Sunday, May 10, 2009

By Isaac Kuhlman

  While Chad Dawson and Antonio Tarver stole the show with their rematch on Saturday night, a few of the undercards were very entertaining fights to watch as well. For example, the fights between Chris Koval and Bowie Topou, David Whittom and Ismayl "Sensational" Sillakh, and Said El Harrack also looked pretty good (in a fight against a much lesser opponent though).

  Said El Harrack, who now lives in Henderson, went up against a severely outmatched Hugo Correa. Correa came into the ring looking like he hadn't seen a gym in a while. Not to put the man down as he had some heart stepping in the ring with a fighter of Harrack's skills, but the heart should've come in the form of work habit before the fight to help him prepare.

  Harrack took it to Correa quickly. Harrack was much faster than Correa and hit him at will. Harrack landed a body punch that put Correa down, and Correa slowly got up. After looking at the fighter, referee Joe Cortez stopped the fight. Harrack won by a technical knock out at 1:55 in the first round.

  David Whittom and Ismayl Sillakh may have been the best undercard fight, because it showed some length, a more suitable fit in abilities, and a little bit of toughness. Ismayl Sillakh did handily win almost every round, and David Whittom seemed to allow Sillakh to take the first 4 rounds without much of a protest. However, in the 5th round, Whittom seemed to wake up and start to throw.

  Maybe it was in Whittom's strategy to let Sillakh get tired from throwing, but, after the swelling around Whittom's right eye emerged in the 3rd round, Whittom posed less of a threat. His hands got busy in the 5th round though, and Sillakh took a couple of clean shots, but Whittom mostly swung without accuracy and Sillakh moved around and blocked most of the shots.

  By the 6th round, Whittom looked to be defeated by his body language. Sillakh must have seen this, because, as Whittom stood flat-footed, Sillakh threw three big left hooks to Whittom's ear winding up in each punch. Whittom went to a knew, and it was over. "Sensational" Sillakh won at 2:25 of round 6.

  Personally, I think the best fight of the night was actually the Bowie Tapou vs. Chris Koval fight. Koval has been around a while and been in short fights with good fighters such as Shannon Briggs and Tye Fields. Of course, in every fight where he gets a shot to redeem his skills, he becomes the proverbial "tomato can." This fight was no different.

  Tapou came in looking like a Tongan Grizzly bear. Koval came in looking like Homer Simpson. It was made a good fight by the antics of Koval and the deadly accuracy of Tapou though. Topou started by working the body. Koval felt the punishment and toward the end of the first round, he took a knee in the corner to stop the pounding.

  In the second round Tapou looked to end the fight immediately. Koval sat on the ropes and took a multitude of big shots. Koval just kept trying to clinch to delay the beating. At the end of the round, Koval hit his own face about 4 times as the bell rang to taunt Tapou. Not exactly a wise move from a fighter who was already getting absolutely dominated.

  Round 3 was the demise of Koval. It took all of three punches to land the KO punch on Koval. Tapou hit Koval with a right cross that immediately put Koval out. As he fell to the canvas, Koval looked to attempt a punch, but fell (much like a tree in the forest) flat on his face. It seemed like slow motion. Tapou probably could have gotten two or three more shots in to seal the deal, but he just stepped back and watched. The KO was definitely a highlight knock out in Tapou's career. He moved to 17-0 with 13 KO's.

  For the complete event results click here.