'Contender' Finale Packed Great Punch

Boxing

By: Jake Goldberg

Posted: 11/13/07

It left me saying that was the fight of the year.

It had my jaw on the floor, and it had me going crazy.

Sakio Bika fought Jaidon Codrington on the season finale of "The Contender" this past Wednesday on ESPN, in what most are calling an instant classic.

I don't really know what shocked me more truthfully; the fact that this fight was a down-right amazing slugfest or that there was great boxing on cable television that I didn't have to pay for. Regardless the fight was good enough to make Brian Kenny, one of ESPN's more respected boxing commentators, to say it was the best fight he had ever seen.

The brutality seen inside of the T.D. Banknorth Garden left many viewers claiming similar things to what Kenny said. Frankly I found myself saying something along those lines, while it's not the best fight I have ever seen, few fights carry the barbaric like qualities that this one did.

Bika and Codrington on this night replaced sweet science with chaotic carnage. The opening round saw more action than most fights have in their entirety. Bika floored Codrington with a bone-splitting shot that landed viciously on the side of the head. Bika, for some reason, proceeded to hit Codrington twice while he was down (while funny, it was still cheating and I don't condone it). Codrington didn't seem like this as he handed Bika a huge slice of humble pie as he sent a perfect uppercut to the chops of Bika, sending Bika to the canvas.

When the bell finally closed the action out, fans were on their feet and I found myself standing stupefied glaring at the television. Little to say I wasn't ready for this type of action, truthfully I was anticipating a boring fight. Round 1 only proved as sampling of the fury that was to come.

I threw my remote away from me by round three, I didn't want my fingers accidentally pressing a button, making me miss any of the intense action. I was enthralled by the fact that neither had any sense of defense and that they just wanted to trade punches until one couldn't go on. These weren't your sister's punches either - they were bombs, every punch meant to end the fight.

Everything thrown landed, everything.

Their heads swiveled back and forth, their bodies shook as blows were landed. Its simplicity was the best part, they stood, they punched and they got hurt. It was an easy equation that added up to amazing action.

It was around Round 4 when Bika disregarded all notions of straight punches in favor of wide massive blows that screamed as they landed over Codrington's faced. Bika was a kamikaze; his defense was forgotten in the locker-room and was most likely not brought to the arena.

Codrington had two options at this point; he could trade with straighter punches hoping they got there first or he could back up and try for to outlast the wild Bika. He wasn't able to think about it for long, Bika forced his hand by being so aggressive. Codrington had to hope to land a shot that would end the fight.

There was no question that each fighter was getting hurt and that this one wasn't going to be decided by the judges. Bika gradually took the steam out of Codrington, even though he was still taking good licks from time-to-time. In Round 8 he sent Codrington into a dream-land and continued to land gut-wrenching shots until the referee was forced to pronounce the fight over.

I stood, and I won't lie, I clapped. Don't worry - nobody was in the room, so it didn't look lame. I was ecstatic, my heart was racing and I wanted to be in a fight like that for about five minutes. Then, once I calmed down a little I came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be the best idea.

The fight didn't have great significance in truth, and Bika will most likely not go on to do much more in his career. But for one night, two fighters were able to burn their fight into the minds of whoever saw it and sometimes that's better than any championship you can get.

Jake Goldberg's boxing

column runs every Tuesday.

He can be reached at

Jacob.Goldberg@UConn.edu.