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NEWARK NEW JERSEY'S MAURICE HARRIS TAKES HOME THE 'FISTFUL OF DOLLARS'

By Danny Serratelli, ringside

Cedric Kushner Promotions "Fistful of Dollars" tournament at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey was definitely something different. Promoter Cedric Kushner said that he thought the gladiator style format would attract the younger generation of boxing fans. It didn’t appear many new fans came out, as there were many empty seats at show time, but it was very interesting. Many knowledgeable boxing fans, members of the press and odds makers disagreed on who would win, and there were very different odds posted on the fighters depending on where you looked. It turned out my pick, Newark NJ’s Maurice Harris, eventually won it all.

The night started out late with heavyweight David Tua 41-3, 36 KOs stopping the overmatched Russell Chasteen 19-5, 13 KOs at 1:41 of round 2. Next up was junior middleweight Daniel Codling coming from New Zealand to make his pro debut and stop John Rivers 0-1, at 1:59 of the opening round.

Finally the tournament started. Many boxing insiders felt that the 3 round bouts would favor hard charging punchers like Jeremy Williams 39-4, 35 KOs, Derrick Jefferson 26-3, 20 KOs and Gerald Nobles 20-0, 16 KOs. When Jefferson KO’d Ray Austin 17-3-1, 13 KOs, at 2:16 of round 2, it appeared that it may be the night for the aggressive styled brawlers. However, in the second fight of the first round of the tourney, the tall southpaw Anthony "Tony the Tiger" Thompson 17-1, 9 KOs boxed the aggressive Jeremy Williams and got the win, and set the tone of boxing rather than brawling as being the key for the evening. The decision was controversial since it was scored a majority draw, 28-28 twice, and one judge had Thompson pitching a shutout 30-26. Thompson was eventually awarded the victory based on punch stat numbers for punches landed in his favor 51-37. The real issue was that the referee in the fight took point away from Williams for pushing Thompson into the ropes, and that point deduction cost Williams the victory.

Next up, last minute replacement for Paolo Vidoz, New York’s Israel Garcia 14-1, 8 KOs earned a split decision victory over the 45 year old former world champ Tim Witherspoon 51-11-1, 32 KOs. Witherspoon looked to land his big right hand throughout the fight and was outworked by Garcia. The scores were 29-28 for Witherspoon and 29-28 twice for Garcia.

Finally the two fighters who many ringside observers from Newark and Philadelphia were there to see got underway, Gerald "The Jedi" Nobles, 20-0, 16 KOs and Maurice Harris 19-12-2, 10 KOs. This fight had a little history since Nobles KO'd Harris in round 3, back in 1996. Nobles came to fight, but the slick Harris just out boxed him for three rounds and won by scores of 30-27 twice and 29-28.

By the second round the crowd was already thinking ahead to a Harris-Jefferson final, and a rematch of their 1999 meet which Jefferson won with an exciting 6th round knockout. However, it wasn't meant to be, as the tall slick southpaw Thompson won by decision over Jefferson, 30-27 twice, and 29-28. As the Harris-Garcia bout started Tim Witherspoon was already dressed and hanging out in the crowd. He was very engaging and had some interesting stories to tell. As the fight went on Tim said that Harris would KO the kid, Garcia. I asked him why he didn’t, he said with a smile: "Because I’m 45". Harris didn’t knock Garcia out, but he swept all three rounds on all three cards against the game last minute replacement.

The match for the dollars was finally on. It appeared the two best pure boxers in the tournament had made the final match. They had avoided the power of the punchers in earlier bouts and earned the victories on points. Harris won a majority decision with one judge having it even 29-29, the next 29-28, and the third a sweep 30-27 for Harris. It appeared that Harris would be able to outbox most heavyweights for three rounds, and although the three victories didn’t earn him W’s on his record (the bouts were exhibitions and didn’t count on any of the fighters’ records) the 26-year-old veteran Harris did earn the $100,000.