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It’s the fights that matter; not the belts. Forget the Belts: Madison Square Garden— October 6, 2007 T he thrill of heavyweights is in the way they punch. The blows come in slow-motion in comparison to those of smaller fighters. Fans in the nosebleed seats can follow their arc. And they land hard. On October 6, Don King promoted a night of boxing at Madison Square Garden. When it was over, the crowd had seen three pretty good heavyweight fights. King initially built his card around a match-up between WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev and Samuel Peter. Maskaev won his belt with a victory over Hasim Rahman in August 2006 and has ducked all credible challengers since then. The most notable things about Maskaev’s record are (1) Rahman is the only world-class heavyweight that he has beaten (Sinan Sam is not a world-class heavyweight), and (2) he has been knocked out five times. But that didn’t stop Dennis Rappaport (Maskaev’s promoter) from proclaiming, “Oleg’s story is ‘Cinderella Meets High Hopes.’ It’s fairy tales can come true when you wish upon a star.” Unfortunately, in an unfairy-tale-like twist, Cinderella turned into a pumpkin before dancing at the ball with Samuel Peter. On September 21, it was announced that Maskaev was suffering from a herniated disc. Thereafter, the WBC named Peter as it’s “interim champion” and decreed that Jameel McCline was a worthy challenger. By September 26, Maskaev–Peter had morphed into Peter–McCline. King had a hard time selling the fight. Neither Peter nor McCline has much of a following in New York; the show was competing with Pacquiao–Barrera II for media attention; the baseball play-offs are in full swing; and LSU was defending its number one ranking against Florida on national television in prime time. There was a small media blip in support of the card when Madison Square Garden announced that it was retiring the ring it had used since 1925. After eighty-two years, it had become increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain the structure and set it up for fights. MSG senior vice president Joel Fisher called the retirement “bittersweet” and noted that the old ring had hosted more championship fights than any other in boxing history. But he prophesized the start of a new era when a virgin twenty-by-twentyfoot ring (the old one was eighteen-feet-three-inches squared inside the ropes) was pressed into service on October 6. The Garden was virtually empty at 7:00 p.m. when the first heavyweight match-up of note (Kali Meehan against DaVarryl Williamson) began. Both men can punch a bit, and each has a questionable chin. Beyond that, Meehan has the disturbing habit of announcing his punches. He winds up as if to say, “I’m drawing my arm back now . . . Get ready . . . Here it comes.” That enabled Williamson to build a lead through five rounds. Then, two-minutes- fifty-nine-seconds into round six, both guys threw right hands at the same time and Meehan’s landed. Williamson collapsed in a heap, struggled to his feet at the count of nine-and-a-half, and staggered back to his corner on spaghetti legs. Inexplicably, referee Earl Brown didn’t stop the bout, but the ring doctor did. By the time Andrew Golota and Kevin McBride entered the ring, the crowd (which was generously announced as 7,102) had increased in size and was buzzing a bit. Both fighters have seen better days, but their downward curves are intersecting in a way that made for an entertaining brawl. McBride went after Golota at the opening bell and wobbled him several times. Andrew is not known for coming back from adversity. But Kevin was only in shape to fight one round, which is what happens when a fighter likes beer and reports to training camp at 320 pounds before working his way down to 288. Thereafter, the two men pounded away at each other with Golota getting the better of the action. McBride fought courageously. But by round six, he was badly cut around both eyes, was being pounded, and resembled a badly wounded mountain. At the 2:42 mark, referee Arthur Mercante Jr. stopped the action. The final heavyweight confrontation saw Peter defending his interim belt against McCline. Samuel was a heavy favorite. After all, Jameel had been afforded three previous title opportunities (against Wladimir Klitschko, Chris Byrd, and...

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