Friday, April 21, 2006

Sloopy Sykes Sags

The Taurus "The Bull" Sykes v Derek "The One-Man Riot" Bryant fight looked to be a potential stinker. The flabby, under-achieving Sykes against the unheralded Bryant.

Sykes fights a sloppy style, but against weak competition, he's been able to mug, grab, and win ugly decisions. His only win of any sort of note was against Friday Ahunanya, prior to Friday had been totally discredited as a potential contender. Sykes' only other "main event" fights were lopsided losses. Owen Beck rolled over Sykes in six rounds, and Samuel "The Nigerian Nightmare" Peter beat Sykes senseless in two frames. No fight fan would pick Sykes to win over a legitimate contender. Of course, tonight he was fighting an unregarded Bryant, who'd only won two of his last seven fights. I'd never seen Bryant fight, but I wasn't impressed by what I'd read about him.

In the first two rounds, Bryant, said to be a slow starter, looked much better than the aggressive, but sloppy, Sykes. Some power punches were landed, and despite the sloppiness of both fighters, the fight was entertaining. In round three, Bryant began to reign in his wild punches, took control, and twice dropped Sykes with uppercuts. Had the round been ten seconds longer, Bryant would have finished Sykes.

Halfway through the fourth, Bryant knocked Sykes down again. The ref offered to stop the fight, but Sykes refused, and charged back into Bryant, only to fall again within moments. As the referee called the fight off, Sykes rolled out from under the ropes and began staggering through the crowd. I wasn't impressed by the way the Georgia boxing officials handled this truly bizarre aftermath. I hope Sykes was seen by a doctor, as he looked more than a little punch-drunk.

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