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(NOV 28) The announcement of a bout scheduled for early December has given
the sport of Women's boxing a chance to finish the year on a high note. On
December 10 at the Foxwoods Resorts in Connecticut, Englishwoman Jane Couch
will defend her IWBF Light Welterweight title in a return bout with Jaime
Clampitt.
This bout comes at a time when the sport has lingered in a state of almost
self-imposed malaise. "Self imposed" since the sport continues to experience
a series of mismatches and manipulations by top-ranked fighters seemingly
intent on studiously avoiding climbing into the ring with the other top
fighters in their weight divisions. The result has been a surfeit of
glorified sparring sessions being masqueraded as championship fights, boxers
fighting twice within a week or ten days against overmatched opponents and
fighters continually matched against the same opponent twice and sometimes
three bouts in succession. The Couch/Clampitt bout, if history is any
indication, has a good chance of providing a welcome respite to this trend.
On June 12, Jane Couch and Jaime Clampitt went ten rounds of "bell to bell"
action in the same Foxwoods ring, battling, (and that's a distinct
understatement) for Clampitt's IWBF title. The bout resulted in a close ten
round unanimous decision for the English fighter. It was ten rounds of
nonstop action that should be a "lock" for "Fight of the Year" in the sport,
with the only competition possibly being the December 10 rematch. There may
have been a clinch or two somewhere in the ten rounds in June, but, if so, I
missed it watching a tape of the fight a week after the "live" bout. Both
women, purely and simply, "left everything in the ring" and the scorecard
tally of 96-95 and 96-94 (2x) accurately reflected the closeness of the
bout. It's difficult to put into numbers or words the boxing skill and
punching accuracy of both fighters that night in Connecticut; suffice it to
say that the ten rounds were as good as the sport of Women's boxing gets.
If Couch had stayed true to the current mindset of many of the top fighters
in the sport today, she might have gone home to England, content with the
IWBF belt and awaited challenges "from abroad." She might have waited for
someone to "come across the pond" and fight in England. Fortunately, Couch
has gone an entire career doing things "her way" regardless of what is the
norm; whether that "norm" was imposed by the English government, who, for
years, threw roadblocks in front of Couch's boxing career, or the "selective
scheduling syndrome" that's seems to inhabit so many fighters once they
capture a title belt. Rather, Jane Couch did something that should serve as
a guide-on for fighters, male and female; she stayed true to her nature of
"going where the fights are" and agreed to make the first defense of her
crown, not with an "easy payday" opponent, but, rather, against the woman
who gave her a very busy night in June. Additionally, Couch agreed to travel
back to Connecticut, Clampitt's "home turf" for the bout. This is the type
of object lesson too frequently absent in today's sport and it's as good an
example for fighters on either sides of the ocean to make note of. For that
fact alone Jane Couch should to be praised, as Jaime Clampitt has done in
her pre-fight comments.
Jaime Clampitt is no less a laudatory figure in this scenario. It's rare in
sports, and particularly in boxing, when both fighters are the "good guys,"
but that's the case here. Clampitt took the June fight despite the fact
that, shortly before the bout, her longtime trainer, "Tiny" Ricci, passed
away. Then, following the razor-thin loss, Clampitt refused to use her
obvious mental anguish over her trainer's death as an excuse of any kind.
Instead, Clampitt maintained a stoic silence and, it seems, started plotting
a path to regain her title. On October 1, Clampitt warmed up for Couch with
a win over perennial opponent Brenda Bell. Now, on December 10 Jaime
Clampitt gets a chance, a well deserved chance, to regain the IWBF title.
Certain news reports have made reference to the decision in June being
"Controversial," but, in my mind, the only way that particular label applies
is if "controversial" is being used as a synonym for "close." It was a good,
make that a great, close bout and Couch clearly won a razor-thin decision.
Controversy, along with a "hometown" decision, were both commendably avoided
and for that all the officials connected with that June bout are to be
congratulated.
Thus, on December 10 the sport of Women's boxing should receive "a shot in
the arm" from a very likely source; the fact that two very good fighters are
climbing into the ring with each other. It's a long established and simple
formula, which has, unfortunately, been rendered increasingly absent in a
sport where the best fighters do not, often enough, look for the best
fights. In fact, in too many cases, too many top fighters go out of their
way to avoid competitive opponents. The bout in Connecticut on December 10
has the right fighters at the right time and, hopefully, it will serve as a
big finish for Women's boxing in 2004 and a direction for the sport in 2005.
Bernie McCoy
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