|
Green, fighting in front of his home crowd at the Million Dollar Elm Casino in Tulsa, OK, had a pretty tough go of it by the looks of things.
Emmett Linton would prove to be the hardest test to date for the 26- year-old Green, mainly because it was the first southpaw that Green had ever fought, and a very experienced one at that.
Linton, who normal fights at the 154-pound level, came in to this fight at the heaviest of his career, 166, but it was Green who was looked to be the bigger man as round one began.
Linton wasn't intimidated as he landed the first of many straight left hands he would land throughout the contest. Green threw a lot of quick punches fairly ineffectively, what the old-timers like to call
"shoe shining."
Linton would actually be the aggressor over the bigger man Green in the second round. His slickster defense was successful inside as he moved away from a lot of
Green's bigger shots, and continued to land his left hand off the face of Green. Green would split
Linton's bottom lip with a right uppercut; the lip would bleed steadily throughout the fight, but would not cause a problem.
Green would win rounds three and four by simply being the more aggressive fighter. Green neither truly hurt Linton in these rounds, nor did he have complete control. However, he landed enough right hands and uppercuts to the chin of Linton to give him the edge in these couple of rounds.
Linton would bounce back in the fifth round by throwing combinations himself. Linton would once again become the aggressor, landing his right hand as more of a power punch than a jab. Green would land the most telling blow of the fifth, a right hand that shot sweat onto the ringside camera. Nevertheless, Linton controlled the rest of the round, giving him the nod for the round.
From the view from the tube it appeared that halfway through the fight Green was having the hardest fight of his brief career.
Green's trainer John David Jackson disagreed,
"Allan is in complete control." Maybe
that's what Jackson was seeing out of his eyes, but I saw something very different..
The rest of the sixth looked like more like a wrestling match than a boxing match, perhaps because both fighters were getting a little tired. For the brief period of time they
weren't hugging it was Linton who was landing the punches.
Johnny Bumphus, Linton's trainer, had just said, "Linton will land a bomb soon and win by
KO," when Green landed the bomb. A left hook sent Linton reeling backwards towards the ropes. Green pursued him and landed more blows to his head and body before landing another left that sent Linton to the mat. Linton was up by the count of five, but still looked a little bit shaky. Green sensed this and attacked Linton in a desperate manner, trying to get him out of there.
After throwing about 25 punches in which he swung for the fences and for the KO, Green looked like the hurt fighter. He
wasn't hurt. He was just completely exhausted, looking like he may fall over without even being hit. Linton sensing this went on the attack, landing left hands as the bell rang. It was probably worthy of being called a 10-8 round, but it was Green who looked worse as the bell rang.
Green seemed to have some energy back as the ninth round began. Linton was warned for hitting Green behind the head. After the warning, Linton landed a punch to the front of
Green's head, or, his face, which sent him backwards a couple of steps.
Linton was the aggressor as round 10 began. It seemed, at least on my scorecard, that the fight was still up for grabs. Green spent most of the round on the inside, but for the most part he was ineffective because he was just being tied up. In the final 15 seconds of the fight both fighters let their hands go, neither one getting an edge over the other one.
I scored the fight 94-94, a draw. There were a lot of close rounds though, and apparently the judges gave those rounds and a few others to the hometown hero, Allan Green. The final score cards read 97-91, and 98-91 twice. Commenator Theodore Atlas had it a 95-95
"push" although blow by blow man Joe Tessitore said Green was the winner.
While a Green win isn't a robbery here, it is silly to believe that Linton only won one round. It was a very competitive fight, and when people read the scorecards in the future they are going to think Green won an easy fight, but let me be the first to tell you that was hardly the case. Green moves to 22-0 with 15
KO's and Linton falls to 33-5-2 with 15
KO's, in a spirited losing effort.
"Perhaps the most controversial fight
ever" is how Joe Tessitore described the first fight between Emanuel Augustus (33-27-6 19 KOs) and Courtney Burton (21-6 11 KOs) two years ago. Augustus clearly won the fight, at least in the eyes of everyone besides four people: the three judges and Courtney Burton. Augustus
wouldn't give himself the chance to be robbed in Oklahoma, the way he was in Michigan.
Augustus would win the fight by eight-round round knockout, but the fight was actually more competitive than the first one, at least up until that point.
Halfway through the bout I had Burton, 28, up three rounds to two. When Augustus would stay in the middle of the ring using his speed and jab, he was easily controlling the fight. When he would take breaks by staying on the ropes, he would present Burton with the opportunity to land some solid body shots.
Augustus, who at 31 years old is looking for one big money fight before hanging them up, did his trademark
"Drunken Master" dance only in the fourth round, a round in which I scored for Burton. Burton also won the fifth round, as Augustus chose to stay on the ropes, only occasionally looking to counter.
Burton actually had successful rounds in six and seven. In the first five rounds Augustus landed 75 jabs. In the seventh, he landed one. Seven was an interesting round because the action mainly stayed in one corner of the ring, prompting Tessitore to say,
"They should just pitch a tent," when they
weren't moving. This was Burton's best round of the night, but the next round would be his worst.
Augustus went back to controlling the center of the ring in the first minute of the eighth round. Halfway through what would be the final round, Augustus landed a body shot to the right side of
Burton's body that made him keel over. Burton would fall back towards the ropes where Augustus would pounce on him immediately.
After throwing a barrage of punches to the head and body, it was another body shot that prompted Burton to take a knee. Perhaps being knocked out in four of his last five bouts was enough of a reason for Burton to decide to not get back up and take any more punishment. At 2:04 of the eight round, it was sweet redemption for Augustus.
|
