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Thursday's Showbox card from the Kewadin Casino in Sault St. Marie, Michigan lived up to the reputation of pitting young prospects of equal talent against each other to see who deserved to move on. The only problem was that both contests had fighters who were maybe a little too equally matched, resulting in a pair of well deserved draws.
The first match showcased two young super middleweights with nearly identical records. Yusef Mack (15-0-1, 9 KO's) put his undefeated record on the line against Louisville's Randy Griffin (17-1-0, 10 KO's). Both fighters were looking to this as their breakout fight after facing limited competition for most of their respective careers. The contest was a give and take effort with each winging hard shots and fighting in tight as Griffin came forward with body shots and left hooks while Mack shot straight rights. While both were eager to fight, neither could manage to dominate for more than two minutes before the other would take control with a flurry of hard combinations. They continued into the mid and late rounds with very little clinching and with each fighter throwing haymakers trying to end the fight on one punch and while each was hit with heavy shots, neither was rocked or in any serious trouble. The fight went the total eight rounds with judges scoring it 77-75 Griffin, 77-75 Mack and 76-76 even.
The main event featured two cruiserweights in a twelve round tilt for a vacant minor title. Power punching Darnell Wilson (16-1-1, 14 KO's) squared off against Uganda's James Lubwama (16-1-1, 9 KO's) an equally powerful southpaw puncher for the IBA Americas Cruiserweight title. Lubwama boxed well controlling the distance with a stiff jab, but was denied a victory by taking too many hard shots by Wilson.
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Wilson hurt his opponent on several occasions, but the combination of his lack of accuracy and Lubwama's strong chin prevented any knockdowns from occurring. Wilson had attempted to time Lubwama coming in, but was thwarted by James' constant moving and awkward southpaw style and quickly changed to a stalking one punch fighter. He was effective at slowing his challenger down in the later rounds with constant pressure and offsetting Lubwama's rhythm, once he managed to find his range and landing counter punches. After twelve rounds the fight went to the scorecards and was scored 116-112 Wilson, 115-113 Lubwama, and 114-114 even.
Both matches were entertaining and well fought, but uneventful enough to be forgettable. Showtime does have a fight coming up on the 5th of June that should be an action packed, when 154 lb stars Kasim Ouma and Verno Phillips meet up for the vacant IBF Junior Middleweight title in a rematch that saw Ouma win on points. The under card will feature super middleweight sensation Jeff Lacy.
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© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2004
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By Wayne Richardson (May 22, 2004) 
