McBride Goes Down Fighting

Irish Voice Sport

McBride Goes Down Fighting

October 10, 2007

By Declan O’Kelly

KEVIN McBride lost to Andrew Golota by technical knock out in the sixth round of their scheduled 12 round heavyweight fight at Madison Square Garden Saturday night after receiving several unanswered punches and suffering a bad cut that caused the referee to stop the bout. It will come as a bitter disappointment to the Clones, Co. Monaghan native who had Golota in clear discomfort in the first round.

Clad in green shorts against the white-trunked Golota, McBride came out strong at the first bell, rushing into the middle of the ring to take charge of affairs. And take charge he did, landing a left hook just after a minute that had the Pole shaky on his pins.

After a few clinches, McBride leaned on Golota and unloaded a few punishing right hands. One shot caused Golota’s gum shield to fly out of his mouth with a minute left in the first stanza.

The break Golota received while waiting for the guard to be cleaned and put back in might have saved him. Two big rights at the end of the round had Golota all over the place, and it looked like McBride might end it early, landing a straight left that Golota did well to absorb before the bell ended what was a great start for the Irishman.

All judges gave McBride round one, with Dan Trella scoring it 10-8, despite the fact there was no knockdown.

Though McBride was out of his chair like a hare for the second, it was Golota, clearly aware he was now in a fight, who came out and started to box. The next couple of rounds saw both men trade in the middle, with Golota getting the better on the judges’ scoring cards.

At the end of the fifth, Golota hit McBride well after the bell, but by this stage the 39-year old was ahead on all cards by four rounds to one.

The sixth started with both men slugging in the center of the squared circle. McBride connected with a series of rights and it looked like he was getting back into it.

Toward the end of the round Golota, in a southpaw stance, caught McBride with a straight left that shook the Clones man. He followed up with five or six unanswered shots.

Arthur Mercantle Junior stood in and stopped the contest, determining that McBride, who had blood pouring down his left cheek from a bad cut, had taken enough shots to warrant the end of the fight with 2:42 gone on the clock.

Afterwards, the 288 pound McBride was disappointed with the intervention of Mercantle. “I don’t think the referee should have stopped it, but I was having problems seeing out of my eye. He didn’t really hurt me until the end,” he said.

Golota, who with a sly smile claimed not to have been hurt at any time in the fight, was happy to be in the winner’s corner.

“Kevin surprised me. He was faster than I thought he would be, and he didn’t get tired. I proved tonight that I can still fight with anyone,” he said.

As to why he ended proceedings early Mercantle said, “Kevin was winded. He took a lot of shots. He can fight on another day.” With this loss McBride’s record is now 34-6-1.

In other news, the ankle injury sustained by Pablo Navascues was worse than feared as the Spaniard has pulled out of his fight against John Duddy on October 20 at the National Stadium in Dublin.

Stepping into the breach will be Noe Tulio Gonzalez Alcoba from Uruguay. The 28-year-old’s sole defeat – his record is 14-1 (7 KOs) – was in his last outing, a challenge for Felix Sturm’s WBA middleweight crown on June 20.

Alcoba lost that fight to the German by unanimous decision. The score in that one was 120:108, 118:110 and 116:112, but Alcoba was said to be aggressive and never stopped going forward.

The confident Gon-zalez believes the fight against Sturm (which was his first outside South America) will give him enough experience to take care of Duddy. “I learned a lot from my fight with Sturm and that defeat will make me a better fighter. I know that Duddy will be a very hard fight, but my dream is to become world champion, for me and Uruguay.”

Brian Peters, who is promoting the show, sees Alcoba as a potential banana skin.

“This is a dangerous fight for John. He’s highly ranked with all the major sanctioning bodies and a very marketable challenger for any of the champions, including Pavlik,” said the man with the Midas touch in Irish boxing.

“All of that will go out the window, though, if he can’t get past Gonzalez, and he is a tough, hard man. He’s just coming off the back of that points defeat for the WBA title, and he made Sturm work very hard to retain his title. There’s no doubt it’s a risky assignment given the kind of options on the table for John now.”

Irish Ropes supremo Eddie McLoughlin also sees the fight as a difficult proposition for Duddy.

“It’ll be a tough fight, along the lines of Yory Boy Campas. It’ll definitely go late into the fight, hopefully a late KO or a points decision for John. This guy is coming off a very creditable performance against Sturm. The confidence will be up in him, and it will be a tough test,” McLoughlin said.

Finally, Andy Lee put in another quick shift last week in Chicago when he knocked James Morrow out after 2:43 in round one.

The Limerick middleweight had Morrow down once early with a body blow and finished things off with a headshot for his 12th professional win.

Lee is scheduled to fight again on October 18 in Plymouth, Michigan.

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