In a tournament between pretty much 2nd tier heavyweights, Britain’s Michael Sprott (40-21, 17 KO’s) was able to bat an injured American journeyman Jason Gavern (24-17-3, 11 KO’s) by a 3 round unanimous decision to win the Prizefighter tourney tonight at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, in London, United Kingdom.
The fact that Sprott won the fight is not in doubt, but the terrible scores by two of the judges makes you shake your head in sadness for the sport. The judges scored it 29-28, 30-27 and 30-27. There was no way that Sprott won all three rounds of the fight unless you ignored completely how Gavern was lighting him up in the 2nd round and had Sprott hurt.
Sprott may have won the fight, but it was hardly as lopsided as the two judges that scored the fight 30-27. That was some terrible scoring, and it kind of cheapened his win. In the 3rd round, Gavern hurt his right elbow in the opening seconds of the round, and from that point on he was in a defensive shell throwing next to no punches.
With this win, Sprott wins £32,000 as the Prizefighter champion. This is the second time that Sprott has won the Prizefighter tourney in 2010 after beating a handful of 2nd tier fighters. However, Sprott was unable to do anything to take advantage of the tournament victory, as he was then beaten by Tye Fields, Alexander Dimitrenko, Kubrat Pulev, Robert Helenius, and Erkan Teper from 2011-2013.
—
2012 Olympic super heavyweight Anthony Joshua (3-0, 3 KO’s) defeated a badly over-matched Hrvoje Kisicek (5-7, 1 KO’s) by a 2nd round stoppage before the finals. Joshua put Kisicek down on the canvas with a 1-2 combination in the 2nd. Rather than taking his time the shortish Kisicek, Joshua quickly moved forward and unloaded a blizzard of punches against Kisicek on the ropes until the referee stepped in to halt the fight.
It’s still difficult to imagine Joshua going far in the heavyweight division because he failed to show any real explosive power or speed. He looked slow, and just didn’t show the kind of power or speed that you normally see from an Olympic gold medalist. Larry Holmes was trying to give Joshua pointers after the fight on how to throw a jab. He think Joshua needs a lot of help in throwing the jab and throwing punches with speed and power. He might need to trim down on the upper body muscle because he’s carrying around so much muscle that it seems to slow him down.
Prizefighter results:
Final: Michael Sprott w 3 Jason Gavern
Jason Gavern W 3 James Toney
Michael Sprott W 3 Brian Minto
Jason Gavern W 3 Larry Olubamiwo
James Toney TKO 3 Matt Legg
Michael Sprott W 3 Damian Wills
Brian Minto W 3 Tom Little
Plus: Anthony Joshua TKO 2 Hrvoje Kisicek
