DORIN LIFTS WBA TITLE FROM BALBI
WARD-LEIJA GOES TO CARDS AFTER FIVE

Now that's a cut!!!Only five days into 2002, and we have a serious candidate for Fight of the Year. No, it isn't Leija-Ward. That bout could have been a contender had it not been stopped just as it was starting to get good. The already-nominated slugfest was the lightweight battle between Leonard Dorin and now-former WBA titlist Raul Balbi. For 12 vicious rounds, these two men put on a breathtaking display of athleticism, courage, determination, and violence. Not even a questionable decision could spoil this one.

Only the most serious boxing fans had heard the name Raul Balbi before this fight. Despite a 53-fight career and a legitimate world title, Balbi's name has been absent from the discussion surrounding the busy 135 lb. division. His opponent, Romanian amateur star-turned undefeated pro Leonard Dorin, was even more anonymous. But no one who saw them wage war for 36 minutes will forget them.

Despite a solid advantage in both reach and height, Balbi welcomed Dorin's first round charge with a fist-first style. Within seconds of the opening bell, both men were in close quarters, throwing short, crisp punches at the other. Dorin was the aggressor, bulling in with his broad shoulders and then turning his whole torso with each lead right hand. Balbi showed a little more variety, mixing in hooks and uppercuts with his chopping right hands. Dorin was the first to go to the body, but he didn't get the best of it. Once the downstairs punches began, Balbi expertly found that soft spot just under Dorin's ribs time and again. As the two exchanged blow for blow, it was Dorin that was moving forward, giving him the edge in an otherwise close round.

As good as the first round was, the second was even better. Balbi-Dorin may yet be defeated for Fight of the Year, but round two is going to be a favorite for Round of the Year 360 days from now. As in the opener, both fighters wasted no time in throwing punches and landing. Balbi found that his left hook was able to snap Dorin's head more often than his other punches. Dorin's big right continued to land, and was often followed up by a flush left hook. Balbi never failed to land to the body in these lightening exchanges. His lefts loudly tagged Dorin's side before the two came together, and his left and right ripped uppercuts into Dorin's chest as he bent over before falling into a clinch.

Nearing the midway point of this all-out brawl, a Balbi body shot momentarily stopped Dorin in his tracks. Balbi now turned the punch skyward, and tore into Dorin with a series of left uppercuts, each more spine-shattering than the previous. One of these uppercuts opened a small cut over Dorin's right eye. As the fight wore on, the cut would grow from a nick to a large gash, the largest of the many cuts Dorin would sustain in this bout.

Despite the fact that Balbi never stopped punching, Dorin regained his composure at some point. Dorin's technique may not be pure boxing, but it's incredibly effective. Using his brute strength and unwavering determination, Dorin waded through the storm of punches until he was close enough to land his own. Once there, he squared up and shifted his weight into every punch. By the closing seconds of round two, Dorin had snapped through enough clean punches to turn the tide. Both men were pounding each other upstairs and down when the bell finally rang, sending a capacity San Antonio crowd to it's feet.

Dorin's late-round rally hadn't been enough to take the 10-9 from Balbi, but it was enough to set the stage for a long night. Round three was slower than round two, but only a little. Significant in this round were the adjustments that Balbi began to make in the ring. While Dorin continued to bull forward and throw bombs, Balbi started putting together a plan to slow him down. Part one of the plan was body shots. Although Balbi had been steadily working the body from the opener (as had a diligent Dorin), his attack in round three increasingly focused on Dorin's sides. Balbi left hooks tore into Dorin's side at every interval. When the two were trading furiously, Balbi mixed in a hook to the side every third punch. When the action momentarily subsided in a semi-clinch, Balbi struck Dorin's ribs in three and four punch sets. Despite this attention to the body, Dorin wasn't ready to slow down yet. He kept the stanza close by landing a series of clean left hooks to close the round.

Balbi also discovered in round three that during bursts of punches to the head, Dorin would effectively cover-up to deflect the incoming and stop punching. As the fourth began, Balbi rushed at Dorin and ripped into him with a three punch combo. Then a four punch combination. Two more three punch flurries opened up Dorin's cut and began swelling his eyes. But no sooner had the final punch landed and Balbi paused to take a breath, Dorin threw and landed a massive left hook. The punch sailed past Balbi's guard and snapped his head back violently. Balbi's knees snapped straight when the blow landed, but he was not otherwise hurt.

Balbi continued to pepper Dorin, who in turn continued to draw gasps with the one or two big punches he would land at the end of a Balbi combination. Balbi returned to the body after a few big Dorin blows, and then once again ripped upwards with the left uppercut. One such uppercut hurt Dorin, and a second sent him back into a corner... the first and only time in the bout that Dorin actively retreated. Balbi gave chase, and tore into Dorin's body with four quick body shots, two to each side. A Balbi straight right bounced Dorin off the ropes, and for a moment the fight looked to be coming to a close. Dorin's original cut was now spilling blood, and another cut on his other eyelid was causing a gross swelling above the less-bloody of the two eyes. Balbi's attack subsided briefly, and after a clinch, referee Rafael Ramos called a doctor up to inspect Dorin's cuts.

Dorin's eyes were in bad shape, but he was allowed to continue. He came out and won the fifth round. Four rounds of non-stop highlight footage had slowed the pace. Over and over, the two fighters threw simultaneous punches, one of the two would land, and then a clinch/tangle/leaning would force the ref in to call for a break. Balbi continued to bank points early in the round by making the most of these short offensive opportunities. But his quicker combos gave way to a few monster Dorin right hands. While Balbi landed more, Dorin's bigger shots were the more telling blows, as the fight had slipped into a pace that favored his bomb-and-clinch style.

Balbi corrected this trend in the sixth, by flurrying more and slipping Dorin's shots. By now, Dorin's two major cuts had been opened by further uppercuts, and a family of smaller nicks dotted the swelling round both his eyes. He couldn't have been able to see much, although Balbi was rarely anywhere but in front of him. His face a mess, Dorin could do little more than summon his courage and throw in the direction of the incoming. He didn't land many of these attempt in the sixth, but in the seventh he again was able to land enough to steal the round from Balbi.

Balbi, who was completely unmarked at this point, was fighting with complete confidence. He knew he had banked a decent lead in the early rounds, and even though Dorin was occasionally making the rounds close with his more eye-catching bombs, he seemed in control. If Balbi had any problems, it was in believing that Dorin was able to withstand the punishment his face was taking. Convinced that Dorin's face could be no more damaged, Balbi returned to the body in round eight. The attack was brutal. Balbi routinely hit Dorin in the left side with flush hooks that reverberated through the arena. A clear Balbi round.

Despite all the ribcage shots, Dorin kept coming. In the ninth, he finally got was he was looking for: a punch that hurt the champion. It was a lead right thrown exactly as all the others had: with Dorin's full effort launched into the punch. It crunched Balbi's face and rendered him motionless until the follow-up hook could also find its target. Now it was Balbi's chance to stop punching. Another Dorin power shot stood Balbi up in place, and when he tried to step back, his legs wobbled under him, making his retreat look worse than it was. To prove that he was all right, Balbi grinned and waved Dorin in for more. Dorin gladly lunged in and landed another big right, but Balbi fired back with a series of body shots that showed he was far from knocked out. Balbi and Dorin engaged in more even exchanges until the bell, making this another close round, but one in which Dorin had to win because of Balbi's rubber-kneed moment.

The tenth round saw the momentum completely shift after Dorin committed a foul. The stocky Romanian had swung his wrecking ball to the body nearly as much as Balbi in many previous rounds, and more than a few of his shots had unintentionally drifted low. Balbi had already been given a breather several times when Dorin again landed low a minute into the tenth. The referee correctly deducted a point from Dorin, and a grimacing Balbi took only a minute before resuming the fight. But two punches later, Dorin again drifted low, to the exact same spot on Balbi's pelvis. It wasn't the crotch shot that usually sends guys to the canvas in pain, but it was well below the belt. Balbi again turned around in pain, and the ref again called time. No point was taken, although it would have been justified.

Balbi was angry when the fight resumed, but Dorin seemed even more pumped up. Fighting as though he had been the one hit low, a fresh Dorin now exploded on Balbi, landing a number of big punches in a frenetic flurry. To his credit, Balbi steadied himself and went back to picking off Dorin's misshapen face. Several big hooks landed squarely on Dorin's biggest cut, spreading blood everywhere. Balbi's rally was enough to win the round, giving him 10-8 with the penalty. But it was a close round, and many probably scored it 9-9 for Dorin. This two-point swing can wreck havoc with scorecards, as the eventual split decision would show.

Dorin continued to appear pumped up in the eleventh, perhaps even too much so. Twice he shoved Balbi across the ring, both times because he looked too excited to control himself. Dorin's energy allowed him to land some big shots in the eleventh, but Balbi took the round when a big left hook staggered Dorin in place for a moment near the end of the round.

The final round was everything it should have been. Dorin, looking as energetic as he had in any round, pushed the action and was again landing big shots as the men came together. But despite this final round effort, Balbi had enough presence of mind to keep away from a knockout situation. Balbi, who rarely used his legs to move, finally began to shuffle away from Dorin in the final minute of the round, although the fighters ceremoniously let it all hang out for a final ten seconds of fist-flying-free-for-all.

Boxing Chronicle scored this bout die Raul Balbi 115-112, rewarding Dorin for his late effort, but recognizing that Balbi's early lead held up. One judge agreed with us. Another scored it 115-112 for Dorin. The third and decisive judge scored the bout 114-113 for Dorin, the new WBA lightweight champion.

Without question it was a close bout, but the verdict was still a stinker. It seems clear that Dorin's more attractive head-snappers swayed the judges in rounds when Balbi was consistently hitting Dorin on every part of his body. This was a classic fight, a close fight, and Dorin's late-round efforts were impressive. But he didn't deserve to win.

Balbi-Dorin was such a vicious, thrilling bout that Ward-Leija had nowhere to go but down. Even without the anti-climactic ending, it would have been a letdown.

Leija bleeds some moreBut there were some interesting developments in Ward-Leija that made it an intriguing bout while it lasted. The first surprise of the night was the fighter's weights. Jesse James Leija, who had seen his best days at 130, and who had twice been roughed up by moving up to 135 to face De la Hoya and Mosley, was now fighting at 140. Micky Ward, who has fought at 140 his entire career, was expected to be the bigger man. This was especially the case when Leija weighed in at 138.5 to Ward's 140.5. But by fight time, Ward had bulked up to a firm 147, while Leija was the bigger man at 153.

As the fight began, Ward began throwing his rarely-used right hand, and caught an unsuspecting Leija off guard with the blow. But Leija wasted no time answering with a crisp right of his own, landing a solid one-two and then smacking Ward's side several times with a looping right. A few seconds later, Leija again pounded Ward's left side and the Irish brawler didn't appear to like it. Leija was effective using a little footwork and a slight advantage in speed to land good shots on Micky early. But less than two minutes into the bout, Leija emerged from a clinch bleeding from the right eye.

A doctor was called to the ring, and while Leija's cut was already long and thin, it wasn't bleeding very hard. He had fought with worse. Leija attacked Ward with some urgency, and quickly landed another firm right. Ward raised out his gloves and began to gesture for Leija to bring it on when another Leija right interrupted Ward's taunt. Micky backed into a corner and Leija ripped into him with more body shots. Finally uncorking his legendary left, Ward got in a few good body shots of his own before the bell, but the first was a clear round for Leija.

Back in his corner, Leija's bleeding was quickly stopped by cutman Joe Souza. But despite the lack of flowing blood (for now), the cut didn't look like it would last all night. Running diagonally up towards the center of Leija's head, the cut ran the length of his eye and ended above the eyebrow line.

Ward continued to try out his improved right hand in the second, but Leija was effectively slipping the punch and countering with his own shots. While both men were landing, the action was far from furious. Both Ward and Leija have announced retirements in their careers (Leija after Mosley, Ward before the Neary fight), and the pace showed that both men had seen better days. Still, the contest was very even, with Ward's left doing damage when he got close and Leija using angles to catch the defense-free Ward. After two more minutes, the doctor was again called to look at Leija's face. Already, the cut was worse. Most doctors would have stopped the bout right then. But this was Leija's proclaimed last-ever fight in hometown San Antonio, he was winning, and the fight had barely began. They let it continue.

Leija attacked Ward with urgency, and his added size came in handy. A big Leija hook rattled Ward, and when another landed Ward looked wobbly. Leija pulled his way out of several clinch attempts to land follow-up shots, but could not find the combination that might have made it an early night. As the seconds ticked out, Leija was closing the show on a near-perfect round when Ward launched a massive overhand right. The punch turned Leija's head. A split second later a left hook crashed into Jesse James' face and snapped his head straight back. It was a wicked combination, and drew a loud gasp from the pro-Leija crowd.

By round three, the pace had slowed even further. Micky Ward was having problems finding his target. Often he would swing a wild left hook that would miss Leija by a mile and nearly turn Ward around. Leija boxed smart in this round, moving left or right and hitting Ward in between. Ward bought some time in the middle of the round by switching southpaw. But Leija waited, Ward eventually switched back to conventional, and then Leija resumed scoring points. Three rounds complete, three rounds to Leija.

Ward finally got his left arm going in the fourth round, and after a few slashing hooks, Leija's cut was flowing blood. At first the blood formed a streak down the side of Leija's face. By mid-round, his face was covered. By the end of the round, Ward's blond hair was more than half-red, having been dyed while Leija bled on him in clinches. It was a close round, but one in which Leija continued to control the pace and land more often.

With four in the bank, the chance of a no-contest was over. If the fight were stopped due to Leija's cut, the cards would choose a winner. The fight would last only one more round.

The fifth was a big Ward round. A triple left hook stunned Leija early in the round, and while he recovered nicely, the blood was becoming a major problem. Referee Lawrence Cole seemed transfixed by the cut, which was over four inches long and widening with every Ward hook. Leija survived the round.

When Leija returned to his corner, cutman Joe Souza said "Holy Crap!" Even he was taken by the cut. The doctor came over to inspect, as he had in between each round, and rightly called the fight off. This was not a case of Leija copping out like Camacho Jr. did. Camacho had a small cut. Leija had a major gash that was still dripping blood in the post-fight interviews.

Ward and his corner were livid at the stoppage, although after the fight they agreed that the cut was bad. The first score read was 48-47 Ward, giving them a ray of hope. But the next two scores of 48-47 and 49-46 went to Leija, giving him a win and Ward an 11th loss. (Boxing Chronicle scored it 49-46 Leija). After the fight, both men said that it should have been called a no-contest. Maybe they're right.

And so 2002 kicks off with a bang, a dud, and the year's first questionable decision. Yep, looks like it will be another typical year of boxing.

.....Chris Bushnell

BOXING CHRONICLE.COM SCORECARD:

ROUND

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

TOTAL

BALBI

9

10

10

10

9

10

9

10

9

10

10

9

115

DORIN

10

9

9

9

10

9

10

9

10

8*

9

10

112

* = -1 for low blow

ROUND

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

TOTAL

WARD

9

9

9

9

10

LEIJA

10

10

10

10

9

STOPPED


© 2001 Chris Bushnell. All rights reserved.

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