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.
Karpency appeared to land the higher of number of shots in the fight, but due to his constant movement and the fact that he was getting little on his shots, Saunders got the nod because of his cleaner shots. Saunder dominated the first half of the fight with his harder punches and aggressive style.
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.
Comments are closed.