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Showtime ShoBox Recap

December 13, 2008

Boardwalk Hall-Atlantic City, New Jersey

Timothy Bradley, Jr. has been positioned prominently at ringside for this event, and will do some color commentary during the main event. Bradley is scheduled to face the winner of the main event in a 140-pound title unification match.

WBO Junior Welterweight (140 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Kendall Holt (24-2, 13 KO's, 140 pounds) (c) vs. Demetrius Hopkins (28-0-1, 11 KO's, 140 pounds)

Holt won this title in his last match, an exciting knockout victory at 1:01 of round 1 over Ricardo Torres on July 5, 2008 at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. That 61 seconds was the best round of the year. Holt was knocked down twice in the opening 32 seconds of the match. However, Holt came back 10 seconds after he got off the canvas for the second time with a combination capped by a right hand that knocked Torres out cold to end the match. Torres dropped to the mat in a kneeling position reminiscent of the statue "The Thinker". The referee was delayed stopping the match, because the way Torres fell did not allow the referee to see the boxer was already unconscious. However, in a match that had been billed as "No Excuses" there were still some after this seemingly demonstrative finish. Holt began the combination that put Torres down with a headbutt. Torres may have never been knocked out had he not been struck with the illegal blow. The full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/12/19/recap-of-kendall-holt-vs-ricardo-torres-ii.htmlHolt is making his first defense of this title.

Holt had a modest amateur boxing career where he won the New Jersey Golden Gloves Championship 3-times.

The champion was scheduled to rematch Torres on this show. However, Torres withdrew from this match a week before it was scheduled due to illness. Torres had contracted a virus in the weeks leading up to the match. The Colombian said he could not make weight after taking in lots of fluid to deal with the virus.

The Paterson, New Jersey resident had 1 more unexpected change coming into this match. Holt's manager who acts as the assistant trainer in his corner during his matches will not be available for tonight. Henry Cortes was arrested last week in New Jersey for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Cortes is currently being held in jail on $500,000 bail and does not appear to be getting out anytime soon.

All of this has Holt seeming to be in a bad space mentally. Holt bristled when Showtime's Al Bernstein asked about Cortes and said he was only there to talk about boxing. The champion said he was very angry that Torres had dropped out of the match. Furthermore, he was upset at the choice in replacement. Torres is an aggressive boxer with little defense,and is being replaced with a slick defensive minded Bernard Hopkins style boxer. (That makes sense, since Demetrius is Bernard's nephew.) The exact opposite style of opponent Holt has spent the better part of a year training to defeat.

Holt is The Ring's number 6 contender at 140 pounds to their championship in the weight class, Ricky Hatton.

Hopkins had a solid amateur boxing career that culminated when he won the National Golden Gloves Championship at 141 pounds. Bernard Hopkins' nephew defeated Holt on the way to winning that amateur championship.

The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania resident was scheduled to face Germaine Sanders on the undercard on this event. Therefore, he is in shape despite being a last minute replacement for Torres. However, Hopkins was scheduled to face Sanders at the catch-weight of 145 pounds and had to adjust to make an unexpected additional 5 pound weight cut in the last week. Hopkins said losing the extra wight was no problem. Unlike mixed martial artists, boxers do not usually come from a wrestling background where weight cutting is a big part of the sport. For a lighter weight boxer to add 15 pounds after a weigh-in is rare, where in MMA that is expected. Hence, Hopkins was probably walking around at about 155 pounds. That means Hopkins should have been able, witha little extra dieting and exercise. to take the weight off and make 140 pounds without draining his body of all its energy.

Hopkins' last match was a 10-round unanimous decision over Enrique Colin on November 17, 2007 at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. Hopkins has been inactive for over 12 months, because of a falling out with his uncle Bernard, an executive with Golden Boy Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions itself. When Demetrius left Golden Boy Promotions, he had a deal on the table to face Junior Witter for a belt at 140 pounds. (That is the belt that is now wrapped around Timothy Bradley's waist.) After a prolonged legal battle Demetrius is resuming his boxing career with Top Rank.

Hopkins is unranked by The Ring and the number 9 ranked boxer in the world at 140 pounds by boxrec.com.

At 27-years-old, Holt is 1 year younger then the 28-year-old Hopkins. Hopkins has the height advantage standing 5' 11" while, Holt stands 5' 9" tall. The challenger has the reach advantage with a 74" wingspan, compared to the 71" wingspan of the champion. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, it is safe to assume that Hopkins will be the heavier boxer in the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.

The official judges keeping score of this match are from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The referee is Allan Huggins.

In the first 32 seconds of Holt's last match, there had been 2 knockdowns. In the first 32 seconds of this match, there have been 2 total punches thrown between the 2 boxers. Holt wins a close and very deliberately paced round 1, 10-9. The boxers get tangled up and Holt throws Hopkins to the mat with 2:01 to go in round 2. The referee correctly rules it a slip and the action is quickly resumed. Holt wins a boring round 2, 10-9. There are brief flurries of punches. However, it seems like there are never ending periods where the boxers just circle each other and do not punch. Holt wins a decent round 3, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-27.

Hopkins may have won round 4, 10-9. A lot of the best Hopkins punches were reminiscent of his uncle Bernard, in that they were dirty punches. Multiple times in the round 4, Hopkins got behind Holt as if he were setting up for a German suplex. From that position, Hopkins would wrap up Holt with his left arm and throw right hooks to the side of the champions face. They were not powerful punches, but more the style of punch a mixed martial artist would throw in that position trying to set up an opponent for the rear naked choke. However, some of them were quality punches. Hopkins may have won a very close round 5, 10-9. Round 5 was the first round in which Hopkins came forward on the attack, but Hopkins was going backwards for the majority of the round. Holt may have won a very close round 6, 10-9. After 6 rounds, Holt leads on my scorecard, 58-56. However, the judges' scorecards could be all over the place. Scoring any of the 6 rounds for either boxer would be fine, because neither boxer is doing enough to win the rounds decisively.

Holt had Hopkins hurt in the first 10 seconds of round 7. That alone was enough for the champion to win round 7, 10-9. Holt wins round 8, 10-9. This match is very boring. Hopkins is doing very little offensively and Holt is spending the 3 minutes chasing Hopkins and missing with punches. Therefore, very few punches are being thrown and fewer are being landed. This is a bad heavyweight match being done by smaller boxers. This match is so action packed that Holt smiles and starts talking to a person in the crowd during a clinch with 1:30 to go in round 9. Holt nearly got himself knocked down attempting and failing to pull off a piece of defensive showmanship that Pernell Whitaker used to do. Whitaker is one of the best defensive boxers ever and the best defensive boxer of the last 25 years. Holt has historically been at best adequate defensively. This failure resulted in Hopkins landing several clean punches to Holt's head. This may have cost Holt the round on some of the judges' scorecards. However, Holt wins round 9 on my scorecard, 10-9, and leads after 9 round, 88-83. Both commentators for Showtime have the match scored for Holt after 9 rounds, 87-84.

Holt may have won a close round 10, 10-9. Neither boxer did anything to deserve winning a lackluster round 10, but to avoid giving an even round, Holt takes it on champion's advantage. Hopkins wins round 11, 10-9. The challenger is somewhat effective when he comes towards Holt landing his jab. However, Hopkins has boxed almost all of this match in reverse and been completely ineffective. Holt wins a close round 12, 10-9. The champion takes the match on my scorecard, 117-111. Again, because of how close the rounds were the judges' scorecards could legitimately be all over the place. Both of Showtime's commentators scored the match for Holt, 116-112, but gave different rounds to Hopkins. Getting to hear the promo Bernard would cut on his nephew following Demetrius' terrible performance in this match would be far more enjoyable then watching this match was.

The final decision courtesy of Joe Antonacci is that the judges have scored the match: 115-113 for Hopkins, 116-112 for Holt and 117-111 for the winner by split decision and still WBO Junior Welterweight Champion of the World, Kendall "Rated R" Holt. The win moves Holt to 25-2 with 13 of those wins coming by way of knockout.

Hopkins said in his post match interview that he thought he won. The vanquished challenger said he did experience some ring rust (Hopkins is no Trish Stratus) and could have been more active.

Holt said in his post match interview that he followed the game plan to be aggressive and land left hooks to the body.

Bradley is now in the ring to have a face-to-face interview with Holt and promote their upcoming match. Wearing an impressive gray suit with orange shirt and tie ensemble, Bradley said he was impressed with Holt's performance. Holt responded by saying that Bradleyis a similar pressure style boxer to the opponents he is used to facing.

Holt was fine in this match. He is going to use a completely different style against Bradley. Therefore, there is very little that can be taken from this match and used to assess how Holt will perform against Bradley. Holt's defense was good against a boxer who did nothing offensively. Bradley is an aggressive power punch, who should give Holt a lot of problems. That match is scheduled for April 4, 2009 on Showtime. No venue has been announced for the show, other then that it will be held in the United States.

Hopkins was bad in this match. He did nothing offensively. The split decision was more a result of Holt, also doing nothing. Hopkins will probably get an untelevised match against a top 50 opponent in his next outing. He is still probably a year away from seriously challenging fora belt at 140 pounds.

This show is one to avoid. The main event was horrifically boring.