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Showtime ShoBox Recap

April 6, 2007

Target Center-Minneapolis Minnesota

Heavyweight (200+ pounds) 8-Round Match

Raphael Butler (25-3-1, 20 KO's, 244 pounds) vs. Art Binkowski (14-1-3, 9 KO's, 235 pounds)

Butler has a suspect chin and it has been dented bysome very weak opposition. Butler also has not been past round 6 very often which is something to look for as the fight progresses. Binkowski was a member of the Canadian Olympic boxing team at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games. He reached the quarterfinals in the Olympics. He has had only three fights since May 2005 and is coming off a full one year's layoff. Binkowski has not really fought anyone of note, and has never been knocked out. Almost all of Butler's opponents including 13 of the last 14 have enjoyed an unexpected nap ending their fights, at least once.

Five seconds into round 1, Binkowski has found the mat, courtesy of a Butler right hand. Binkowski has been down three times before, but never stopped. Binkowski took this fight on ten days notice, after a one year layoff. The announcers are commenting on how weight wise he looks in "reasonably good shape". Reasonably good in real terms means he really needs to lose at least five or ten pounds, but its not embarrassingly bad. Butler on the other hand is quite imposing. While only an inch taller, Butler does have a much more muscled physique. Another right hand from Butler, sends Binkowski down to the canvas, at about 1:58 of still round 1. Binkowski answers the referee's count and is ready to go at 8, but he has to fight another 50 seconds. The 3 knockdown rule is not in effect, so Binkowski going down again in this round would not immediately stop this fight, and Binkowski does not appear hurt right now. A few hooks from Butler and Binkowski is hurt and holding on with 30 seconds to go in the round. With 16 seconds to go in the round, Binkowski, to avoid an oncoming onslaught of punches, runs to a corner and takes a knee. For some reason the referee is putting in a count, despite the fact that that looked like the body language of a fighter who wants out. Binkowski's eyes are clear when he returns to his feet and the referee allows the contest to continue.Round 1 goes in favor of Butler10-6, which might be the first time that score has been used for a round in a long time.

In round 2, Binkowski is warned for leading with the head. He is also able to get inside a lot and just tie up the fight buying time, until he is eventually knocked out. Butler won round 2, 10-9. Whenever the fighters got more than 12 inches apart Binkowski was in serious jeopardy and got hit with enough good shots at that distance to keep Butler in firm command of this fight. Binkowski is enticing Butler to hit him in round 3, since Binkowski must have already blacked out round 1 from his memory. The crowd is turning on this fight and its going to get a lot worse soon. The only reason this fight is still going is because of mistakes and now an apparent lack of effort on the part of Butler. Butler still wins round 3, 10-9. Butler's hometown crowd is on the verge of not just turning on the fight, but on him personally for failing to get the job done in a timely manner. There is now a cut on Butler's head likely from an unintentional clash of heads. The cut is at the lower corner of Butler's right eye, so it should have little to no impact on his vision for the remainder of the fight. This bout is breaking down into an ugly, awful, terrible boring fight in the clinch. This is an example of Randy Couture's "dirty boxing" as done by some very poor practitioners of the art. Round 4 probably goes to Butler 10-9, but this fight just needs to end for the sake of everyone watching. Butler appears gasses in round 5, which is a bad sign. Not likely for losing this fight, but in the future it will be a big concern. The fighter fatigue will probably lead to this bout being decided by the judges. Round 5 should just be scored an F for both fighters, but short of that I'll give the round to Butler, 10-9.

A funny thing happened, thousands of people went to see boxing in Minneapolis and were instead treated to two men holding each other for 15 minutes. Round 6 is hardly worth scoring, Butler will take it on the cards, 10-9. Nothing happened in that round. Round 7 to Butler, 10-9. After round 6, Binkowski's trainer had to look at the card the ringcard girl was holding up to know what round it was. That was after he started asking the people around ringside, but found them slow to respond. I believe they napping. Any fight in which one of the corners is no longer paying close attention to it, really does not deserve to be watched that closely or at all.

Butler has just been knocked down with 53 seconds to go in round 8, the final round of the contest. Needing to only go another 45 seconds, Butler spits out his mouth piece twice and the fight is stopped. Butler loses via knockout. Butler does not know what happened and why the fight was stopped or why he lost. Butler was either completely out of it for many seconds or has no idea what the rules of boxing are. For the record it was a right hand from Binkowski that ended Butler's night. It appears to have been exhaustion almost as much as the punches from Binkowski did in Butler.

Butler's corner is telling him he was losing and that the referee saved him from taking unnecessary damage. Whether the corner believed that or not is unclear, but if so that would be strange. It is more likely they are trying to comfort him in his loss and inability to finish the fight. It does not appear Butler is all there mentally at the time, so I hope this is an awesome job by the corner of handling what could turn into a very bad situation with their fighter by feeding him blatantly false information. The official judges scorecards are in to the broadcast table and Butler was ahead on every one of them: 68-65, 68-63, 68-62. The official decision is: at 2:23 of round 8 the winner by technical knockout Art Binkowski. The commentators are suggesting Butler retire. Neither of these fighters belong on television again anytime soon, if ever. This fight was terrible. The judge who scored it 68-65 probably scored it most accurately, as neither boxer deserved to win a round with as poorly as they were boxing throughout most of rounds two through seven.

The first fight is terrible. This show was not good.