The welterweight division has a new rising star. Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis became an instant player in a recently emptied-out welterweight division with his dominating win over stripped champion James Page. The two men fought for the vacant WBA title (taken from Page after a stretch of inactivity) in a bout that many felt was a time-marker for the underrated former champ. But instead of a tune-up that resulted in the reinstatement of his title, Page's ring rust led to a major career setback. Lewis used handspeed and unique footwork to not only knock out Page, but to steal the show from intended headliner Erik Morales.

This was supposed to be Morales' night. Seeking to win his second world title, Morales showed a combination of apathy and underestimation during his lackluster decision win over titlist Guty Espadas. But in the battle of expectations, Morales was a unanimous decision loser, showing little of the flair that his reputation was built on and raising serious questions of what he left behind in the ring after his epic battle with Marco Antonio Barrera. Let's just hope this was an off-night for the undefeated champion.

Morales opened the fight with Espadas quickly, establishing the power of his right hand and his willingness to launch punches in combination. But Espadas found early success countering after Morales' bursts had ended. He shook the challenger early with a sharp uppercut/right cross combination, and even followed Morales into the ropes to punctuate his effort with a flush left hook. But Morales banked the round with consistent activity, as he did many of the later rounds this evening.

The second round hinted that this fight would be a classic Mexican war, as each landed big punches to open the round. As both men fought to establish the pace, the fight moved to the ropes, and it was Morales who found himself pinned against one side of the ring. Espadas now let his hands go, and Morales responded in kind. For nearly a full minute, the two men beat each other without stopping. Toe-to-toe, their pace quickened as one many would catch a flush shot, then answer back with two clean blows of his own. By the :15 second mark, both men were letting it all hang out, and this looked like the final seconds of the 12th round in a dead-even bout. By the time the bell rang, the crowd was entirely on their feet as both men calmly walked back to their corners. Espadas banked this close round on our card.

Unfortunately, the pace of this fight never reached this level again. Both men slowed considerably in the third, as Morales began circling and moving, while Espadas gave chase and tried to land some counter punches. Most of the middle rounds followed some variation of this formula. In some of the rounds, Morales landed more and had an easy time of it as Espadas followed him with only occasional success. Other times, Morales seemed more interested in circling than punching, and allowed Espadas to land heavy shots upside his head, albeit usually one at a time. It was not exciting.

Most surprising was Morales' underperformance. By the fourth round he was breathing hard through his mouth. His inability to land many attempts on the awkward Espadas left him frustrated in some rounds, while in others he simply looked bored. His long jab was never a factor, and while his overhand right began warming up in the final rounds, the crisp, accurate punching that had pushed Morales into the pound-for-pound lists was markedly absent. Even when moving, he seemed flatfooted and listless... as he has in each and every of his tune-ups since the battle with Barrera. This wasn't his night to shine.

At various times in the bout, the momentum was Espadas' to seize, yet he couldn't muster the effort. In the seventh, Espadas repeatedly cornered Morales, battering him with crosses and hooks. Morales has a lazy tendency to fall back into the ropes and bounce off them after backing straight up. Twice in this round, Espadas followed him in, punching him all the way, and then punching him, too, when he bounced back into range. During Espadas' best moments, Morales was content to clinch, although at one point he only hooked Espadas' left arm. Guty nailed him with his free right hand close to twenty times... uppercut, hooking right, uppercut, hooking right, over and over until Jay Nady finally broke the clinch.

Mostly, Morales' was putting forth only the minimal effort. Since the champion was not pressing him, he gladly circled and circled, stopping occasionally to throw a one-two. When he finally mixed in an uppercut to the mix in the ninth, Morales saw quick results... but soon he was backing straight up again and eating more counters than he should have. Luckily for him, he dominated the slow parts of the round as Espadas' sense of urgency simply couldn't get jump-started.

Morales had established a solid lead heading into the final rounds, although the rounds he won were awarded on output levels rather than effectiveness. But in the eleventh, Morales really began to fade. In this next-to-last round, Espadas focused entirely on Morales' body, nailing him repeatedly with clean hooks to the ribs and stomach. If Espadas had only paid this much attention to the body earlier, he could have won the bout. But it was still effective, and Morales stopped moving. He took a small flurry of blows on the ropes to end the eleventh, giving many hope that Espadas would pull it out in the final round. He almost did.

The 12th began very slowly. Midway through the frame, Espadas cracked Morales on the side of the head with a lead right hand. The punch buckled Morales' front leg, and he clutched onto Espadas for dear life. Espadas struggled mightily to free himself, but Jay Nady had to physically separate the men before the action could continue. Morales now looked completely drained. He barely had the strength to hold up his hands, let alone punch back... and he ran out the final 90 seconds by getting on his bike and forcefully clinching when Lewis got close. It was a truly fitting ending to a completely uninspired performance.

The scores favored Morales in a close but one-sided decision. 115-113 and 116-112 twice. Boxing Chronicle also had it for Morales 116-112. Many in the crowd booed the decision. Indeed many of the rounds were difficult to score, and Morales absolutely failed to win new fans or impress any of his followers with this outing. He did enough to win the fight, but many will argue that he did little to deserve taking the belt from a reigning champion.

While Morales ups his record to a beautiful 40-0/31, the questions about his long-term future continue. He'll likely tune-up in one or two more bouts before facing the winner of Hamed-Barrera in the fall... and he'll need to work hard to improve. He may have won this night, but an opponent who presses him will find him easy to hit. The Barrera fight looks to have diminished his reflexes and slowed him down a half-step. Of course, a half-step loss for Morales still puts him two-steps ahead of most of the division.... but Hamed or Barrera are probably eager to face him now. Let's hope he can rebound.

Morales' showcase was taken from him by new WBA welterweight champion Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis. Lewis displayed a wonderful combination of speed and power, boxing and brawling, and strengths and weaknesses en route to beating the holy living crap out of James Page. Page was supposed to be rusty, but in the first round he looked like an amateur.

Gone was Page's heavy jab... and his balance and timing looked to have ran off with it. When Lewis rushed out to start the fight, throwing quick jabs and perfectly straight lefts from the southpaw stance, Page merely blinked his eyes in disbelief and started winging sidearm punches to try and make him stop. Lewis wasn't sitting down on his punches, so his concussive power wasn't yet on display... but he just hit Page clean so many times that we felt compelled to score round one to Lewis 10-8. At one point, Lewis quickly shifted his stance and nailed Page with a chopping right hand from the conventional stance. That punch wobbled the former champion and had him throwing Hail Mary bombs for most of the final minute.

The second round was also a 10-8 affair, although this time Page went down from a punch. Actually two punches... consecutive uppercuts that snapped Page's head and sent him down onto the seat of his pants. The first punch had knocked out his mouthpiece, and after finishing the standing eight count, Bayless called time to have the gumsheild rinsed out and put back in. Bad call Kenny. The procedure gave Page an extra 20 seconds to recover. Bayless should have waived the fight on and only called time during a lull in the action... not when a slightly dazed Page had reached eight. But it didn't matter to Lewis, who resumed his attack when the fight continued. Page was lucky to see the closing bell, as nearly every single punch Lewis threw loudly landed flush on Page's face.

The third was only a 10-9 round for Lewis... barely. He threw everything but the kitchen sink at Page in this round. Lewis followed Page from one corner to another, blasting him with a variety of punches. He staggered Page with a right uppercut from the conventional stance, then switched back to southpaw and hit him with a beautiful four punch combo: two right hooks, a right uppercut and a straight left. Page reeled from these blows back to a corner, where he covered up and ate some more shots. In fact, Page spent much of this round with his hands merely curled in front of his face. Occasionally, he would drop his guard to launch another Hail Mary pass. At one point, he actually tagged Lewis hard with two such desperation punches... but Lewis answered the effort with more punishment. It was a spectacular start for the virtual unknown.

Lewis was clearly tired from dishing out so much abuse, and he took the fourth round off. He still won it on our cards, however. Abandoning his aggression, Lewis simply flicked out a limp wristed jab repeatedly, then circled away from Page. Although Page was given a chance to simply follow him and try to land the power shot, he couldn't capitalize. Most every time Page threw his big right hand, he ended up dramatically off balance, with his back leg swinging forward after he missed.

Lewis was trying desperately to shift the fight to a boxing match, and again in the fifth he began pumping his jab out, four at a time. Sometimes this jab was a flicking range finder, but as the fight wore on, Lewis put more steam into the punch, and Page could do little but catch the end of these punches on his forehead. It didn't seem like the best plan for Lewis. After all, Page's only hope was to land the single punch that would turn things around, and by boxing exclusively with a jab, he gave Page a reason to hope it could happen. In fact, twice during the fifth Page landed big left hooks. The second one definitely caught Lewis' attention, as he took a breather in a clinch. But he closed out the round with a nice right hook-right uppercut combo that rattled Page head to toe.

In the sixth, Lewis may not have thrown anything but his jab. But he always threw it four at a time, and he began stepping into the punch and popping Page's face at will. In return, Page did nothing. He simply followed Lewis around the ring, barely moving his hands... not even to catch the jab in an open glove.

Page continued his Frankenstein strategy in the seventh round, but in a flash the fight was over. Lewis, having spent three full rounds establishing a pattern of throwing several jabs in quick succession, now hooked off the jab. One jab (blocked) and one hook (flush). That was it. The hook landed on Page's temple, and he was out on his feet. He hovered in place at a 45 degree angle for a few seconds before falling flat on his face. Twice before, when Page had been down on slips, he had held out his gloves to Kenny Bayless in a motion that said "Pull me up!" Bayless refused to help Page up after those slips, and he refused to do it here, as a stunned Page momentarily held out his gloves as if to get assistance. Page's eyes were blank and his arms flopped around, caught a feel of the ropes, and pulled him to his feet. Page was up by six and blankly looking into the front row. When Bayless reached eight, Page's arms were limp at his sides, and his blank stare continued. Bayless correctly determined that Page was out and waved the fight over. A good call. Six Heads Lewis KO7.

Lewis now lays claim to the WBA version of the title, and is in line for a good payday against Shane Mosley, or perhaps even Oscar DelaHoya (yeah, right). Although Mosley will tear him to pieces, it will be an exciting bout. Lewis has decent speed, can fight tough or fight smart, and clearly has major league power. But he also has weaknesses. He was forced to slow down his unopposed workrate after only three rounds, and he showed plenty of openings that a shopworn Page couldn't capitalize on. His biggest weapon, the ability to suddenly shift his feet and surprise his opponent with a power punch from a new stance, is something that must be further developed. It's a move that will score him big points against any opponent, even one named Sugar. We look forward to seeing more of the new champion in the future.

As for James Page, his off-and-on career hits a major stumbling block. He should head back to the gym after a short rest and try and get some fights under his belt. He's a big man for 147, and in his day he was an unflashy but powerful force in the division. With a good schedule of tune-ups he could be back in the title picture again. After all, the welterweight division is in need of a few good name opponents.

.....Chris Bushnell