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WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk, 17-0, 14 KOs, defended his title for the first time in unusual fashion Saturday night at the 2300 Arena in South Philly. With a packed house cheering him on, the Ukrainian native stopped Kinshasa native and current resident of France, Doudou Ngumbu in round five, but it wasn’t a punch or a compilation of points that pushed him to victory. Things may have been going in that direction, but suddenly in round five, Ngumbu pulled back from an incoming punch and came away limping and complaining about pain in his leg.
Referee Eric Dali sent the champion to a neutral corner and paused the action. He guided Ngumbu back to his corner, where for several minutes a confused conversation went down. Apparently Ngumbu doesn’t speak a lick of English. So, communications between the ref, the doctor, the fighter, and his corner went in circles.
In an attempt to cut through the language barrier, Ngumbu’s translator was called up the ring steps. However, when he was asked to ask the fighter if he could continue, the translator, a proud countryman of the boxer, repeatedly answered in the affirmative – without conferring with Ngumbu! This went around and around for a brief spell, before the ringside doctor made the call that Doudou has torn his Achilles tendon and was unable to continue. So, Eric Dali waved an end to the championship fight, giving Gvozdyk his first title defense, 58 seconds into round five.
However, when the bell sounded, Robinson came out, boxed smartly, and kept the touted puncher at bay. Slowly but surely Robinson built a lead, way beyond the first couple of warming-up rounds. In the thick of the fight, when most felt the Lithuanian would get it together and score yet another knockout, Robinson was still boxing well, and avoiding danger.
Kavaliauskas got through a few times, and Ray wobbled here and there. But each time things became worrisome for the lanky welterweight, he just used his legs, his jab, and his experience to regain control of the action. It was a resourceful and mature performance, and, considering the stakes and the difficulty level, has to be one of the best showings to date for Robinson. Even when the fight entered the final rounds, Robinson had enough juice to close the show and nail down the victory. Or so it seemed. It turns out that Robinson controlled everything he could in the bout, except the most important factor – the judging.
When the first tally was read, 97-93 for Robinson (from Judge Rose Lacend), all seemed well. That was my score exactly. So, I assumed that Robinson would cruise on to the huge upset victory, no sweat. But the remaining two judges, David Braslow and Kevin Morgan, both saw the fight an even 95-95, making the result a disappointing majority draw. If you twisted my arm, I could see Robinson winning by a slim 96-94 margin, but that was giving Kavaliauskas every benefit of the doubt. Any way you slice it, Robinson should have been named the winner.
Despite the bad decision, it was still a tremendous performance by Robinson, and an early candidate for the ”Upset of the Year”. A clean points win would have done more for Ray career-wise, but this was the next best thing. Everyone that saw the fight, knows he was the better man. So, congrats to Robinson for such a terrific performance.
The 11-bout card was promoted by Top Rank. The two main fights were televised live by ESPN, and all but the first bout was streamed live by ESPN+. The live attendance was announced as 1,187. |
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