By Chris Williams: A fight that has caused little commotion, though it should, is the WBC title eliminator bout between Jackson Osei (30-2, 23 KOs) and former WBC welterweight champion Carlos Manuel Baldomir (44-12-6, 13 KOs), which saw Bonsu winning the fight by a 12-round majority decision on Saturday, December 20th at Lotto Arena, Antwerpen, in Antwerpen, Belgium. The final judges’ scores were 114-113, 114-112 and 113-113. However, I had Bonsu, the hometown fighter, winning only three of the rounds and losing the remainder.
Bonsu was penalized twice for head butts, once in the 3rd and another time in the 7th round. The head butt in the 3rd, resulted in Baldomir being cut on the side of his left eye which got worse as the fight wore on into the later rounds. Aside from that, Bonsu missed an awful lot of punches during the fight, missing Baldomir even when he was standing directly in front of him at close range. Bonsu looked poor in the first half of the fight, and was hit often by the 37 year-old Baldomir.
In the last two rounds, Bonsu rallied somewhat, staggered Baldomir with a hard combination and then outworking him in the 12th and final rounds. Yet, Bonsu appeared to be so far behind in the fight by then, he needed a knockout to win the fight on my scorecards, and he didn’t come close to knocking Baldomir out.
Even in the 11th, after he hurt Baldomir with a left-right combination, it was Baldomir who was fighting hard, throwing shot after shot and finishing the round landing almost at will. Unfortunately, Bonsu, originally from Ghana, was fighting in front of a sympathetic audience in his adopted country of Belgium, and he seemed to get the benefit of home town decision in the end of the fight.
You got to feel sorry for Baldomir, ranked #4 in the WBC, because if this fight had taken place in any other place but Belgium, he probably would have won the fight against the #13th ranked Bonsu. Believe me, the decision was a really bad one, on par with the Evander Holyfield vs. Nikolay Valuev bout that occurred on the same day in Switzerland. It’s the same old news that happens all the time, unfortunately.
In the 1st round, Baldomir got the better of the action, jabbing and nailing Bonsu with right hands. Bonsu did little in the round, limited mostly to plodding forward with both hands up and trying to block the punches of the more skilled Baldomir.
In the 2nd and 3rd rounds, Bonsu missed often with wild shots in which he loaded up on and missed by a mile. He probably would have had much better success at landing if he had lightened up on his shots, because Baldomir was there to be hit if he had been smart about it.
In the 3rd, Bonsu came running forward and clashed heads with Baldomir, causing a cut over Carlos’s left eye. The action was stopped and Bonsu was docked a point by referee Daniel Van de Wiele for the head clash. The remainder of the round belonged to Baldomir, who landed frequently with power shots, hitting Bonsu with uppercuts and right hands.
In rounds four and five, Baldomir continued controlling the action, landing the more precise punches and picking off the slow-moving Bonsu as he would trudge forward. Bonsu had his moments in the rounds, and landed a few big shots, but he mostly missed and looked poor.
In the 6th, Bonsu landed a few big right hands and appeared to edge the round based on his harder shots. Baldomir continued to land the more numerous shots, but he wasn’t able to outdo the big power shots from Bonsu.
Once again, the two fighters clashed heads, which occurred after Bonsu rushed forward and banged into Baldomir. Early in the 7th, Bonsu was deducted a point for clashing heads with Baldomir. Taking advantage of this, Baldomir fought hard, landing often and appeared to easily win the round, making it another 10-8 round.
In rounds eight through ten, Baldomir continued to outwork Bonsu, hitting him cleanly with the more accurate shots and showing some good boxing skills along the way. By the 8th, Baldomir was beginning to develop swelling under his left eye, possibly due to the multiple head butts that had occurred during the fight.
He wasn’t getting hit a lot, but when Bonsu would land, it was often with really big shots. Baldomir dominated the 8th round with right hands, letting up a little in the last 30 seconds, which allowed Bonsu to land a few big shots. However, it wasn’t nearly enough to win the round.
There was another head butt at the start of the 9th round, but no additional point deductions occurred this time. Baldomir continued landing the more accurate punches and picking off the wild throwing Bonsu as he would come forward.
At the start of the 11th, there was yet another head butt between the two fighters. Shortly after that, Bonsu staggered Baldomir with a right-left combination to the head. Bonsu then landed a couple of other big shots that further had Baldomir on weak legs. However, instead of backing off and trying to clinch, Baldomir fought back hard, throwing punch after punch and getting the better of Bonsu in the final minute of the round.
Though clearly Bonsu won the round, but it was impressive the way that Baldomir gamely fought back while hurt, blood covering his face, and fighting through his one bad moment in the fight. The 12th round was close, with Baldomir doing the better work in the first minute of the round, but then taking some big shots in the final two minutes. He landed well during this time with his own big shots, but Bonsu appeared to nick the round by a close margin.
All in all, I wasn’t impressed with Bonsu in the least. As far as I’m concerned, he didn’t deserve to get this win, and should feel fortunate that he was given the decision. I frankly don’t like his chances against WBC title holder Andre Berto, and I see Bonsu being taken out rather quickly by him when they do eventually meet up. As for Baldomir, he looked great, the best I’ve seen of him since his victory over Zab Judah in 2006.
He looked to be in great condition, showing no signs of having taken the weight off quickly for this fight. I think he’s still has a lot of fight left in him, and is good enough to challenge for one of the other welterweight titles. It’s too bad he was given such a bad deal in this fight because deserved to win.
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