HARRIS AND CLOTTEY SEAL THE DEAL

July 29, 2006

There may have been action at the tables at Chumash Casino tonight, but there were only two things being dealt in the ring. Lefts and rights. Vivian Harris and Joshua Clottey both added another notch on their belts this evening as they put their best fists forward.

It was a solid night of punching, the first match up started the action with both fighters on the defense, testing each other out and tying each other up against the ropes. These young, hungry fighters attacked each other's bodies resulting in a series of low blows in the fourth and fifth with points being deducted from both fighters. The dust quickly settled and the fight started to show a well-fought match with both fighters landing power punches left and right, pulling the fight all twelve rounds. The last round showed what the fight was all about: solid and constant punching until the last bell. Gutierrez rallied during the last three rounds, but not enough to garner a win as Clottey won by majority decision, maintaining his near perfect record, with only won, hotly contested loss to a certain Carlos Baldomir.

In the main event, Vivian Harris took on a much smaller, late edition to the evening's card, Stevie Johnson. Both fighters, former titleholders, came into the ring with something to prove and a challenging career behind them. It was clear that these two fighters were looking to take a big step forward in their boxing lives.

Vivian opened the fight with a perfect moment: right hook to the body followed by a left to the body and a shot to the head, bringing Johnston to the mat with fifty seconds left in the first. Johnston's strategy of sticking to Vivian in close appeared to be failing him early on, as Johnston fell again at the end of the round from another blow to the body. Johnston rose from both knockdowns with a grin on his face, as if to say, "You got me, you got me."

Stepping into the ring in the third, Johnston decided to change his approach, fighting back a bit from Harris, landing effective jabs, wary of Vivian's power punching. Johnston's attempts still fell short early into the fourth round as Harris again landed another right hand, putting Johnston to the floor. Stevie's rusty return to the ring definitely is a disadvantage greater than even Harris's height and reach. It wasn't enough to put the determined fighter out of the fight however: Stevie still stood strong against Harris, fighting back with a fury.

This staunch approach indeed paid off. A renewed Johnston surprised Harris in the fifth and six rounds with a cluster of bombs against Harris, at one point it even looked as if Harris was dazed by Johnston's shots. Earlier knockdowns faded away and the fight took on a new life, however short lived.

In the end it was the crushing right hand blow in the seventh round that stopped Stevie's show of courage. Knocking Johnston to the mat for the final time, Harris followed up with what seemed like a cursory "Thank you" to Johnston's ferocious performance. The fight was stopped leaving Stevie Johnston "thinking about tonight" and whether or not viewers have seen yet another fighter in three fights potentially ending their careers.