Judah At The Rock

by Steve Fradkin

The hardcore fight fans probably saw the ESPN telecast last night from Newark’s Prudential Center.  You saw Zab catch Santa Cruz with his signature counter left uppercut in the 3rd.  You saw Santa Cruz stop, drop, and roll like a man on fire.  You saw him rise and wobble, and you saw Judah swarm for the kill.  

You also heard Judah declare, “I’m back.” I can see you kind of smirk, knowing that dropping a slow, shopworn lightweight with no punch resistance fighting above junior welter doesn’t exactly prove much.

Yeah, you saw that, and you saw the two prelims, etc, but let me tell you what you didn’t see, the things that you can only see when you attend live fights, which every fight fan must do when he can.

You didn’t see the two all out wars that raged before Teddy and Tessetore arrived.  

In the first of them, Patrick “Paddy Boy” Farrell of Jersey City (5-1-1 3KO’s) slugged it out until arm-weary with Newton Kidd of Brooklyn (7-7-1 4 KO’s). This was like a backyard brawl on youtube. Neither could stop incoming punches and neither missed much.  It was a pure battle of wills and balls.  The crowd booed the majority draw, but it seemed right to me.

Directly afterward, with hardly a minute between, heavyweights Adam Kownacki of Brooklyn (4-0, 4 KO’s) mixed it up with and Damien Clement of Dayton, OH (0-3) .  Kownacki, wearing the colors of Polska, looks and fights like Tomasz Adamek, who was ringside.  He wades in throwing straight, Pavlik-like bombs, totally unconcerned about what might come back.  

In the first, he hurt his much larger and more muscular opponent almost immediately, but took a huge counter in the process.  His hand touched the canvas and he impatiently took an 8-count.  Immediately afterward, he ran in guns blazing.  In the last minute of the round, he landed a laser right to the chin, and Clement dropped straight down. Kownacki swarmed till the bell.  

In 2, the all-out battle continued until Kownacki blasted him with another right that dropped Clement like a man shot.  KO. The crowd roared its approval.  

These are the kind of fights that need to be televised: pure excitement with the ending a mystery until it comes.

Besides the fights, there are a lot of little things you can only see at the live event.  

Like the ringside photographers wincing at the heavy sprays of sweat that rain upon them with every good exchange in their proximity; the sweat after each such exchange dripping off the ropes.  

Joe Tessetore reciting his piece before the cameras roll; Teddy chatting up fans like the real class act he is.  

The calm understanding that exists between Atlas and Povetkin, who, in jeans and a black tee-shirt, looks like a quiet and serious college senior.  

You see all the fine young women that the fight game attracts parading in sexy clothes.

You hear the passion from the crowd there to support local favorites whom no one outside the neighborhood has heard of, or is likely to ever hear of.  For most of these fighters, these are the glory days of which they will never tire of talking.

Main Events put on another good night of boxing in a good arena in an old fight town.  Though it wasn’t nearly as crowded or electric as when Adamek fights, it was still a good night of boxing.

Judah may or may not be through as an elite fighter, but he can still bring in some fans, and with a better known opponent, he might even sell-out such a venue.  In any case, he can still earn a living from this profession, and he deserves it.