Chris Chatman overcomes first round knockdown to secure a draw
Chris Chatman of City Boxing, San Diego, Ca. Photo: Jim Wyatt
After a rough start in round one, punctuated by a knockdown aided by a slippery advertiser emblem, Chris Chatman kept slugging it out until he managed a pivotal knockdown of Charles Hatley with just 1:07 left in the final stanza.
The scoring by rounds:
First round went to Hatley who scored a surprise knockdown which had Chatman unsettled and falling to his knees. Score round one: [Hatley 10-8]
Second round also went to Hatley who at the time felt confident in his game plan and kept circling and landing more blows. [Hatley [10-9].
Third round: After Chatman got Hatley to miss by bobbing and weaving, he started landing more of the telling blows. [Chatman 10-9].
Charles Hatley Jr., the pride of Dallas, Texas
Fourth round: Neither boxer overwhelmed their opponent. Since Hatley was the hometown favorite, that factor alone most likely influenced the judges to score the close round in Hatley’s favor. [Hatley 10-9]
Fifth round: Hatley is busier but begins to throw meaningless, pitter patter punches, while Chatman is snapping Hatley’s head back. [Chatman 10-9]
Sixth round: Chatman takes over the round and lands punch after punch while Hatley is in retreat mode. [Chatman 10-9]
Seventh round: Again, the round could have been scored either way, so we’ll put this one in Hatley’s column. [Hatley 10-9]
Entering the eighth and final round, it appeared Hatley had another win if he could only stay out of harm’s way. Continuing to press the action, Chatman advanced on Hatley who was now on his bicycle. Whenever Hatley stopped, Chatman was right there delivering either a lunging overhand right or a dandy left hook. For the first time, the accumulation of blows appeared to have a major effect on Hatley. At 1:07 of that final round, Hatley slowed to a standstill and Chatman caught him good, followed by a second and a third punch and down went Hatley. Clearly dazed by the accumulation of in your face punches, it’s a mystery how Hatley is able to maintained his equilibrium in the final 60 seconds. The scoring of the knockdown and complete domination, warrants a [10-8] score for Chatman.
Scoring total: 75-75. Two judges agreed with our analysis and scored the bout 75-75. A third judge who should find another profession, scored the bout: 77-73 in favor of Hatley. When you give Chatman only 73 points in an eight round bout, that means Chatman only won two rounds during the entire bout. The final round, a round you have to score 10-8 because of Chatman’s complete domination, plus only one other round, a 10-9 round. That my friends is unreasonable.
In criticism of our homeboy, we should point out: His indiscriminate switching from orthodox to the southpaw stance gave Hatley an opportunity to score multiple times. He also became careless at times when he dropped his guard. With Hatley on his bicycle, there were periods where he failed to cut off the ring. It’s possible his legs started to give out from all the chasing.
Former Contender Series contestant Brian Vera (seated) defeats Sergio Mora, the former Contender TV Show winner.
In the co-main event, Brian Vera of Fort Worth, Texas, a veteran of the Contender Series (Season 3) and loser of four of his last five fights, won a close, hotly contested bout over Sergio Mora of Los Angeles, Ca.
Mora, the champion on the Contender TV series and former WBC Light middleweight champ, was coming off a Nationally televised draw on September 18, 2010 versus Shane Mosely. Unlike the boring bout with Mosely, Mora fought admirably in this one. In the bout with Mosely, Mora’s game plan involved running a lot and therefore he was widely criticized.
With his two inch height advantage and familiarity with his opponent, Mora felt confident enough to stand toe to toe with Vera. Vera put forth a career-best performance by outworking and out-landing Mora early, and even using his jab effectively. However, Mora made Vera miss a lot, but didn’t counter enough to win the early rounds. As has been his MO, Mora fought hard in the late stages probably realizing he was in danger of losing. In the 9th round in particular he absolutely hammered Vera to the body. It wasn’t enough though. One positive for Mora was the fact that this fight was very entertaining. In the end, both boxers’ faces were cut and badly bruised. Two judges scored the bout, 96-94 and 96-94 in favor of Vera and the third judge thought Mora won, 96-94.
Eighteen year-old Ray Ximenez, Jr. (2-0-0), the former Jr. Olympic Champion, is still in high school.
On the undercard, Ray Ximenez, Jr., (2-0-0), the 18 year-old Dallas, Texas high school student, took on 30 year-old Alfredo Berto (1-4-0) from Houston, Texas. The former Junior Olympic Champion had no problem winning an unanimous decision, and won every round in their four rounder.
