photo by John DiSanto / www.phillyboxinghistory.com
Philly Worldwide came to The National Guard Armory with fresh ideas and a new look which resulted in a very entertaining debut card for the city’s newest promotional outfit. The theme was Irish boxing and the atmosphere was festive, bringing out a large group of fans who don’t usually attend the fights but came out to support their ethnic relatives anyway. On a whole, this card which was put together by Pete Suski and longtime manager Tom Moran featured a former world champion, two international champions who hailed from Dublin, Ireland and some local fighters who needed an opportunity to make a name for themselves. It was also the return of Ganway Irelands “Slick” Simon O’Donnell, a fighter who made his bones as a pro in Philly fighting at The Blue Horizon & New Alhambra and also training down at Shuler’s Gym in West Philly. O’Donnell wanted to make a big statement as his last fight in his town turned out to be a disastrous night for the young Irish slugger that many have tabbed for great things. His assignment, South Carolina’s Antonio Baker a Philly spoiler whose resume includes wins over Tommie Speller and Richie Stewart in the career accomplishments section. West Philly Middleweight Jamaal “Da Truth” Davis returned to a Philly ring after 2 years on the road to take his former Champ’s Gym workout partner Chris Hall, another fighter who has merit as a local tough guy. Brothers from Dublin Paddy & Paul Hyland were making their debut on US soil. Paddy’s assignment came at the last second in the form of the very under rated Lucian Gonzalez. In the opener, Philly’s Julias Edmonds signed on to fight the son of a world champion in Tim Witherspoon Jr and more than held his own in a fight that had a controversial ending.
Kassim Ouma…vs…Martinus Clay
In the main event featured former 154 lb world titlist Kassim Ouma (26-5, 16ko’s) of Florida via Uganda taking on the well travelled journeyman Martinus Clay (13-18, 5ko’s) of Philly via South Carolina for a scheduled 10 rounder. Ouma has been on a skid as of late was in need of a win but he is no stranger to the tough times. As a former child solder of the Ugandan Army, Ouma overcame a youth filled with bloodshed and explosives, forced to commit unspeakable acts in order to stay alive. At the age of 19, Ouma escaped his homeland and arrived in the USA only to find more struggle ahead. Soon after his arrival, Ouma was homeless and lacking in employment due to speaking very little English. Though surviving though the first 19 years of his life in Uganda without being shot or physically injured, Ouma was shot twice in Florida within his first two months in the states. He was ready to pack it up and head back to his homeland, and then he found a boxing gym which changed his life completely.
Ouma, who picked up the sport while still a child solider began to perfect his craft and soon after became a regular on ESPN & HBO boxing shows. His high punch volume and nonstop work rate made him one of televisions more entertaining fighters to watch. After winning a streak of fights against tough known contenders, Ouma was signed by Golden Boy Promotions & J. Russell Peltz. Soon after he got his big break he faced and defeated Verno Phillips to become the IBF Jr Middleweight Champion in 2004.
After a surprise loss to Roman Karmazan in the summer of 2005, it was back to the drawing board and Ouma responded by blowing through a short list of good but unspectacular fighters. He eventually positioned himself back into the national mix and was rewarded with a shot at the middleweight champ Jermain Taylors titles. It wasn’t meant to be as Ouma showed a lot of heart but came up well short on the scorecards of this 12 round fight.
Since that night, it has been a downward slide in his professional career. Two close losses to fringe contenders K9 Bundridge & Saul Roman have many insiders wondering how much Ouma has left in the tank.
His opponent Martinus Clay was brought in to do just that, to find out what was left of the onetime highly rated fighter. Clay is a solid veteran who has taken on some of the best names in the business. At times, he has even pulled off the victory in fights which usually come up on short notice without proper preparation. Times have chances because now, Clay finds himself to be a promotionally backed fighters, boxing under the guidance of Hall of Famer J. Russell Peltz and being trained by Billy Briscoe in Philadelphia.
One the fight got underway, Clay seemed to win a few early rounds by smartly boxing Ouma as Ouma looked to walk inside and put pressure on his opponent. Around the third round, Ouma, kept the same approach but now was staying inside and landing light two and three punch combinations as Clay attempted to move around the ring. Through 5 rounds it was still competitive and probably very close on the official scorecards but it didn’t matter as Ouma scored two knockdowns in the 6th round, the second of which a body shot that Clay was unable to recover from.
So Ouma gets his first win in 2 years but the question still remains, is he back to his world class form? Some think it is still possible, but he will need a few more fights on this level before he is ready to jump back into the big time. Time will tell.
Until that day comes be sure to keep an eye out for “Kassim the Dream” a soon to be released documentary on the life, times, struggles and success of Kassim Ouma with exclusive footage of Ouma’s return to his homeland of Uganda after 10 years, his training for the Jermain Taylor fight and much more. Click here to watch the trailer and find out more info on the release.
Simon O’Donnell …vs…. Antonio Baker
Originally the co-feature was supposed to involve New York ticket seller James Moore but that fight was scarped after Moore hurt his hand in training. To fill the void, the 22 year old “Slick” Simon O’Donnell (7-1, 4ko’s) of Galway, Ireland was promoted and got the job done against the always tough Andre “Shake- N-Bake” Baker (6-11, 3ko’s) of South Carolina. O’Donnell comes from a fighting family which includes 13 pro fighters back home and also has his own extensive amateur background which includes a win over 2008 English gold medalist James Degale. After starting his pro career off strong with 4 straight wins, the Slick fighting Irishman got caught cold at The New Alhambra and suffered his first loss in August of ’07. He has since rebounded to win 2 straight and the fight tonight he was facing someone who could arguably been called his toughest fighter to date in South Carolina’s Antonio Baker.
While O’Donnell has the boxing lineage and team to guide him properly, Baker is the polar opposite. Hailing from South Carolina, Baker was thrown to the wolves early in his career. Through his first 7 professional fights, he was served up to Jermain Taylor, Chad Dawson, Peter Manfredo & Joe Spina twice and actually lasting the distance with Taylor and Spina. After briefly hanging up the gloves, he returned in 2007 to once again be the guy who challenges the hometown tough guy. Things were a little different this time around as he scored upsets or took the local fighter into deep waters only to get robbed on the scorecards. He came to our town last year and pinned the first career loss on Tommie “Big Poppa” Speller and also hung an L on Richie Stewart in Stewart’s hometown of Delaware.
On this night, Simon O’Donnell was the promotionally backed fighter and Baker once again looked to play spoiler. Baker looked to pull off the shocker once again. After a close 1st round full of rough house tactics, Baker was deducted a point for hitting during the break. O’Donnell was willing to trade with Baker for most of the fight though O’Donnell fought smart, moving around and using angles while Baker threw bombs. In the 5th, O’Donnell landed a big counter right dead on the chin as Baker looked to go on a big assault. Baker dropped to the canvas and the fight was immediately waved off.
Paul Hyland…vs…Lucian Gonzalez
Reading’s Lucian Gonzalez (8-4-1, 1ko) pulled off a shocker, accepting the assignment on less than 8 hours notice and defeated Irelands super bantamweight champion Paul Hyland (12-1, 4ko’s) by unanimous decision in a very exciting 4 round fight. Both fighters went balls out from the opening bell but a Gonzalez straight right in the 3rd put his opponent on the canvas which turned out to be the difference maker in the scorecards. Hyland was rocked badly in that round but sucked it up and stormed back fighting in the final round. The crowd was on their feet when it went to the scorecards which read 39 – 36 & 38 – 37 x2 for Gonzalez.
Patrick Hyland…vs…Elvis Martinez
Ireland featherweight Patrick Hylan (15-0, 8ko’s) showed a lot of fire in the ring and completely outclassed the Dominican Republic’s Elvis Martinez (11-27-2, 5ko’s) in this short, one sided fight. Hyland went to work early in the 1st with an in-your-chest approach, and before long he was rocking Martinez with lefts and rights to the head and body. Martinez was almost gone in the first but made it out of the round. His luck wouldn’t last much longer as Hyland scored a knockout at the 1:24 mark of round 2, sealing the deal with a hard, straight left hand.
Jamaal Davis…vs…Chris Hall
Philly middleweight Jamaal “Da Truth” Davis (8-4, 6ko’s) was finally given a chance to fight at home again and made the most of it with a one sided unanimous decision win over Chris Hall (3-5-1, 2ko’s) . Through all four rounds, Davis was in control and showed the toughness which makes him an avoided fighter amongst many more protected fighters in his weight class. Davis dedicated this win to women around the world who are fighting against breast cancer.
Julias Edmunds…vs…Tim Witherspoon Jr
In the opener, many ticket paying fans made a point to find me in the crowd to tell me their extreme displeasure with the decision in the opening fight. The consensus was that Julias Edmounds (2-3) clearly won three of the four rounds against Tim Witherspoon Jr (1-1), only to lose by majority decision on the scorecards. Edmunds spent most of the night inside, neutralizing Witherspoon’s longer reach but at the tail end of the fight did get nailed with a shot that made the crowd go ooooooh. The final scored tallied up at 39 – 37 x 2 for Witherspoon with judge Richie Hopkins seeing it even at 38-38. A draw is at worst what Edmunds should have received, It is a sad day when judges can be influenced by names.
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