vacant via 12-round unanimous decision over Brian Camechis on May 3, 2008 at the Montreal Casino. The previous champion was Paul Williams who vacated this belt to eventually get his title shot at Antonio Margarito. Decarie is making his second defense of this championship.

The champion is a native of Montreal and is boxing on this card to get a highlight reel win on major American television to hopefully springboard him into bigger things. He has been building his record against steadily increasing opposition boxing close to home. Of Decarie's 20 professional matches, 19 have been in Quebec with 15 of them in Montreal.

Decarie's last match was a technical knockout victory at 2:42 of round 12 over Hector Munoz on October 2, 2008 at the Montreal Casino. It was the Montreal native's eighth straight match in Montreal.

Decarie is unranked by The Ring, and the number 93 ranked boxer in the world at 147 pounds by boxrec.com.

Spivey is coming in as a last minute replacement on 7 days notice. The challenger has historically boxed at 135 pounds. This will be only his second match above 140 pounds that he faced an opponent with a winning record. The other time was on May 10, 1995 against the 9-2-1 Marlon Thomas at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Thomas defeated Spivey via 8-round decision that night. The number 1 song inthe United Statesthat week was "This is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan and French Kiss opened at number 1 in movie theatres that night.

Spivey's last match was a 4-round unanimous decision over the 4-12 Edward Anderson on August 9, 2008 at the Civic Center in Salem, Virginia. Prior to that the challenger's last match was an 8-round unanimous decision loss on December 9, 2006 at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia. The last scheduled 12-rounder Spivey was in was on October 27, 2000, in the waning days of the Clinton administration. In that match, Spivey suffered the only knockout loss of his career when Juan Lazcano defeated him via technical knockout at 1:57 of round 8.

Spivey is unranked by The Ring, and the number 326 ranked boxer in the world at 135 pounds by boxrec.com.

At 26-years-old, Decarie is 9 years younger thenthe 35-year-old Spivey. Decarie has the height advantage standing5' 9" tall, while Spivey stands 5' 5" tall. There are no official numbers available on either boxers' reach, but it appears that Decarie has the longer arms. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approach match time is available. However, Decarie should be the much heavier boxer in the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.

Two of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are from Montreal and the other is from Las Vegas. The referee is Gerry Bolen.

In the ring, the size difference between these two boxers is shocking. Spivey is physically very similar to the tiny former Charlotte Hornet Mugsy Bogues, while Decarie looks like a legitimate 147-pounder. Spivey's aggressiveness probably takes round 1, 10-9. Decarie landed the harder punches to win round 2, 10-9. Spivey was not reacting well to Decarie's power connects in round 2. The challenger looks like a boxer that is completely shop worn. If Decarie picks up the pace,the championshould finish this match in round 3. Decarie wins round 3, 10-9. The Canadian seems hesitant to really go after Spivey. The action on this show so far has been so mediocre that it has the tremendous Montreal crowd sitting on their hands. With about1:30 to go in round 4, Spivey is given a significant warning for holding. It is unlikelythe challengeris doing anything severe enough to draw a point deduction in this match for holding. However,Spivey is blatantly holding so the referee felt obligated to issue the formal warning. Decarie wins round 4, 10-9. After 4 rounds, Decarie leads on my scorecard, 39-37. After 4 rounds, Atlas has Decarie ahead in the match 40-36.

In round 5, Spivey is starting to run out of gas. This allows Decarie to win round 5 facing little resistance, 10-9. Decarie is wining handily, but not impressively. The champion is bigger and faster then the challenger, and Spivey does not have the energy or ability to take a punch to hang with Decarie. However, this boring match is continuing to round 6. With 1:35 to go in round 6, Spivey is issued his final warning or holding by he referee. The next time Spivey blatantly holds, it will cost the Virginian a meaningless point. With 32 seconds to go in round 6, Spivey flagrantly holds, again. That forces the referee to reluctantly take a point. The referee did not want to take a point there. However, Spivey forced him to take the point, by so blatantly holding after being given 2 severe warnings. If Spivey had grabbed and released, the referee is going to let it go in a match like this. However, Spivey grabbed Decarie, and spun the champion around. Then Spivey still had an extended arm around the champion as Decarie finished his spin. That gave the referee no choice about taking the point. With the point deduction, Decarie wins round 6, 10-8. After 6 rounds, Decarie leads on my scorecard, 59-54. Atlas has Decarie ahead by the same score after 6 rounds. Atlas scored round 5 for Spivey and had Decarie winning the rest of the rounds.

Decarie wins a close round 7, 10-9. This match is so boring that watching people hit the buffet at the Bell Centre is far more interesting then this match. If there is another 3 rounds of this dreck, there may be a recap of the most recent cut away of the buffet. They appear to have Buffalo Wings and ranch dressing. With 1:52 to go in round 8 after several severe holding violations, Spivey is issued a warning that the next time he does that it will cost him a second point. With 13 seconds to go in the round, the referee calls time to take a second point from Spivey for holding. The referee overlooked Spivey grabbing onto Decarie about 6 more times, before he finally took the second point. Spivey is giving the referee no choice, but to take points, by holding so flagrantly and not breaking, when he is told. The referee told Spivey that the next severe holdwill result in a disqualification. Considering Decarie appears to havelittle finishing power, the only way Spivey is going to get out of this match early is by holding. At this point, further holding is an attempt by Spivey to get out of the match early. He is out of gas and is trying to muddle through without boxing. Before the action resumed, the referee told Spivey that if he did not want to box anymore to just put his knee down. Then the referee will count the challenger out to end this match. Decarie wins round 8, 10-8. With 1:02 to go in round 9, Spivey is hurt by Decarie and holds on like normal. However, this timeSpivey is so reluctant to break the grasp as Decarie backs away that he ends up tackling the Canadian to the mat. The referee is going to dust both boxers off and allow the action to continue after a few second break in the action. It may be time for Spivey's corner to stop the match. Spivey clearly wants out and thinks the honorable way to end this match is to lose via disqualification. Spivey's corner needs to recognize that their charge has taken enough damage and to let him out by throwing in the towel. With a little under 30 seconds to go in round 9, there is blood coming from around the left eye of the challenger. Decarie wins round 9 big, 10-9. In the corner after round 9, Spivey told his trainer the cut was caused by a headbutt. Strangely no one in Spivey's corner did any work on the cut in between rounds. Spivey's trainer asked the cut man if he had anything for the cut, but they never worked on it. The level of incompetence shown in the Spivey corner following round 9 is mind bottling. After 9 rounds, Decarie leads on my and Atlas' scorecard, 89-80.

Decarie wins round 10, 10-9. The champion has very little power, but is continuing to batter Spivey with a significant accumulation of punches. This is the type of match that gets boxers severely injured or even killed. Spivey's corner really needs to stop this match. Decarie wins round 11, 10-9. If this match was designed to highlight Decarie as a top level boxer at 147 pounds it is failing in that mission. The Montreal crowd, which is probably the best boxing crowd in the United States or Canada actually lightly boos this match to open round 12. For a Montreal crowd to boo their hometown boxer, the match has to be bordering on a worst match of the year candidate. Decarie is tired. Therefore,he has to spend part of round 12 holding on to catch his breath. However, Decarie still wins round 12, 10-9, and takes the match on my scorecard, 119-107. Atlas has the same final score.

The official decision courtesy of ChristianGauthier is that the judges have scored this match: 119-105, 118-106, 118-108 all for the winner by unanimous decision, still undefeated and still the WBO NABO Welterweight Champion, Antonin Decarie.

The win moves Decarie to 21-0 with 6 of those wins coming by way of knockout. The final CompuBox numbers have Decarie landing 240 of the 515 total punches he threw, for a ridiculous 47% total connect percentage. Decarie landed 45 of the 140 jabs he threw. The champion connected on 158 of the 426 head punches he threw. Decarie landed 72 of the 89 body punches he threw. Spivey landed 252 of the 930 total punches he threw, for a 27% total connect percentage.The Virginian landed 51 of the 382 jabs he threw. The vanquished challenger landed 65 of the 153 body punches he threw.

Decarie dominated this match, yet still looked bad. He was bigger, stronger and faster then Spivey, but allowed Spivey to last the entire match. It appeared that if Decarie had pushed the pace he could have knocked Spivey out by round 4. Instead, Decarie turned in a boring performance. The 147-pound division is the deepest in boxing and with the exception of Shane Mosley the boxers on top of the division have not passed 32-years-old.Decarie is going to need to show marked improvement quickly orit appears he will never join the elite ranks in the weight class. For now, he can continue boxing on local shows in Montreal, but he did not show a tremendous amount of upside in this match.

Spivey needs to retire immediately. This is the type of match that can permanently harm the health of a boxer. If Spivey were to face a truly top opponent at 140 or 147 pounds he could be in line for a very scary beating. Spivey's career has been pretty much over since 2002 with only occasional comebacks. Someone needs to explain to Spivey that his career is over for real this time and it is time to move on with his life. Things can only end tragically if he continues to box.

3. IBF Junior Welterweight (140 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Herman Ngoudjo (17-2, 9 KO's, 139 pounds) vs. Juan Urango (20-1-1, 16 KO's, 139.75 pounds)

This title is currently vacant. It had been held by Paulie Malignaggi, who had been ordered to make a mandatory title defense against Ngoudjo. However, Malignaggi forfeited the title to face Ricky Hatton for The Ring Championship at 140 pounds, rather then take the mandatory title defense.

Ngoudjo had a solid amateur boxingcareer that peaked when he represented Cameroon in the 119 pound weight class at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympiad.

Following the Olympics, Ngoudjo relocated to Montreal where he has had 16 of his 19 professional matches, all victories. Outside of Montreal, Ngoudjo is 1-2 with a split decision loss and a controversial unanimous decision loss challenging Malignaggi for this championship belt.

On January 5, 2008, Ngoudjo faced Malignaggi on the New Yorker's home turf at Bally's Park Place Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In that match, the refereeing was very one-sided against the newly minted Canadian citizen and Malignaggi may have escaped with a combination champion and hometown decision. However, Ngoudjo was not active enough throughout the match to make the decision a true robbery. The original recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/11/23/recap-of-paulie-malignaggi-vs-herman-ngoudjo.html

Ngoudjo's last match was a 12-round unanimous decision over Souleymane M'Baye on June 6, 2008 at Uniprix Stadium in Montreal.

Ngoudjo is The Ring's number 5 contender at 140 pounds to their championship in the weight class, Ricky Hatton.

Urango has held this title earlier in his career, when Ricky Hatton briefly vacatedthe belt to try his luck at 147 pounds. On June 30, 2006 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, Urango defeated Naoful Ben Rabah for the vacant belt via 12-round unanimous decision.

Unfortunately for Urango, Hatton's first outing at 147 pounds did not go well and the Englishman determined he wanted his belt back on January 20, 2007. Therefore, Urango was forced to make his first title defense against Hatton that night at Paris Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hatton dominated Urango in that match, winning 119-109 on all of the judges scorecards and reaffirming his superiority as the top 140-pounder in boxing at Urango's expense.

Urango's last match was a knockout victory at 1:45 of round 4 over Carlos Wilfredo Vilches on April 23, 2008 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Urango knocked down Vilches in round 1, before eventually knocking him out.

Urango is The Ring's number 8 contender at 140 pounds.

At 28-years-old, Urango is 1 year younger then the 29-year-old Ngoudjo. Ngoudjo will have the height advantage standing 5' 9" tall, while Urango stands 5' 8" tall. According to boxrec.com, Ngoudjo has the reach advantage with 73" wingspan compared to the 71" wingspan of Urango. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, the IBF requires boxers to weigh-in within 10 pounds of their official weigh-in weights the day of the match. That means both boxers should be about the same weight in the ring. Ngoudjo will employ the orthodox stance, and Urango will employ the southpaw stance. The Canadian is a slight betting favorite, because of his huge hometown advantage.

The official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are fromFlorida, Las Vegas and Montreal. The referee is Marlon B. Wright from Montreal. Wright was the referee who made a series ofhorrificcalls in favor of the Montreal boxer in another IBF title match from Montreal, Lucian Bute versusLibrado Andrade. Bute was knocked out at the end of the match, but Wright refused to rule it a knockout and allowed the Canadian to escape with his title belt. A recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/1/30/recap-of-lucian-bute-vs-librado-andrade.htmlWright refereeing this match appears to be a huge edge for Ngoudjo. The fact thatWright is getting to officiate this match isa joke and insulting to anyone who follows boxing. It is recommended that people read that article to fully understand how disgraceful it is the Wright is getting to call this contest. There is literally no boxing referee in the world (not hyperbole) who could appear a worsechoice to handle this contest then Wright. There are worse referees, but having Wright in the match makes this match look rigged for Ngoudjo to win. However, Ngoudjo will not have his trainer for this match. Ngoudjo's trainer is currently on suspension for pushing Wright after Wright's embarrassing performance in the Bute-Andrade debacle.

Close round 1 that Ngoudjo's superior boxing may have been good enough to win, 10-9. Urango landed the harder punches to take round 2, 10-9. With 2:12 to go in round 3, a left hook puts Ngoudjo's back on the mat. The punch is not really what dropped Ngoudjo's. He was hit and reacted by backing up with his left foot. However, Ngoudjo's left foot was just inside Urango's right foot. Therefore, when Ngoudjo went to step back, the Canadian caught his foot on Urango's foot causing him to trip and take a flat back bump. By rule, the punch caused the initial motion of Ngoudjo leading to the fall.Therefore, that is a knockdown. The referee after a moment's hesitation correctly rules it a knockdown. A jarred Ngoudjo successfully answers the referee's count to continue with 1:58 to go in the round. Ngoudjo's eyes do not look completely clear and he may have a hard time lasting out the last 2 minutes of this round. With 39 seconds to go in the round, Ngoudjo hits the canvas for a second time. However, this time it is a slip. Ngoudjo tripped over Urango's right hip pulling back to dodge a wild right hand from the Colombian. The referee correctly rules it a knockdown and without dusting off Ngoudjo allows the action to continue with 35 seconds to go in the round. A left hook to the chest sends Ngoudjo bouncing off the ropes, where he is met with a right to the chin that puts him back down to the mat with 26 seconds to go still in round 3. Ngoudjo successfully answers the count and is allowed to continue with 14 seconds to go in the round. The 3 knockdown rule is not in effect in this match. Huge round 3 for Urango, who with the 2 knockdowns wins it, 10-7. Urango has Ngoudjo hurt and appears poised to score another knockdown with 2:06 to go in round 3, until referee Wright steps in to help out a Montreal boxer, again. Wright calls time to issue a severe warning to Urango for hitting low. This move seems inexplicable, other then the referee is consciously looking to effect the outcome of the match in favor of the Montreal boxer. Urango has not been throwing low blows to the point he deserves a severe warning. Also, Ngoudjo was not hurt by the punch that the referee is admonishing Urango about, because it was on the belt line not on the cup.This is just buying Ngoudjo time to recover he does not deserve. After Wright has bought 10 seconds for Ngoudjo,the refereegraciously allows the action to continue. Urango wins round 4 decisively, 10-9. However, it is clear with the way Wright is talking to Urango that the Colombian is going to lose a point in this match for a phantom low blow at some point. This is Nick Patrick as the NWO referee bad. After 4 rounds, Urango leads on my scorecard, 39-35. After 4 rounds, Atlas has Urango ahead in the match, 40-36. Atlas scored round 1, 10-10, and round 3, 10-8, even though it was a 2 knockdown round. We both scored rounds 2 and 4 for Urango, 10-9.

Urango landed several good power punches to win round 5, 10-9. However in round 5, Ngoudjo appeared to have recovered from the earlier knockdowns and is back in the match. The ESPN commentators pointed out, that Ngoudjo may benefit from some very friendly judging in this match. With the referee working for Ngoudjo and potentially the judges as well, Urango may need to score a 25-count knockout to win this match. Andrade was only able to manage a 24-count knockout in this building, and therefore he lost. Urango wins a close round 6, 10-9. It appears that in the close rounds that Ngoudjo is consistently out-landing Urango. However in those close rounds, Urango will catch Ngoudjo a couple of times with hard punches that send the Canadian off balance. That has continually been the deciding factor on my scorecard. Urango landed some good right hooks to the body inwinning round 7, 10-9. After 7 rounds, Urango leads on my scorecard, 69-62. After 7 rounds, Atlas has Urango ahead 67-66. Atlas scored rounds 5, 6 and 7 for Ngoudjo, 10-9. (Actually, ESPN put up the graphic saying Atlas had the match a draw after 7 rounds, 76-76, which is not possible.) Urango does not land as many clean power punches in round 8, but enough to take the round, 10-9. Atlas scores round 8 for Urango, 10-9. After 8 rounds, Urango leads on my scorecard, 79-71. After 8 rounds, Atlas correct scorecard has Urango ahead 77-75.

Close round 9, that Ngoudjo may have won with a flurry at the end of the round, 10-9. Ngoudjo wins round 9 on Atlas' scorecard, 10-9.After 9 rounds, Urango leads on my scorecard, 78-71, and on the Atlas scorecard, 77-76.

With 33 seconds to go in round 10, Ngoudjo motions to Wright that he was hit low. Therefore, like a good puppet, Wright calls time and admonishes Urango for hitting low. Wright tells Urango the next phantom low blow will cost him a point. On very slow motion replay, it appears Ngoudjo may have been tapped on the hip. Urango did not throw a punch anywhere near Ngoudjo's cup and it was on the side Wright was screened off from seeing.The referee never saw the punch Ngoudjo was complaining about, but responded to Ngoudjo's complaining.A referee is not supposed to do that. Both boxers have been tired and holding on in this round. Therefore, it appears Ngoudjo decided he wanted a break and maybe Wright would help him out on the scorecards at this time. It looks like Wright will have to take the point from Urango in rounds 11 or 12 instead of now. With 22 seconds to go the action is resumed. Actually, there was a lot more then 22 seconds to go, because the timekeeper made a mistake.The crowd caught on when the round was over 30 seconds too long. The extra time in the round is helping Ngoudjo. The round ended up being 5:10 minutes long. The stunning level of incompetence being displayed at this event continues to amaze. The better conditioned Ngoudjo won the first30seconds of extra time, and would have takena 4-minute round. However, eventually the larger Urango's size got to Ngoudjo and he was able to winthe marathon round 10, 10-9. After this, the sanity of any boxer going to challenge for a world title in Montreal may need to be questioned. Urango wins round 10 on Atlas' scorecard, 10-9. With 1:53 to go in round 11, the referee calls timeout to deal with some loose tape around the left glove of Ngoudjo. The tape had come loose early in round 10, but it had not been strategically useful for Wright to call time to deal with it. There is finally too much loose tape for the referee to ignore and it is posing a severe safety risk to the boxers. After a brief break, that both boxers could use, the action is resumed. Urango's aggressiveness takes round 11, 10-9. Atlas scores round 11 for Ngoudjo, 10-9. Round 12 was very close, but Ngoudjo's activity may have been enough to take the round, 10-9. However, Urango wins the match on my scorecard, 117-109. Atlas scored round 12 for Urango, 10-9, and has the Colombian winning the match on his scorecard, 115-113.

The official decision courtesy of Christian Gauthier is that the judges have scored the match: 118-108, 116-110, 120-106 all for the winner by unanimous decision and new IBF Junior Welterweight Champion of the World, Juan "Iron Twin" Urango. The win moves Urango to 21-1-1 with 16 wins coming by way of knockout. All of these scores sound far more reasonable then Atlas' scorecard. The 120-106 is perfectly reasonable. Round 1 was very close and after that I had to work hard to come up with reasons to give Ngoudjo any more rounds.

Urango was good in this match, but the memory of him being dominated by Hatton makes it hard to believe in him as a serious threat at the top of the division. However, it could be interesting to see Urango face Malignaggi. Malignaggi never lost this title, which gives the built in storyline for those 2 to face each other in the spring. It would make sense for Urango to face Malignaggi at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City for their big June show.

Ngoudjo had the deck stacked completely in his favor for this match and failed to deliver. However, this should not be a tremendous setback. Apparently, Ngoudjo had his jaw broken at some point early in the match, and will be out of action for much of the rest of 2009. When Ngoudjo returns, he should be able to continue main eventing ESPN shows in Montreal and earn another title shot that way. Still, Ngoudjo is going to need to get much better defensively and much more consistent offensively if he is going to be a serious factor in this division.

This show actually went long, because ESPN threw on the extra 4-rounder to open the show. They expected Decarie to live up to the hype and deliver a knockout. Instead he turned in that dreadful performance and the show went 20 minutes long. The main event seemed largely boring besides for the car crash elements of Wright's horrificrefereeing and the 5:10 round 10. It is actually very lucky that nothing significant happened in the extra time of round 10. Had anything significant happened in the additional 2:10 of round 10 the match would have been ruled a no contest. Most disappointing though, was this show hurt the image of Montreal as a good boxing city. It would be very bad if Montreal came to be thought of like South America and Indonesia, where boxers turn down title matches there knowing it is a no win situation. This is a show to avoid.

News and Notes: The contract for the Ricky Hatton vs. Manny Pacquiao match is finally signed. The 2 boxers will meet for Hatton's titles on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. They have not decided whether to put the match on Showtime or HBO PPV, yet. Showtime is offering a potential joint promotion of the match with CBS.

Lucian Bute has signed to make his first defense ofhis 168-pound belt since Marlon B. Wright successfully defended it for him against Librado Andrade. Bute will face Fulgencio Zuniga on March 13 at the Bell Centre in a match that will be carried on Showtime. If Wright is the referee of that match, then coverage of events from Montreal may stop under the too much idiocy to deal with clause in my contract. The fact Jeff Hamlin has not invoked that clause to stop recapping iMPACT! should have that man up for sainthood.

The Bell Centre has just signed to host another major boxing show. The April 4 Showtime event featuring a 140-pound title unification match between Timothy Bradley and Kendall Holt is headed to Montreal.

There has been significant fallout from last weekends Shane Mosley vs. Antonio Margarito match. First, Mosley is now The Ring's number 1 contender to their vacant championship at 147 pounds flipping spots with Margarito who is now the number 3 contender with MiguelCotto remaining at number 2. Mosley is now The Ring's number 6 ranked boxer in the world, pound-for-pound. Margarito and Cotto have dropped out of The Ring's pound-for-pound rankings. This has moved Ivan Calderon and Hatton from numbers 9 and 10 on the list to number8 and 9 respectively. Celestino Caballero is the new entrant to the list at number 10, a somewhat surprising choice over Paul Williams.

The event did a live gate of $1.4 million. It did a 3.9 rating live, and 1.3 rating on the Sunday morning replay. The only 2 matches that were more viewed on HBO in 2008 were De La Hoya vs. Steve Forbes and Joe Calzaghe vs. Bernard Hopkins.

The bigger issue has to do with Margarito's hand wraps that contained a plaster like substance. Margarito and his trainer have had their licenses temporarily suspended by the California State Athletic Commission. There will be an initial hearing on the matter by the CSAC on February 10 to look further into the matter. The CSAC will not be commenting on this matter until then. However, if Margarito had an illegal substance in hishand wrapsthere is talk this could cause a string of legal actions across the country to look into every Margarito match.

Additionally, Margarito is scheduled to Miguel Cotto on June 13 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The PPV date and MSG are probably already on hold. If there was an illegal substance in Margarito's hand wraps, that PPV would be canceled. There was talk that PPV could do in the neighborhood of 450,000 buys, and would have been the third biggest boxing PPV of the year. It may still go on with Mosley being inserted for Margarito. However, this is a very bad way to start what looked to be a promising year for the sport.

The Margarito hand wrap story has not received a ton of attention right now, but should get a ton of attention in February. It is currently Super Bowl week and everything in the United States is about football. However, February and July are considered the worst months for traditional sports journalists. There are very few traditional stories to right about then. This is when sports talk radio has no news to coverso they will break out the filler topics, such as should Pete Rose be in the Baseball Hall of Fame and what is the best rivalry in college basketball.Now, stories that would normally be small stories become huge stories in those months. With a February 10 hearing, there will probably bea lot of talk about this in the sports media. There will be a lot more on this in the coming weeks.

Vitali Klitschko's heavyweight title defense against Juan Carlos Gomez will be broadcast in the United States. In fact, it will probably be the most watched heavyweight title match in years. Klitschko will defend his title on March 21 in Stuttgart, Germany live at 2 PM Pacific Standard Time on ESPN, not ESPN2 or ESPN Classic as had been speculated. (Even though this show is called ESPN Friday Night Fights, it has been broadcast on ESPN2 primarily for a while.) Klitschko turned down a lot more money to make this a small time PPV event. This will be the first major heavyweight title match carried live on basic cable in years.

The deal for Wladimir Klitschko to defend his title against the boisterous David Haye is almost finalized. The match will take place June 20 at Stamford Bridge Stadium in a suburb of London, England. The stadium can hold 42,500 for boxing.

Coming off his great match to win the vacant Ring Championship at 200 pounds, Tomasz Adamek has signed for his first title defense. He will face Jonathon Banks on February 27 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Showtime.

The Don King boxing game made by Take-Two Interactive that got horrendous reviews for the XBOX 360 and PS3 is being ported to the Wii. The game is going to make use of the Wii balance board. Nintendo pitched the idea of a boxing game using the Wii balance board when they introduced the peripheral. However, they were probably expecting someone to make a good one. The game will start collecting dusts on store shelves starting March 31.

The next recap will come out February 8 covering the Showtime event featuring Vic Darchinyan vs. Jorge Arce.

Sincerely,

Jereme Warneck

number1contender.net

Boxing and Video Game Correspondent for f4wonline.com

Hidden Valley Lake, CA

I can be reached for feedback and comments at ZurRoadie@aol.com or as JeremeW on XBOX Live. I read everything.