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“Brushing the rust off”
by Daniel Terrill
March 31, 2007 |
Moultrie Witherspoon had to brush off
the “ring rust” to take the win over Wes Taylor at the Plex in
Charleston on March 29. The six-round heavyweight bout was the main
event of the night and started with Taylor landing big shots early,
but ended with Witherspoon getting a unanimous decision.
“I did 50 percent of what I should’ve done and went in there after
10 months off,” said Witherspoon.
In the first round Taylor landed a solid left-hook staggering
Witherspoon in to the corner.
“Wow! He caught me because I was moving with my right hand down, but
I recovered fast,” said Witherspoon. “The boy was strong.”
After a few seconds in the corner, he punched his way out and
continued on jabbing.
Early in the second, Taylor landed a left-hook rocking Witherspoon
again, but not severely. Then Witherspoon jabbed lightly allowing
Taylor to get closer until Witherspoon threw a right-uppercut plus
left-hook combination sending Taylor to the ropes. Witherspoon moved
in with a flurry of punches causing the ref to separate the two and
give Taylor a standing 8-count.
In the third, Witherspoon fought cautiously, staying away from
Taylor’s slip-to-lunging left-hook, and intended to keep Taylor
close enough to land uppercuts on.
“I should have kept my jab a little stronger keeping him off, but it
was what it was,” said Witherspoon.
Witherspoon fought passively in the fourth and let Taylor be the
aggressor. Taylor switched to a southpaw stance only to set-up his
left-hook for the orthodox stance.
“I’m actually left-handed but I fight right-handed. Sometimes I
might give them a picture of what my southpaw stance looks like,”
said Taylor.
However, the round ended with Witherspoon pinning Taylor against the
ropes with a long flurry.
Both fighters looked bloody in the fifth, but that didn’t slow their
tempo of exchanging blows on the inside.
Beginning the last round, both fighters tied up and threw softening
blows to the body. When they broke away, Witherspoon laid
right-uppercut plus left-hook combinations on Taylor, who continued
using lead left-hooks, until they clashed heads. They finished it
fighting on the inside.
In the end “I was actually looking to more of a draw than a
unanimous decision,” Taylor said about his loss. But “I feel like I
performed very well … Much of the work coming to fight and in the
fight, I do myself. I went out there giving 100 percent.”
Moultrie Witherspoon, 33 years old, has a perfect record of 9 W (4
ko’s) and is from Columbia, SC.
Wes Taylor, 33 years old, has a record of 5 W (5 ko’s), 11 L and 1
D, and is from Milledgeville, GA.
Any questions, comments or concerns send via email to Andrew Stokes
at drewstoks@aol.com or
Daniel Terrill at
dnterrill@yahoo.com |
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