Last night’s ESPN Friday Night Fights from the Desert Diamond Casino in Tucson Arizona was, on paper, a great night of fights. What happened from there is a different story.
The night started out with powerful welterweight prospect Keith Thurman, 10-0 (10), stopping a simply over-matched Travis Hartman, 10-14 (7). Hartman was dropped in twice in the first round and his corner, seeing that he was outclassed by the quicker, more powerful Thurman, threw in the towel at the 1:00 mark of round two. Thurman, a Tampa native that I have interviewed a few times, is a very promising young welterweight, whose maturity is just as solid as his punches.
The next fight shown was 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Deontay Wilder, 7-0 (7), stepped into the ring with less than stellar opposition, taking on Travis Allen, 3-5 (3), winning a first round TKO, but injuring his right hand in the process. Wilder jumped on Allen from the get go, dropping him with a right at the 0:30 mark of the fight. After getting up, Allen managed to stay back from Wilder, but was caught again at the 1:30 mark and the fight was waived off. Wilder was complaining of some pain in his right hand after the fight and was reportedly heading to the hospital to have it checked out. Wilder looks to have good power and some quickness, but needs to move up in opposition in order to get a true test.
Next to be show was an undefeated heavyweight named Seth Mitchell, 13-0 (8) taking on Andrae Carthron, 3-3-2 (1). This fight was just as much as mis-match as the other two, with Mitchell bullying Carthron around the ring, landing at will until finally ending it at the 2:36 mark of round one.
The main event was a welcomed sight at this point, a Jr. welterweight battle between “Vicious” Vivian Harris, 29-3-1 (19) and Noe Bolanos, 20-4-1 (12). This bout would be the one to save what had been a badly matched card, but it was not meant to happen. Both fighters came out very aggressive and had a clash of heads at the 0:40 mark of the fight. That started a scary 20 minutes. Harris immediately squatted down in pain, holding his head, while Bolanos looked at the referee for instructions. The referee, seeing that Harris may need to be medically cleared to resume the fight, steered Harris to the corner where the ringside physician was waiting. Harris appeared to begin to speak to the ringside physician, then looked as if he started to pass out and was caught by the doctor. That was followed up by Harris collapsing into the corner and the referee signaling to the paramedics at ringside to respond. The medical staff quickly arrived in the ring and immediately started to attend to the fallen fighter, while his corner men and family watched on in terror. Ringside reports stated that Harris was conscious, but not coherent to his surroundings and questions being asked of him. Harris was placed in a neck brace and taken out of the ring by stretcher, as the ring announcer gave the official ruling of a no contest. The uninformed crowd at the Desert Diamond Casino started to boo the results, apparently and hopefully, unaware of the seriousness of the situation taking place.
Harris was moved to a spot outside the ring, where he apparently started to come to his senses, was able to answer questions ans sit up. In a stirring moment, Harris was shown on camera, holding his sobbing, obviously very scared young daughter, while trying to console her and convince her he was doing much better. Just before going off the air, ESPN commentators spoke to the ringside physician and we advised that Harris would be taken to a local hospital for observation, but just appeared to be suffering from a concussion. In a summer of boxing tragedies, hopefully this one will be a happy ending, as it appears it may.
For more on this fight, listen to Bob, Butch and "THE Big Dog" Benny Henderson Jr on Fightin Words Radio Show, Wednesday nights from 8-9pm on 1490 AM WWPR. To listen on line, go to www.1490wwpr.com and look for the "listen here" tab. Also look at the shows website at www.fightinwordsonline.com
