By Dan Ambrose: Light middleweight contender Cornelius Bundrage (28-4, 16 KOs) was defeated in a 10-round bout by a split decision by Grady Brewer (24-11, 13 KOs) at the Dunkin Donuts Center, in Providence, Rhode Island. The final judges’ scores were 93-92, 90-95 and 94-91.
The fight, however, was marred by point deductions made against both fighters for hitting on the break (Bundrage) and holding (Brewer). Bundrage, 35, was knocked down in the 3rd round after getting hit by a right hand from Brewer.
However, it looked as if it was a bogus knockdown because Bundrage’s feet seemed to get entangled with Brewer’s, causing him to trip and fall after getting hit by him. The bout had little in the way of real action following the first round, and much of the time they rarely threw more than a handful of punches, instead clinching often and throwing occasional punches.
Bundrage, ranked #13 in the International Boxing Federation, fought reasonably well in rounds one and two, doing just enough to win the rounds due to his constant jabbing. However, he seemed tight, and overly muscled, which seemed to take away the speed and fluidity from his body. In looking at him, he appears to need to strip off 20-30 pounds of useless muscle and focus on building a physique more attuned to boxing rather than bodybuilding.
The second round had a lot of clinches, wrestling and missed punches from both fighters. Bundrage, however, got the best of it – barely. In the third round, Brewer knocked Bundrage down with a short right hand, but it seemed it appeared that Bundrages’ feet got tangled in Brewer’s, which looked to be the real reason he fell down.
In the 5th round, Brewer was deducted a point for holding. However, he fought well enough to win the round, making it even due to the point deduction in the round. Bundrage seemed to be waiting too much to get his punches off, poising with his left hand way out in front of him but not throwing anything. In the 6th round, Bundrage was deducted a point for holding and hitting.
Again, like in the previous round, it appeared to be an even round because Bundrage looked to have out-worked Brewer in the round. Bundrage was looking good in the 7th round until in the last 10 seconds of the round, Brewer hit him with a flurry of shots, almost all of them head shots that connected cleanly.
Bundrage came back in the 8th and 9th rounds, doing just enough to win both rounds. However, the action was slow with few real punches being thrown and the crowd hated it, booing constantly. In the 10th round, Bundrage was docked a point for hitting on the break, which pretty much gave Brewer the fight.
The action was slow again, and the crowd booed often. Brewer, however, landed just enough punches, mostly right hands, to win the round but it was ugly and not impressive stuff.