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Photo © Brendon Pierpaoli, DoghouseBoxing
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Just two nights short of Halloween, New Bedford’s Scott the Sandman Pemberton prevailed against the tricky James Crawford of Iowa at Foxwoods Casino and treated the fans to a brief but exciting main event. The Sandman won by TKO after three rounds when Crawford’s rapidly swelling left eye was determined, by the ringside physician, to be too severe an injury to allow the bout to continue. The end had come after an exciting three rounds of action in which Crawford got the better of the local favorite, especially in the third and final round when Crawford rallied after he suffered a low blow.
Looking winded throughout, Scott Pemberton had trouble getting his jab going and was unable to prevent Crawford’s lunging left hooks and lead rights from landing. Although he never looked stunned or hurt, Pemberton was under fire several times.
In the third round, a low blow by Pemberton earned Crawford several minutes of rest before the fight was allowed to continue. When it did, violence erupted to the crowd’s delight and Crawford’s quicker hands seemed to score more often while Pemberton landed the heavier blows.
It was apparent seconds after the bell sounded to end the third that Crawford’s eye was swelling rapidly. Since no head butt had been pointed out by Ref. Arthur Mercante Jr. the injury must have been caused by a punch meaning the fight would go to Pemberton as a TKO. Crawford and his corner were not pleased and although they argued for a rematch Scott Pemberton hoped for other future fights.
“I don’t care who I fight,” Pemberton said. “I just wanna make some good money…I wanna buy my family a home.”
Pemberton retains his NABF & IBU Super Middleweight titles with the win and runs his record to 29-3-1 (24) while James Crawford falls to 40-8-2 (17).
In the co-featured bout New Haven’s up and coming middleweight Chad Dawson remained unbeaten after 10 hard rounds with Darnell Wilson. Dawson, coming off a layoff of 7 months, labored through the later rounds but kept busy enough to win the fight by perfect scores of 100-90 on two of the official cards en route to a unanimous decision victory. Dawson remains unbeaten at 15-0 (14) while Wilson drops to 8-1-1 (6).
Cruiserweights Matt Godfrey and Joe Johnson, who both scaled heavyweight numbers coming in over two hundred five pounds each, rumbled in a wild melee that saw both men fall almost all the way through the ropes and down to the casino floor. Though Johnson appeared the more in shape fighter, his torso featuring chiseled musculature rather than the puffy softness of Godfrey’s, the well-muscled fighter tired quicker and by round four it was Godfrey landing power punches. With Johnson hurt and Godfrey trying to put his opponent down, Ref. Danny Schiavone stepped in and halted the bout at 2:37 of round four. There was little protest from the corner of Johnson but this writer felt the stoppage was premature as Johnson had recovered from similar shots in the earlier rounds. Matt Godfrey is now 6-0(4) while Joe Johnson is 7-5(5).
Local prospect Joey Spina of Providence, RI, faced Charleston, WV’s James North in a sloppy super middleweight action-fight that thrilled the crowd but didn’t exactly thrill Ref. Johnny Callas who stayed busy trying to keep the bout clean. In the fourth Spina connected with a killer left hook to the waist of North that folded him in half. North beat the count and made it back to his corner only to have the ringside physician recommend the bout be stopped before the start of round five. Spina is now 13-0(9) while North is now 5-5(2).
In undercard action:
One hundred forty-two pound, Steamin’ Josh Beamon dropped Walter Brown, 140lbs, three times in round number one before Ref. Arthur Mercante stopped the fight at 2:38. Beamon improves to 3-1(2) while Brown falls to 2-6.
Edgar Reyes beat Joseph Spiderman Benjamin over the four round distance of their junior middleweight bout which kicked off the Foxwoods card. Reyes’ record now stands at 8-3(3) while Spiderman Benjamin is 1-5-1(1).
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© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2004
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At Ringside by Alex Pierpaoli (November 2, 2004) Photos © Brendon Pierpaoli 
