An Upset in the Heavyweight Division Occurs at the HP Pavilion June 28

An Upset in the Heavyweight Division Occurs at the HP Pavilion
June 28, 2006

By Jeff Townsend BASD Contributer
BayAreaSportsDrive.com

San Jose fans witnessed an upset in the heavyweight division and the possible demise of a career last night in the main event of ESPN2’s ‘Wednesday Night Fights’. Heavyweight contender Tony ‘The Tiger’ Thompson won a unanimous 12 round decision over one-time future star Dominick ‘The Southern Disaster’ Guinn at San Jose, California’s HP Pavilion. With the win, Thompson improves his record to 28-1 (17 KOs) while Guinn falls to 26-4-1 (18 KOs).

Thompson came into this fight at 238 pounds, 12 pounds lighter than his last fight and his desire was evident. Even in the pre-fight interviews, ‘The Tiger’ kept repeating that he was “desperate” for a win. This was the best opponent he has faced due to a career of facing soft opposition while Guinn has faced many top heavyweights with mixed results.

Thompson dominated Guinn all night long with his long, southpaw jab and short, hard power punches. Guinn simply was not active enough and Thompson used that opportunity to throw punches and take control of the fight. Thompson, a tall heavyweight at nearly 6’6”, kept popping his jab into Guinn’s face which kept him on the outside. Guinn rarely used his jab and when he did, it was a weak, pawing jab. This made it very difficult for Guinn to land any punches since he had to be on the inside to land punches. Once Guinn did get on the inside, he would not throw enough punches or would make the mistake of going back outside where he was at a disadvantage.

Thompson controlled the action pretty well until the 6^th round when he really began to connect with power punches – stiff jabs, straight left hands and hooks to Guinn’s head.

By the 10^th round, Guinn was clearly very frustrated and seemed to be completely lacking in interest in the fight. Guinn began to lean forward a bit and Thompson really turned it on. Thompson landed a lot of hard punches and Guinn looked close to being knocked out. Guinn’s cornrows started to come undone and he had some minor swelling under his eyes. Guinn came out strong in the 12^th round with some good body shots but that short burst of punches was all he had left.

How did this surprising upset occur? Guinn’s trainer, Joe Gossen, made a decision before the fight that the orthodox Guinn should move to his right against the southpaw Thompson. The conventional wisdom is that an orthodox fighter should move to his left against a southpaw because a southpaw’s power punch is his left hand. Moving around the ring by an orthodox fighter toward the right allows the southpaw to land his big punch. This proved to be a fatal mistake for Guinn.

Guinn is a pressure fighter who blocks punches by keeping his gloves high while attempting to land good body punches and power punches. However, last night, he was merely catching punches all night while landing a few decent shots every other round. He was literally walking and throwing punches at the same time in a desperate attempt to land punches. This took the power off his punches while decreasing the chance that the punches would actually land.

To illustrate the clear win for Thompson, the judges scored it 119-109, 118-110 and 117-111, all for Thompson. Guinn quickly left the ring after the decision was announced and one wonders if this is the last time boxing fans will see Dominick Guinn in the squared circle.