By John Gabriel Thompson: Despite pushing the ring walk to a new level of tackiness, Sharif “The Lion” Bogere (20-0, 12 KO’s) pulled out a narrow unanimous decision against Raymundo “Sugar” Beltran (24-5, 16 KO’s) even if the crowd in attendance at Buffalo Bill’s Star Arena in Primm, Nevada booed the decision. A woman in an African tribal outfit announced Bogere’s entrance while several bare-chested men carried him, inside of a cage, toward the ring with Bogere wearing an actual lion’s skin complete with the head. Theatrics aside, Bogere and Beltran put on a fantastic show on Showtime’s ShowBox: The New Generation. Frankly, you know it’s a great fight when the ringside commentators are sprayed in blood, which happened in the fifth round. Both fighters are trained by some of the sport’s best trainers in Freddie Roach for Beltran and Kenny Adams for Bogere.
The two warriors skipped the “feeling out” phase of the fight and traded shots in the first round. Bogere worked behind the jab in the second and moved well as Beltran pressed forward. By the third it was clear that Beltran was the stronger fighter and Bogere the quicker boxer. A headbutt opened a cut over Beltran’s left eye in this round; it was not the first headbutt or the last of the evening. Bogere tried his best to target the cut for the remainder of the round. More headbutts followed in the fourth resulting in a cut over the left eye of Bogere.
The fifth round was spectacular as both men traded toe to toe. Ringside commentator Steve Farhood yelled out, “Now Curt Menefee has blood above his eye!” as a punch sent blood into the front rows. Ringside commentator Menefee responded, “Hey, I give for the cause… It’s splattering right now.” Rounds six and seven were very close.
Beltran seemed more confident by round eight, though another headbutt halted the action. Then Beltran landed a hard uppercut to Bogere’s chin, which buckled Bogere’s legs. Bogere tried to hang on, grabbing Beltran’s waist, but he slipped down grabbing Beltran’s legs, actually taking him down too. Bogere’s going down was clearly caused by the uppercut, and even though Referee Robert Byrd started a count, he wound up waving off his own count and ruling the fall a slip. Considering how close the fight turned out, this was a horrible decision for Beltran. Beltran finished the round strong, though he himself slipped at one point.
Bogere turned the tide in his favor in the ninth by boxing and moving. There were at least two more huge headbutts during the round. In the tenth and final round, both men came out swinging. Beltran tried to press the action, but Bogere out boxed him in that round. Beltran tried to swing for the fences in the last ten seconds, but Bogere held on and then let out his own flurry at the bell.
Had Beltran fought a little harder in the tenth, or if Referee Byrd had correctly ruled the knockdown to have come from a punch, Beltran would have come away with the victory the crowd felt he deserved. Two judges scored the bout 96-94 and the other 97-93 (I had it 96-95 with one round even) all for the winner Sharif Bogere.
In the televised undercard, the former Michigan State University linebacker Seth “Mayhem” Mitchell (22-0-1, 16 KO’s) scored a first round knockout over Evans “The Sandman” Quinn (20-6-1, 18 KO’s). The action was very good while it lasted as both men let their hands go. With about forty seconds left in the first round Mitchell started landing some devastating shots while Quinn’s back was to the ropes. Quinn tried to hold but Mitchell landed to his body and then threw an overhand right which unintentionally landed to the back of Quinn’s head. Quinn went down on all fours and made no attempt to beat the count of Referee Joe Cortez. At the count of nine, he actually shook his head “no.” Quinn got up a moment after the count was over. Steve Farhood aptly said, “It’s not me getting hit with the punches… But… Clearly it looked like he could have gotten up, but he chose not to.”