PHOTOS page 16
1/28/2008
Daniel Edouard vs. Willie Gibbs: Middleweights Brawl in the CT Woods photos by Brendon Pierpaoli
Text below by Alex Pierpaoli
Willie
Gibbs (in white trunks) and Daniel “Haitian
Sensation” Edouard (in red, white & blue trunks),
came out throwing bombs and didn’t stop until thirteen minutes and forty five
seconds later when one man was barely standing. Gibbs’ attack never
spared the mid-section of Edouard and most of Gibbs’ combinations featured hard
bolts upstairs and digging hooks to the belly. By the end of the first both men
had stunned each other but the harder punching Gibbs took the stanza.
By the
end of two, Edouard had Gibbs hurt badly and just as referee Charlie Dwyer
seemed close to stopping it, Gibbs went down from a hard shot by Edouard.
Beating the ten count, Gibbs was up and wobbling but was saved further
punishment when the bell sounded to end the second round.
The
leather continued to fly in round number four but as the round wound down it was
clear Edouard was getting to Gibbs. When Edouard connected with a hard right
hand Gibbs lurched sideways, off balance, before falling face first into the
canvas.
Ref. Dwyer gave Gibbs the mandatory 8 count but when he asked Gibbs to step forward it was with great effort and a trembling hesitation that made Dwyer realize Gibbs had seen enough action on this night.
Despite winning by knockout Daniel Edouard, pictured above right, found himself surrounded by paramedics after he became dizzy and vomited in the ring during his energetic post fight celebration. Unwilling to leave the ring on a stretcher, Edouard was eventually convinced backstage to go to a local hospital for observation. After the brutal back and forth nature of the bout it seemed likely both men could have concussions.
Untouchable Rasheem Brown (in black trunks) battled Jose Spearman in a roughhouse split decision that went to Spearman after eight rounds. Brown-Spearman got the televised portion of the card started with sloppy scrap in which both men hurt each other but neither was able to finish off the other.
In the sixth the rough grappling nature of the fight continued and when Brown scored what looked like a knockdown referee Dick Flaherty ruled it a slip. In the seventh, chaos continued and a grazing punch from Spearman resulted in an official knockdown of Rasheem Brown which drew a raucous surge of boos for referee Flaherty. In the eighth and final round, Spearman backpedaled throughout as if confident he was ahead on the scorecards. It turned out he was right. Judges Arthur Mercante and Joe Dwyer both saw the contest at 76-75 for Spearman while Judge Don Trella thought Rasheem Brown won by a score of 77-74. The split decision win for Spearman was announced to loud boos, obviously the large contingency of Philadelphians on hand convinced their guy Rasheem Brown had won.
Elvin Ayala (in red) drives Julio Jean to the ropes... Nick Morganelli (in blue) hammers Jose Baby Boy Roman. Both Ayala and Morganelli notched victories on the undercard.
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