By Jason Kim: Light heavyweight journeyman Rayco Saunders (16-10-2, 7 KOs) defeated 22- year-old prospect Tommy Karpency (11-1, 7 KOs) by an eight-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Pullman Park, in Butler, Pennsylvania. The final judges’ scores were 76-75, 76-75 and 76-75. The action was mostly dull throughout, with the young Karpency running, stopping and throwing a couple of shots, then running more.
Saunders took the fight to Karpency hard in the first round, and staggered him early with a right hand. For the next two minutes Saunders pummeled Karpency around the ring making him look more like an amateur than a prospect. However, Saunders let off the gas and allowed Karpency to survive in the last minute of the round.
In the second round, Saunders again staggered Karpency with a big right hand early on, then landing high number of powerful right hands in the round. Karpency began running, trying to stay away from Saunders and use his better boxing skills. Saunders, however, continued to walk him down and nail him with right hand shots whenever chance he could get.
In the third round, twice Karpency landed low blows, knocking Saunders to his knees in pain each time. There were no penalizations for Karpency, though I feel that there should have been because the second low occurred shortly after the first one, and it had a debilitating effect on Saunders for the rest of the round.
Saunders looked good in the 4th, continuing to stalk Karpency and nail him with right hands. Karpency continued running, and trying to avoid Saunders at all costs. At this point, I had Karpency losing all of the first rounds of the fight and needing to work hard to get back into the fight.
In rounds five and six, Karpency fought well, standing and trading shots with Saunders and out-landing him by a considerable margin during this time. It helped that Karpency wasn’t running as much during these rounds, giving him the chance to show his good boxing ability.
Unfortunately, Karpency started running again in the 7th round, only stopping occasionally to throw a few shots, and then start running again. Saunders looked frustrated, having to chase him around the ring continuously, and get hit with weak shots. Saunders easily won the round with his more powerful shots. However, he was out-landed in the round, but the shots that Karpency landed were weak, with nothing on them.
In the 8th round, both fighters traded shots, and it was difficult to tell which one won the round. Saunders, of course, landed the harder shots, but Karpency out-landed him by a considerable margin in the round. He also stopped running as much as he had done in the previous rounds.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:18 am
You and I saw a very different fight. Karpency never landed a low blow, he hit saunders beltline, and Saunders did an incredible oscar worthy act just to get some hair after karpency hit him with a hard body shot. the fight was taken away from karpency bottom line. but this is a minor road block, because you’ll be hearing of Karpency in years to come because he is only 22 years old. Maybe you should watch that fight again, even Atlas said those were not low blows and teddy had him winning 6 rounds to 2.
July 10th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Well JOHN, Tommy did punch me in the nuts, TWICE! My new cup was too small and he punched me under the cup. My trunks were below my belly button, and he hit me under the belt line. You do the math. I’ve felt way more trauma in my life than a hard body shot. Nothing can hit me harder than the bullet I took to the left side of my chest, which touched my heart, broke two of my ribs and bust my lung!!! And no I didn’t cry nor panic! I picked myself up off the ground and got to the hospital…without an ambulance! So before you give YOUR BOY credit for hittng me hard to the body, please know the facts! His daddy told him to do it. Great strategy! My old trainer use to teach us to do it when we were in trouble…like YOUR BOY! I fakes it for no one! I hurt YOUR BOY twice in the 1st round, and for your information, he never hit me with a hard body shot. Teddy Atlas is a what we call a HATER! I’ll keep my thoughts about him to myself. Back to you though. YOUR BOY is not ready. If he would have stood like a man and fought, I would have knocked his azz out! Tell Pat Nelson to do the rematch! This time I’ll have 5-6 weeks to prepare for a south paw, instead of 2 weeks. I promise to knock his azz out! There is nothing harder one can do to me in the ring that has not been done to me outside the ring. MAKE THE REMATCH! And remember this ” I got the name WAR from the streets!” You have a nice day!