Miracle knockout punch at "the Hassle in the Castle"

Good intentions mix with bad ones at boxing benefit event

Huntington, NY: As a boxing reporter you don't show up to a boxing card with the intentions of writing abut an undercard boxer with a losing record facing a vicious punching fighter on the undercard of a benefit event. But when that fighter does what Bryan Abraham (2-3-1, 1 KO) did Saturday night to James Hope (6-5, 4 KOs) he becomes the lead story. The Oheka Castle in Huntington, NY was host to a boxing card that was put together to benefit the Shea Megale Trust to combat Spinal Muscular Atrophy and had former super middleweight titlist Byron 'Gator' Mitchell facing Otis Griffin in the main event but what everyone was talking about when all was said and done was the once in a lifetime money shot delivered by Bryan Abraham on the undercard. This was a night of boxing that saw five fights out of six end by knockout and the one fight that went the distance turned out to be an exciting upset decision win, so to be able to steal the show you had to have done something big and that is exactly what Abraham did.

Abraham entered the fight with one win in four fights going in against James Hope who had the better record and who bore a physical resemblance to Pernell Whitaker who was seated at ringside. Hope was the more aggressive fighter and had Abraham busted up in the first round by landing vicious hooks to the face and the body. By the second round it appeared that Abraham had sustained a broken nose as Hope continued to pour on the pressure, effectively cutting off the ring on Abraham offering no respite from the beating he was administering. By the third round many at ringside began to wonder if the fight should continue as Abraham was clearly out of the fight and taking ungodly amounts of punishment from his tormentor. luckily for him this junior welterweight bout was scheduled for only four rounds and being desperately behind Abraham was within his rights to suspect that perhaps his opponent would let up in the final round as the fight was clearly in the bag for him at this juncture but Hope's killer instinct demanded that he go for the knockout win. As the signal alerting the fighters that ten seconds remained in the round sounded off Hope could have backed off but instead he turned on the juice even more, swinging for the fences and then it happened....Abraham nailed him with a right simultaneously as the bell sounded to end the fight. Hope pitched forward and then fell flat on his back!

The crowd went wild, Abraham looked on bewildered by what just happened as the ref seemed confused for a second then began to count to ten. James Hope valiantly tried to get to his feet to beat the count but fell down a second time as the count reached ten. The unlikely underdog leaped in the air and the crowd basked in the one in a million movie script ending hail Mary shot that they had just witnessed.

In the main event, Otis Griffin (22-6-2, 9 KOs) scored an upset eight round TKO win over Byron 'Gator' Mitchell (28-6-1, 21 KOs) for the USBA light heavyweight title when Griffin caught Mitchell up against the ropes and connected with several unanswered right hands until the ref intervened. Also on the card former heavyweight contender Michael Grant (46-3, 34 KOs) scored a first round knockout over Kevin Burnett (13-4-1, 8 KOs).

There was a benefit auction of sports memorabilia and the sports stars came out to lend their support for the Shea Magale Trust for the awareness of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Among them were members of the 1984 Olympic boxing team former world heavyweight champion Evander 'the Real Deal' Holyfield, former world champions Pernell 'Sweet Pea' Whitaker, Mark Breland and Olympic medalist former heavyweight contender Tyrell Biggs. Also on hand was former heavyweight contender 'Gentlemen' Gerry Cooney, New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs and the legendary boxing trainer Lou Duva was honored on the occasion of his 88th birthday.

Observations

• The Paul Williams vs Kermit Cintron fight that was aired this Saturday on HBO had such an unsatisfactory ending that there isn't much to say about it so I will sum it up quickly. Cintron seemed to have the edge barely on Williams in the first two rounds simply by worrying Williams enough to slow down the pace of the fight to Cintron's pace. Williams started to warm to the task a bit in the the third enough to possibly shade that round. But in the fourth just as things began to heat up, the fighters got their feet tangled and proceeded to fall down. Williams hit the canvas while Cintron flew out of the ring and hit the TV announce table and was ruled unfit to continue by ringside medics despite his protestations. Under California rules after three completed rounds in the event of an odd stoppage the scorecards are used to determine the winner. In this case the decision went to Paul Williams who could not have been too happy about how the whole thing went down. A rematch between the two is now a possibility.


• The come from behind knockout win produced by Bryan Abraham is unlike anything I have ever heard about. The closest thing I can think of is when Julio Cesar Chavez fought Meldrick Taylor in 1990 and losing every round managed to drop a badly hurt Taylor with 2 seconds left in the fight. But even in that case there were 2 seconds left and the ref stopped the fight, in the Abraham-Hope fight there was no time, the punch landed exactly as the bell rang. In New York you cannot be saved by the bell and it took a second for the ref to remember but in all honesty I think his reaction was shared by everyone at the Oheka Castle, a sense of total disbelief. This was a hail Mary game winning touchdown, hole in one(yes Golf!), walk off home run, last second three pointer, Pele back flip kick goal all rolled in one. And here is some highlights of the closest thing I can think of to this, although the Abraham-Hope ending tops even this legendary result.


• About eight or it even could have been ten years ago I met former heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney on the subway station in New York City, I approached him and we had a pleasant conversation until he got off at the next stop. This past Saturday as I entered Oheka Castle and admittedly marveled at the opulent surroundings and the star studded crowd I spotted Gerry sitting with all these big wig types. What happened next was a pleasant surprise as Gerry called me out from across the hall and asked me to come over. He stood up and greeted me like an old friend. So many years had passed and the guy remembered my name and conversation from a chance meeting in a New York city subway. He truly lives up to his boxing nickname 'Gentleman' Gerry Cooney.



• A fight broke out after the main event that saw Otis griffin stop Byron Mitchell between the fighter's significant others. Mitchell's wife argued that some of the right hands that Griffin threw were illegal rabbit punches and Griffin's girlfriend took offense to the accusation that her man was fouling. The two women approached each other and assumed fighting positions at ringside and had to be separated by ringside officials. Griffin's girlfriend grabbed hold of a chair and was getting ready to launch it before officials intervened. If the promoter's of this event convince these two to get in the ring for 'the Hassle in the Castle Part 2' I will be so there!
  

Hot Tub Time Machine Moment: This is the part of our segment in which the Blackeyed View likes to imagine getting into that hot tub time machine of the recent film and traveling back in time to a select sports moment to either appreciate or alter the result. For this HTTM moment I would like to go no further than last Saturday night at the Oheka Castle for 'the Hassle in the Castle' boxing event to right two major wrongs that were committed I am sad to say by me. You see I'm new to all this and prone to some amateur mistakes that hopefully will not repeat themselves again. One of the mistakes I cannot correct without the use of a time machine while the other blunder I hope to make amends for right now.

The co-featured attraction saw Michael Grant defeat Kevin Burnett via what some ringsiders felt was a premature first round stoppage. Moments before the beginning of the main event I decided to visit the desert tray, as I walked myself to the other end of the hall I passed by a tall bearded heavyweight wearing a hat that I mistook for Grant and I congratulated him for doing a job well done. As I continued on I saw Michael Grant standing near the other side of the desert tray and that is when I realized...I just congratulated Grant's opponent Kevin Burnett for losing by KO! I was so embarrassed I didn't know what to say, I wanted to apologize but felt like a complete fool and could not look at Burnett in the eyes again. If by chance he reads this I want to apologize profusely for the error. I would never sarcastically belittle the efforts of any fighter who gets in that ring. I feel terrible about it and I hope he can accept my heartfelt apologies.

My next blunder requires the use of the time machine. I charged my camera all night in preparation for this event and I expected to take many pictures. The moment I took out my camera on Saturday it would not turn on. I took out the battery and put it back in but no deal. I was livid, so many boxing legends on hand and me without the use of a digital camera. So I had to resort to a camera phone to take some pictures. Mr. Ray Bailey who was the ringside photographer was kind enough to email me two pictures of the main event so that I could have something to use. I was able to take some photos that only serve as a reminder of how cool those shots would have been had I taken them with the digital camera. The picture I have up of Bryan Abraham is of a previous fight as no one took pictures of his fight because no one expected the surprise ending to that fight. I thought that my camera was damaged but imagine my surprise when upon further inspection the next morning it turns out that I put in the camera battery backwards!!! So my stupidity becomes this week's Hot Tub Time Machine moment as I wish that I could go back in time and put that camera battery in the correct way. And so to entertain you and punish myself I will let you take a look at the best of the bad pictures that could have been awesome pictures if I hadn't been so careless........

Ring card girls

Your humble narrator vs Holyfield and Gerry Cooney

Round 2

Finally......
Two things to mention first for more information on the Shea
Magale Trust or to send donations to this worthy cause to raise funds for the
research of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) you can write to:
The Shea Megale Fund Corporation
c/o 6302 Rockbridge Place
Centerville, VA 20120

There is also a website for more information at http://www.walkforshea.com/ but this
website will be taken down soon.


Stay tuned for the next Blackeyed View as we
interview wildman Ricardo Mayorga as he looks to represent boxing in the world
of mixed martial arts this weekend taking on veteran Din Thomas!