Quick Wins For Rances Barthelemy & Caleb Truax On ESPN
Caleb Truax photo by Craig Bennett for Showtime
by Gautham Nagesh
Right hands were the theme of the latest edition ESPN’s Friday Night Fights, which saw Cuban junior lightweight Rances Barthelemy and local middleweight Caleb Truax (above) score a pair of impressive wins inside the distance from the Twin Cities.[[MORE]]
Barthelemy needed less than two rounds to put an end to the smaller Fahsi Sakkreerin of Thailand with a ruinous right uppercut to the Solar plexus. The former Cuban national team member was too long and precise with his punches, keeping Sakkreerin on the end of his jab for most of the first round. Sakkreerin gamely tried to bob and weave his way inside, where he managed to land a few slapping left hooks. But the former Muay Thai fighter never appeared to trouble his classy foe.
Barthelemy simply stayed calm and picked his opponent off from the outside, tying up whenever things got too heated in close. The second round saw the Cuban land some rights from distance, including several right uppercuts to the body. The final blow came as Sakkreerin launched a wide right hand, and Barthelemy’s shot found his midsection first. After a momentary, tell-tale pause, Sakkreerin collapsed to the mat in agony, where he was counted out.
Things took longer for Truax, but looked just as easy against Chicago super middleweight Don “Da Bomb” George. George moved down from 168 after losing twice in step up fights against Adonis Stevenson and Edwin Rodriguez, but was wide open for right hands from Truax all night. The Minnesota native has lost only once, to former undisputed middleweight champ Jermain Taylor on ShoBox last April. Truax looked out of his depth that night, but still floored Taylor and had him in serious trouble late in the fight.
There was no such trouble on this night against George, who seemed incapable of avoiding his opponent’s right hand. Truax repeatedly pelted George with his cocked right, which Truax made no attempt to disguise. Truax trapped George against the ropes in the first round and had the Chicago native in trouble, bullying him with the right to the head and left to the body. George was forced to hold just to make it to the bell.
That first round set the tone of the fight, as George kept eating right hands without moving his head or blocking effectively. The Chicagoan attempted at times to protect the left side of his chin with his right glove, which only forced Truax to punch around the misplaced guard. Truax had George hurt badly in both the first and third rounds, before mercifully ending the carnage in the sixth.
The stoppage came courtesy of a final series of right hands, punctuated by blow from up close that landed with full impact. George went down in a heap, and remained there as the ref tolled the count. He eventually rose, apparently OK, but clearly crushed by the one-sided loss. Any fighter that takes the kind of punishment George sustained in this fight must seriously consider whether they still belong in the ring.
Truax has little to offer besides the basic one-two-left hook combinations, but those punches still tagged George with alarming regularity. George will no doubt blame his weight, close to the lowest of his career, but perhaps he has simply peaked. Truax is essentially a regional fighter, and Minnesota is hardly a hotbed of boxing. If George can’t best Midwestern foes, one wonders what the point of fighting on would be.
The swing bout saw local junior middleweight Kenn Glenn score his third professional win in as many fights by taking a four-round unanimous decision over Gavin Quinn. The southpaw Glenn controlled the action throughout, and tagged Quinn’s face with his straight left hand from the opening bell. All three judges scored the fight 40-36 for Glenn.
A former MMA fighter and Army veteran, Glenn took up boxing late but seems like a tough customer, albeit limited technically. He looks like a club fighter, but one capable of handling himself inside the ropes. Quinn’s only pro fight was almost three years ago; his decision to return to the ring looks ill-advised, based on this result.