Spring Break
'Contender' Finale Packed Great Punch
Boxing
Jake Goldberg
Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: Sports
Everything thrown landed, everything.
Their heads swiveled back and forth, their bodies shook as blows were landed. Its simplicity was the best part, they stood, they punched and they got hurt. It was an easy equation that added up to amazing action.
It was around Round 4 when Bika disregarded all notions of straight punches in favor of wide massive blows that screamed as they landed over Codrington's faced. Bika was a kamikaze; his defense was forgotten in the locker-room and was most likely not brought to the arena.
Codrington had two options at this point; he could trade with straighter punches hoping they got there first or he could back up and try for to outlast the wild Bika. He wasn't able to think about it for long, Bika forced his hand by being so aggressive. Codrington had to hope to land a shot that would end the fight.
There was no question that each fighter was getting hurt and that this one wasn't going to be decided by the judges. Bika gradually took the steam out of Codrington, even though he was still taking good licks from time-to-time. In Round 8 he sent Codrington into a dream-land and continued to land gut-wrenching shots until the referee was forced to pronounce the fight over.
I stood, and I won't lie, I clapped. Don't worry - nobody was in the room, so it didn't look lame. I was ecstatic, my heart was racing and I wanted to be in a fight like that for about five minutes. Then, once I calmed down a little I came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be the best idea.
The fight didn't have great significance in truth, and Bika will most likely not go on to do much more in his career. But for one night, two fighters were able to burn their fight into the minds of whoever saw it and sometimes that's better than any championship you can get.
Jake Goldberg's boxing
column runs every Tuesday.
He can be reached at
Jacob.Goldberg@UConn.edu.
Their heads swiveled back and forth, their bodies shook as blows were landed. Its simplicity was the best part, they stood, they punched and they got hurt. It was an easy equation that added up to amazing action.
It was around Round 4 when Bika disregarded all notions of straight punches in favor of wide massive blows that screamed as they landed over Codrington's faced. Bika was a kamikaze; his defense was forgotten in the locker-room and was most likely not brought to the arena.
Codrington had two options at this point; he could trade with straighter punches hoping they got there first or he could back up and try for to outlast the wild Bika. He wasn't able to think about it for long, Bika forced his hand by being so aggressive. Codrington had to hope to land a shot that would end the fight.
There was no question that each fighter was getting hurt and that this one wasn't going to be decided by the judges. Bika gradually took the steam out of Codrington, even though he was still taking good licks from time-to-time. In Round 8 he sent Codrington into a dream-land and continued to land gut-wrenching shots until the referee was forced to pronounce the fight over.
I stood, and I won't lie, I clapped. Don't worry - nobody was in the room, so it didn't look lame. I was ecstatic, my heart was racing and I wanted to be in a fight like that for about five minutes. Then, once I calmed down a little I came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be the best idea.
The fight didn't have great significance in truth, and Bika will most likely not go on to do much more in his career. But for one night, two fighters were able to burn their fight into the minds of whoever saw it and sometimes that's better than any championship you can get.
Jake Goldberg's boxing
column runs every Tuesday.
He can be reached at
Jacob.Goldberg@UConn.edu.
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