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A Homecoming Game at Iona
By Bernie McCoy
February 12, 2006 |
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(FEB 12) Homecoming games are most
closely associated with college football. They are a somewhat
celebratory match-up in which the home team generally schedules a
seemingly overmatched opponent and looks forward to a win in front
of students and alumni. It was not difficult to perceive, going into
Friday night's fight card at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, that
the two female bouts on the six bout card had some of the earmarks
of a homecoming game.
Maureen Shea and Ann Marie Saccurato, on Friday night at Iona, were
clearly the designated home team and were matched with opponents
that seemed to fall into the "overmatched" category. Shea, a senior
at Iona from the Bronx, and unbeaten in her first three fights, was
scheduled for a six round bout with Sarina Mae Hayden, a Colorado
Springs fighter who had yet to win in three outings. Saccurato, a
world ranked welterweight from nearby White Plains, once beaten in
13 professional bouts, was fighting eight rounds with Victoria Ann
Cisneros, an Albuquerque, NM boxer, whom Saccurato has beaten,
handily, almost a year ago, to the day. The crowd, in the Iona
College gym, in full voice and homecoming mode, was well prepared to
"root, root, root for the home team."
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Both Hayden and Cisneros, it was, at once,
evident, had not come great distances to act out the role of "opponent"
to the local fighters. This was first apparent in the Shea/Hayden bout.
Maureen Shea, continuing the homecoming theme motif, entered the ring
with a hooded Iona sweatshirt and a boxing skirt fashioned along
cheerleader lines. She was accompanied by four Iona cheerleaders. Hayden
simply entered the ring ready to fight and from the opening bell came
right to the unbeaten fighter. Shea later admitted that she was a bit
surprised that Hayden had come out "winging punches" and that "it was
obvious she [Hayden] had come to fight". Late in the opening round,
Hayden's nose began to leak blood and just a touch of her initial
aggressiveness began to disappear. The second round, following the
inability of Hayden's corner to stem the bleeding, was much like the
first; Hayden coming forward, throwing punches and Shea answering with
flurries of her own and, as she said in a post fight review, "trying to
maintain some patience," while counter punching effectively to the body.
In the third round, Shea began to establish complete control and
following a series of punches to the head and body that moved Hayden
from one corner, across the ring, to an opposite corner, referee Sparkle
Lee stepped in and stopped the bout at 1:33.
Ann Marie Saccurato doesn't do cheerleader skirts. She doesn't do much
embellishment of any sort; she comes to the ring in plain black and a
"ready to go" look. She had won a shutout six round bout with Cisneros
on February 4, 2005, dominating 60-54, on all three cards. Cisneros,
however, was coming off a six round draw with Lisa Holewyne and that
fact, if any, should have been a portent that, this night, Saccurato
wouldn't be tossing a shutout. The pattern of the fight was established
in the first round: Saccurato fighting out of a crouch, yet staying up
on her toes, using the full ring, arms low; Cisneros, standing up
straight, flat footed, attempting to "cut the ring" and looking to trap
Saccurato to the ropes, which she did effectively a couple of times.
Saccurato later said that she thought it was her movement that
eventually made the big difference in the fight. Both fighters had good
flurries throughout the first three rounds, until Saccurato landed a big
right hand midway through the fourth stanza. In the last four rounds,
Cisneros seemed less inclined to come forward, instead circling in
mid-ring and, as a result started to absorb more punches as Saccurato
seemed "to find a home" for her right hand. Cisneros was, however, fully
game to the end and earned justified recognition from both the crowd and
Saccurato. It was a good eight rounds of boxing, maybe the best fight on
the card. The unanimous decision was 79-73, 78-74, 80-72, all for
Saccurato. The last call may have been clear only to Judge Matt Ruggero
and Saccurato's trainer, Luigi Olcese. Olcese, who, post fight, was
willing to concede that although "the third round may have been even"
his fighter had been in control for every round. It wasn't the first
time in boxing history that the ring lights may have slightly distorted
the view from a fighter's corner. Lets just leave it at: Saccurato was
the clear winner of a very fast paced and entertaining fight.
Luigi Olcese was right on target, however, when he noted that Ring
Promotions' Bob Duffy and Tony Mazzarella "deserved a lot of credit" for
putting together two very compelling female matches. Both Shea and
Saccurato were clear cut winners this night, simply because they were
the better fighters with better skills. But both Hayden and Cisneros
came to Iona not as "homecoming opponents" but as fighters ready to
fight and that makes for compelling boxing, whatever the gender.
Anne Marie Saccurato and Maureen Shea are good examples of the value of
extensive amateur backgrounds. They've learned their skills in gyms with
experienced trainers and are indicative of the current depth of talent
in the sport of Women's boxing. Saccurato has, at this point, been in
with significantly better opposition: Eliza Olson, Belinda Laracuente,
and, yes, Victoria Cisneros. Those type of bouts are in the near future
for Maureen Shea.
The fans at Iona didn't get the boxing version of a traditional
"homecoming game" on Friday night. Instead they got a look a two good
fighters, who beat two bona fide opponents in two good bouts. When you
come right down to it, that's probably as good a homecoming as a fight
fan can hope for.
Bernie McCoy |
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