Tahdooahnippah Fights To Draw With Cook

Undefeated middleweight George Tahdooahnippah (9-0-1, 8 KOs) fought to a majority draw with James Brian Cook (10-3-1, 7 KOs) on Friday night at the Million Dollar Elm Casino, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tahdooahnippah, 29, a fighter whom has built up an impressive knockout record on exclusively soft opposition, finally ran into a fighter that he couldn’t knock out in Cook, though he tried hard for the KO. Tahdooahnippah came out blazing in the first two rounds of the scheduled four round bout, backing Cook up and tagging with a rain of punches.

However, despite having an excellent knockout record, it was painfully obvious that Tahdooahnippah had little power, relying mostly on stopping his opponents with volume punching. Against Cook, though, Tahdooahnippah’s punches had little effect, as he fired back with his shots, which were harder overall but less frequent. Tahdooahnippah easily won the first two rounds due to his superior workrate. However, in the 3rd round, he looked exhausted, as if he’d run a marathon. His punches, which were weak before, were now thrown with next to nothing on them.

Cook turned the fight around in rounds three and four, backing Tahdooahnippah up with combinations and outworking him for the first time in the bout. In the fourth round, Tahdooahnippah went all out trying to extend his seven fight knockout streak, but he was just too tired, his punches with nothing on them. Cook easily won the round, even stunning Tahdooahnippah with a right hand before the round was finished. The final judges scores were 39-37, for Tahdooahnippah, 38-38 and 38-38, making the fight a majority draw.