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Showtime Championship Boxing Recap

February 7, 2009

The Pond (Honda Center)-Anaheim, California

Former EliteXC commentator Gus Johnson is taking over the play-by-play duties from Steve Albert after 22 years for Showtime Championship Boxing starting with this event. He promises to bring lots of enthusiasm to the post. Early in the show, he is bringing way too much enthusiasm.

WBO NABO Lightweight (135 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Almazbek "Kid Diamond" Raiymkulov (27-1-1, 15 KO's, 133.5 pounds) vs. Antonio DeMarco (19-1-1, 13 KO's, 134 pounds)

This title is currently vacant. It was last held by Jorge Luis Teron. Teron vacated this belt, because it is a rather meaningless trinket.

Diamond had a solid amateur boxing career that culminated when he represented Kyrgyzstan at 132 pounds during the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics.

The native of Kyrgyzstan was being positioned for a title shot when he was matched up with Miguel Angel Huerta on the undercard of a Versus event featuring Hasim Rahman on June 15, 2007 at the Main Street Armory in Rochester, New York. At the time, Diamond was ranked in the top 10 at 135 pounds, and Huerta was being brought in as a late replacement on 3 weeks notice. Diamond was supposed to deliver a flashy win. Instead the match was disastrous for Diamond. Diamond won the match despite being knocked down when the judges awarded him a gift split-decision. The Olympian then gave a post-match interview then came off as full of excuses and whiny. The full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/2/4/recap-of-almazbek-kid-diamond-raiymkulov-vs-miguel-angel-hue.html

Diamond's last match was 10-round majority decision victory over Javier Jauregui on September 19, 2008 atBuffalo Bill's Star Arena in Primm, Nevada.

Diamond isunranked by The Ring magazine, and the number 18 ranked boxer in the world at 135 pounds by boxrec.com.

DeMarco is here to do to Diamond, what Diamond was supposed to do to Huerta. That is deliver an exciting win to prove he is more then a prospect. The resident of Tijuana, Mexico has been boxing against steadily improving competition mostly in the Southwest United States. His last 3 opponents have all had winning records.

DeMarco's last match was a 10-round split decision victory over Jose Reyes on September 5, 2008 at Buffalo Bill's Star Arena.

DeMarco is unranked by The Ring, and the number 37 ranked boxer in the world at 135 pounds by boxrec.com.

At 23-years-old, DeMarco is 9 years younger then the 32-year-old Diamond. DeMarco has the height advantage standing 5' 9" tall, while Diamond stands 5' 6.5" tall. The Mexican has the reach advantage with a 71" wingspan, compared to the 68" wingspan of Diamond. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, the numbers suggest that DeMarco will be the heavier boxer in the ring. Diamond will box out of the orthodox stance. DeMarco is naturally right-handed, but boxes out of the southpaw stance.

California's modified version of the unified rules of boxing are in effect. All of the judges keeping official score of this match from ringside are from California. The referee is Jerry Cantu.

Round 1 was very close with very few clean punches landed. Diamond probably won round 1, because he was coming forward for the majority of the round and finished the round with a flurry, 10-9. However, Diamond accidentally headbutted DeMarco throwing that combination at the bell and busted himself open over the right eye. The referee is correctly ruling that the cut was caused by an unintentional clash of heads. The cut is bad and streaming blood. It is in the eyebrow line, but may be just enough off to the side that it will not effect Diamond's vision. This looks like it could be a cut that could lead to a premature stoppage if DeMarco decides to work on it. With 38 seconds to go in round 2, Diamond hits the mat when his back foot loses traction on the logo on the canvas. The referee correctly rules it a slip and the action is resumed with 31 seconds to go in the round. Landing some wild punches throughout round 2, Diamond wins the round, 10-9. With over 30 seconds to go in round 3, it appears DeMarco has developed a small cut over his left eye. It was probably caused by an unintentional clash of heads. Diamond has already been warned several times in this match for using his head recklessly and may lose a point for it during this match. The referee calls time with 23 seconds to go in the round to rule that the cut above DeMarco's eye was caused by an unintentional headbutt. DeMarco landed a few clean left hands to take a close round 3, 10-9. The cut above DeMarco's eye appears very small and should not be a problem, unless he keeps getting headbutted. DeMarco wins round 4, 10-9. After 4 rounds, the match is even on my scorecard, 38-38. All 3 of the members of the press keeping unofficial score of the match from ringside for Showtime have the match even, 38-38.

DeMarco shows good defensive skills in winning round 5, 10-9. Diamond is more aggressive in winning round 6, 10-9. After 6 rounds, the match is even on my scorecard, 57-57. Al Bernstein, who is doing color commentary of this event for Showtime, after 6 rounds has the match even, 57-57.

After round 6, they are interviewing Timothy Bradley who will be in a 140-pound title unification match on April 4 on Showtime against Kendall Holt. Bradley does a poor job hyping his own match and picks Darchinyan in the main event.

With 2:17 to go in round 7, Diamond is warned for throwing an elbow. It originally appeared that the former Olympian threw a right hand and followed through with an attempted elbow smash. However, on replay it appears Diamond may have never thrown a punch, just an elbow. Diamond may have had second thoughts about throwing the punch and in trying to pull it back threw an elbow instead of a punch. Diamond landed several good right hands to take round 7, 10-9. After 7 rounds, Diamond leads on my scorecard, 67-66. Press row has DeMarco winning the match via split decision after 7 rounds: 67-66, 67-66, 66-67.

The boxers traded punches in a very difficult to score round 8. Diamond landed the harder punches, but DeMarco probably landed more clean punches. DeMarco may barely take round 8, 10-9. After 8 rounds, my scorecard has the match a draw, 76-76. All of these rounds have been very close and the official judges' scores could be all over the place at this point. All of the members of the press keeping unofficial score for Showtime from ringside scored round 8 for Diamond, 10-9. They now have the match a majority draw: 76-76, 76-76, 77-75 (Diamond).

With around 2:30 to go in round 9, Diamond has been cut on the bridge of his nose. This cut also appears to have been caused by an unintentional clash of heads. Diamond has been blowing his nose for several rounds, and more damage to his nose could make it very hard for the boxer to get oxygen. DeMarco dominated the last 2 minutes of round 9 and had Diamond badly hurt. The Mexican wins round 9 big, 10-9. The doctor is checking on Diamond after round 9 and it appears he may stop it. The ringside physician is asking that they take Diamond's mouthpiece out so he can better check out Diamond but, the corner cannot get it out. Diamond's mouth is full of blood. The boxer may have a broken nose. The doctor apparently ruled Diamond fit to continue and said the corner now has 60 seconds to work on their charge. However, Diamond's body language looks bad. It appears that he wants out and his corner is not letting him quit. Then as round 10 is about to start the match is halted. DeMarco is going to win by technical knockout, because Diamond says he cannot continue.

The official outcome courtesy of the always "Classy" Jimmy Lennon, Jr. is that at: 3:00 of round 9 at the advice of the corner the referee has stopped the match making the winner by technical knockout and new WBO NABO Lightweight Champion, Antonio DeMarco. The win moves DeMarco to 20-1-1 with now 14 wins coming by way of knockout.

DeMarco in his post match interview said that he knew the match was close. For the record, the judges had the match a split decision in favor of DeMarco at the time of the stoppage: 88-83, 88-83, 85-86.

Now they are going to interview the referee about the stoppage. Apparently, the doctor ruled that Diamond was fit to continue. However, Diamond told his corner that he did not feel fit to continue. That got relayed to the referee and ended the match.

DeMarco looked very green in this match. He is very tall for a boxer at 135 pounds and possesses a lot of natural skills. However, he was not able to land consistently on Diamond who had his hands down and was charging in recklessly almost the entire match. In the very deep 135-pound division, the young DeMarco appears years away from winning a title. He would be well served to get more matches where he can refine his skills on lower profile cards. DeMarco is the right type of boxer for ShoBox, not major Showtime events.

Diamond was mediocre in this match against an opponent that he needed to beat. The former Olympian showed bad defense at times and by quitting took himself to a dark place. Once a boxer quits, it is easier for them to do it again. It usually signifies the beginning of the end for a boxer. Diamond will need to seriously re-evaluate what he wants to do with his career following this loss. At his age, it appears he will never be a world champion or make the money in boxing he wanted to make in his once promising career.

This was a very easy event to skip. The first match was average. On the bright side, Gus Johnson recovered from a rocky first few minutes and put together a generally solid broadcast.