VANDA BEATS GARR, KAYONGO WINS DECISION IN MNPLS
By Jesse Kelley and Ramon Hough
St. Paul’s Matt Vanda won a close, controversial split decision over Sam Garr in the main event of Sugar Ray Leonard’s Snowbrawl at the Minneapolis Convention Center. While Vanda and his energetic fans were happy with the decision, Garr and many media members felt the wrong guy was awarded the decision.
Fighting on ESPN for the first time, Vanda started the fight aggressively. In the first round, Vanda kept his guard up and threw his complete arsenal of punches, landing jabs, left hooks to the body and rights to the head. Garr also started the fight using his jab and tried to mix in an occasional right hand to Vanda’s body. The crowd cheered wildly regardless if Vanda missed or landed his attempts.
Garr continued jabbing in round two. Vanda tried landing left hooks and did land a good right hand to the head. Later in the second, Garr landed two hard right hands to Vanda’s body. The referee also warned Garr for a low blow. The body shots were the key for Garr in this round.
Round three saw Garr throwing different punches. In addition to his steady jab, Garr began throwing more combinations, overhand rights and left hooks. Vanda jabbed more and landed a left hook. A Vanda tumble to the canvas was correctly ruled a slip. The round ended with both fighters throwing punches after the bell sounded.
In the fourth round, Vanda became increasingly wild with his punches. He dropped his hands and threw winging left hooks. Garr continued to land right hands to the body and started landing right hands to Vanda’s head. Vanda wasn’t fazed by the punches and flurried back. An accidental low blow by Vanda went unnoticed by Referee Ron Stander hurting Garr midway thru the round. It was Vanda who backed off his attack and offered Garr time to recuperate.
Vanda began throwing and missing lead left hooks in the fifth round. He also jabbed some, threw combinations and landed a nice left hook to the body. Garr was starting to look more confident now, jabbing and mixing in right hands to Vanda’s head and body.
Garr continued employing the same strategy, throwing jabs and countering with right hands to the head and body in the sixth round. Vanda began showing some signs of fatigue but continued jabbing. He did mix in an occasional combination, but mostly missed. However, Blood was flowing from Garr’s nose.
Round seven was the most exciting of the fight. Garr was now the one looking tired. With his nose bleeding, Garr started opening his mouth more. He continued throwing right hands to the head. Vanda began throwing more combinations and looked to be catching a second wind. Vanda landed right and left hands and appeared to hurt Garr in the round. Both fighters traded heavy shots inside nearing the end of the round. Garr seemed to stun Vanda with a hard right to the head but failed to follow up with anything else. Now it was Vanda who was looking fatigued.
Both fighters used their jabs in round eight. Garr mixed in left hooks and right/left combinations. Vanda threw left hooks and looked to be tiring again.
Vanda opened the ninth round on the attack. Garr countered with an effective jab. Garr also landed a hard one-two to the head, more rights to the body and mixed in a hard right uppercut snapping Vanda’s head back. Vanda jabbed back and drove Garr into the ropes a few times. Vanda landed a hard left hook to the head but ran out of time to capitalize as the bell sounded.
At the beginning of the final round, Vanda’s supporters rose to their feet showing their appreciation for an entertaining fight and hoping to fire up their hometown hero. Garr went back to using the right hand to the body and jabbing. Garr was sticking and moving now. Vanda also jabbed and threw combinations. Both fighters looked tired.
The fight ended with both fighters exchanging in the middle of the ring. Both fighters embraced and both looked confident. The judges award a split decision to Vanda. Vern Sweeney had it 97-95 for Garr. Jack Hayden scored it 97-93 for Vanda and Butch Anderson also had it for Vanda, 97-95. Many, if not most, media members had Garr winning fight.
2000 Olympian Koba Gogaladze had the most emphatic win of the night with a second round, one-punch knockout of Juan Garza of Mexico. Gogaladze, a southpaw fighting out of Philadelphia, controlled the first round with straight left hands that landed over and over again to the head of the incoming Garza. The Mexican fighter did finish the round with a good right hand, though. Both fighters opened the second round doing the same thing: Garza coming in aggressively shooting right hands and Gogaladze looking to counter with straight lefts. Garza was landing with more regularity, but Gogaldze continued to counter effectively. Gogaladze ended it with a huge counter right hook that Garza probably didn’t see after missing a wild punch of his own. Garza went down hard in the middle of the ring, but was able to beat the count albeit on shaky legs. Referee Bob Brunette wisely stopped the fight at 2:55 of the second round. Gogaldze improves his record to 12-0, 6 KO’s. He also won the IBA Continental Lightweight title. Garza is now 20-2 with 18 KO’s.
Heavyweight Eliseo Castillo of Cuba won easily, but could not match his older brother’s knockout against the same opponent almost three years earlier. Castillo used a quick, hard straight right hand to hurt and control Onebo Maxime throughout the four-round opening bout of the Matt Vanda/Sam Garr fight card. Castillo, the younger brother of heavyweight contender Eliecer Castillo, won every round on all three judges scorecards. Despite being hit and hurt repeatedly by the right hand, Maxime never stopped trying and kept throwing wild haymakers at Castillo. Castillo’s speed and accuracy was the difference in the fight. With the win, Castillo stay unbeaten at 15-0-1, 12 KO’s. Maxime falls to 15-21, 11 KO’s.
In the second bout of Sugar Ray Leonard’s Snowbrawl, junior middleweight Yuri Foreman of Brooklyn, New York stayed unbeaten with a unanimous decision win over Anthony Ivory of Chicago. Foreman used a wide variety of punches and superior speed in dominating Ivory throughout the six-round bout. Foreman did get careless in the third round and Ivory landed two hard right hands to the head. Foreman wasn’t fazed and easily controlled the rest of the fight. Foreman improves to 13-0, 6 KO’s. It was Ivory’s 66th loss.
Featherweight Erik Rodriguez overcame cuts over both eyes and stayed undefeated with a unanimous technical decision win over former world titlist Franciso Tejedor. Referee ? Lagarde stopped the fight after the fourth round based on the ring doctor’s advice. Rodriguez trapped Tejedor on the ropes throughout the fight and unleashed hard shots to the body and head. Tejedor mostly jabbed and used his head as a third fist during clinches. Rodriguez was cut over the left eye in round one and again over the right eye in the third round. Even though Tejedor lost a point for head butting in round three, the referee ruled the cuts were due to accidental headbutts. Rodriguez improves to 14-0-1, 6 KO’s. It was Tejedor’s seventh consecutive loss.
Undefeated super middleweight Jerson Ravelo thoroughly beat the body and head of overmatched, overpowered, but extremely tough Jason “the Ironman” Dietrich over five rounds until the bout was finally stopped. Ravelo mercilessly landed hard body shots to the “Ironman’s” body in round one. The “Ironman” winced in pain every time a body shot landed. Ravelo seemed to lose interest in attacking the body for a few rounds and started head hunting. Ravelo continued landing, but the “Ironman” seemed to take the head shots better. The “Ironman” did his nickname proud showing his toughness in taking the clean, hard shots and continuing to wing his own wild punches. The most entertaining moment in the fight came in the third round. After taking a number of hard punches to the head, the “Ironman” stepped back, let out a scream/grunt and jumped back into the line of fire to take more. Ravelo started hitting the body again in round five and the effect showed quickly. The “Ironman” never stopped trying, but every punch was hurting him and the referee finally ended the beatdown.
Welterweight Mohammed Kayongo stayed unbeaten with a six-round unanimous decision over Marteze Logan. Kayongo, by way of Uganda, almost ended things in the first round with a huge right hand to the top of Logan’s head. Logan almost fell completely through the ropes, but referee Butch Anderson jumped in to rule it a knockdown before Kayongo could land more power shots. Logan recovered quickly and threw fast, but wild hooks throughout the remainder of the bout. Kayongo controlled the rest of the bout with body shots and a hard straight right hand. Kayongo improves to 9-0, 6 KO’s. Logan falls to 12-6-1, 2 KO’s.