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Saturday, June 14, 2008

Boxing: It's Unanimous; ABQ's Holly Holm Gives Sanders Her First Career Loss

By Rick Wright
Journal Staff Writer
      Holm cookin'? Hardly. The judges who declared Albuquerque's Holly Holm the lopsided winner of her boxing showdown with Detroit's Mary Jo Sanders on Friday night weren't from around here.
    But, then, it wouldn't have mattered if the judges had been from Mars, Jupiter or Sanders' hometown of Detroit. Holm, thoroughly outboxing and often outslugging the daughter of Detroit Lions football Hall of Famer Charlie Sanders, scored a clear-cut unanimous decision at Isleta Casino & Resort.
    The official scorecards read 97-93, 98-92 and 98-92, all for Holm.
    Holm improved to 22-1-2 with six knockouts in winning the previously vacant IFBA junior middleweight (154-pound) title. Sanders, tasting defeat for the first time, fell to 25-1 (eight KOs).
    "It feels great," Holm said of the victory. "I know how it feels to have a loss, and people say it's not the end of the world but it really feels like it.
    "I'm glad it's not me feeling that tonight, but my hat's off to (Sanders). ... She's a great champion."
    Sanders had been told by her corner after the seventh round that she needed a knockout to win. She never came close.
    "That's never a good thing to hear," she said. "It's never been like this before ... I'm numb right now."
    Holm was the busier fighter in the first round, perhaps earning the round with a straight left shortly before the bell. Earlier, the shorter, thicker Sanders landed a solid right to the head.
    The Albuquerque southpaw appeared to control the second round, using movement to force Sanders to reset her feet. Holm also caught the Detroitarea fighter with sharp right jabs.
    Holm showed no respect for Sanders' supposedly superior punching power in the third. When Holm wasn't repelling Sanders' advances with her jab, she was stepping forward and landing combinations.
    Sanders fared better in the fourth, landing a straight right and a left hook as Holm retreated.
    In the fifth, Sanders scored with a thunderous right to the head. But Holm, unfazed, continued to beat the undefeated Michigan fighter to the punch and win most of the exchanges.
    The two mixed it up repeatedly in the sixth, with few clean punches landed. Holm continued to show little respect for Sanders' strength and power.
    Sanders landed a big onetwo early in the seventh and charged forward, believing she had Holm hurt. But the Albuquerquean showed no ill effects, rallying late in the round.
    In the eighth, Sanders landed a big right to the jaw, while Holm was less effective at catching her opponent coming in. Was Sanders' strength finally beginning to tell?
    The fight became progressively physical in the ninth, a development that seemed to favor Sanders. Yet Holm appeared to land the more effective punches with combinations and straight lefts.
    They say the final round isn't about boxing. It was Holm, whether the key was heart or conditioning or both, who dominated the 10th.
    "I'm going to learn a lot from this fight," Holm said, "because I still think I can do a lot better."
    In a rousing semi-main event, Chevelle Hallback outslugged Jeannine Garside over 10 rounds to claim the IFBA lightweight (135-pound) crown.
    The official scores were 99-91, 96-94 and 96-94, all for Hallback.
    It was a power-punch festival, featuring only a few token jabs. Hallback (27-5-2, 11 knockouts), of Tampa, Fla., used her superior handspeed and professional ring experience to win most of the rounds. But Garside (7-1-1, three KOs), a southpaw from Windsor, Ontario, made most of those rounds competitive.
    "I saw it close," Hallback said. "... I trained hard; I sparred with dudes, guys that (were) pounding me hard.
    "I took her best shots better than she took mine."
    Hallback appeared to dominate a furious first round, but then slowed in the second and third. The change of pace seemed to favor Garside, who staggered Hallback with a straight left hand in the second.
    The tide seemed to shift back to Hallback, the quicker fighter, in the fourth. In the latter stages, however, Garside came close to stealing some — and, occasionally, did.
    The bout ended with a stirring, no-quarter-given-ortaken 10th round that had the crowd on its feet.
    Hallback was no stranger to Albuquerque, having fought and lost to Holm at Tingley Coliseum in May 2007.
    "When I came to Albuquerque the first time, I said I wanted to make it my home," Hallback said. "I came back home, and I'm glad to win in Albuquerque."
    In the first women's bout of the night, Carina Moreno dominated Eileen Olszewski in a contest for the IFBA light flyweight (108-pound) title. The scores were 97-93 anc 100-90 twice.
    Moreno (18-1, five KOs), who used to spar with Olszewski when they were amateurs, showed a professional polish and aggressiveness that her older (39) but less-experienced (5-1-1) opponent lacked.
    Olszewski landed some solid jabs in the early rounds but appeared to tire rapidly in Albuquerque's 5,000-foot altitude. Moreno, while admitting she also felt those effects, seemed to grow stronger as the fight progressed.
    "Since (their amateur days), I've gotten much stronger," Moreno said. "Eileen hasn't changed; she's still real strong. But was equal to her strengthwise."
    Moreno, 26, was the more aggressive fighter from the opening bell and rarely backed up. Olszewski had nothing to back her up with, rarely landing anything but her jab.
    "I could tell she was getting more tired as the rounds were going," Moreno said. "My corner kept telling me, Stay on her, stay on her.'
    I had a little trouble letting my hands go because of the altitude, but when I'd just throw, I'd land really beautiful onetwo-threee combinations."
    Moreno said she plans to return to what she her natural fighting weight of 105 pounds. She holds the WBC title in that (strawweight) division.
    Olszewski, asked if her relative lack of pro experience was a problem, said, "Maybe. I don't know."
    Asked if the altitude bothered her, she said, "It's the dryness."