Dillon “Big Country” Carman Stops Eric Martel “The Hammer” Bahoeli in 7 & Larone Whyte Stops Marko Szaila in 2 – Canadian Boxing News
Fight report & photos by Lou Eisen (At Ringside)
Yesterday in Toronto, Ontario, Canada a new Canadian Heavyweight Champion was crowned along with a new Canadian middleweight and cruiserweight champion. It was an exciting card and a full house was in attendance. The fight was being broadcast by TSN (The Sports Network), Canada’s version of ESPN.
The fights took place at the Mattamy Events Center, which is located inside the old Maple Leaf Gardens. This is the arena where, on March 29, 1966, George Chuvalo became the very first man to go the distance with Muhammad Ali after Ali had won the world heavyweight title. Chuvalo was the co-promoter of the event along with Toronto businessman Les Woods. The fight card took place under the auspices of Global Legacy Boxing, Woods new boxing promotional company.
The card started at 1:30 pm, EST. The first fight on the card involved junior middleweights Reginald Franklin from Montreal against Toronto’s Mike Affini, making his pro debut. Franklin entered the ring with a pro record of 1-2-2. Affini shone bright in his debut in the punch for pay ranks. He came in behind a solid, accurate jab, over which he threw many straight right hands that caught Franklin fresh on the chin every time. In fact, Franklin became almost indignant when a punch missed him.
Affini’s trainer is Chris Johnson, who was once a highly ranked light-heavyweight contender and is now a successful and in demand boxing trainer in Toronto. Franklin never seemed able to get his balance straightened away. Franklin threw mostly arm punches whereas Affini, heeding his corner’s advice, threw short, straight shots from his shoulders, shaking up Franklin throughout the short fight. Affini’s hand speed and powerful right hand reduced Franklin to abandon victory in favor of merely surviving early on in the match. The ref warned Franklin repeatedly for continually holding and hitting Affini. In the third round, Affini let it all hang out, ending matters by knocking out Franklin at 2:17 of the round. Affini looked good in his pro debut. Both fighters weighed in at 150 lbs. Affini dominated every moment of the bout and looks to have a bright future, primarily because he has mastered the boxing basics of maintaining good leverage and balance at all times.
The second bout of the evening was also in the junior middleweight division. It featured two young pugilists making their ring debuts in boxing’s professional ranks. This was an odd fight as momentum changed hands several times in the two rounds the fight lasted. Larone Whyte of Mississauga (a suburb of Toronto) came storming out at the opening bell, throwing wild punches at his seemingly overmatched foe, Marko Szaila from Niagara Falls. Szaila studied White for the first 90 seconds of the opening round without throwing a single punch.
Szaila then came storming back, tagging Whyte with hellacious short, murderous punches to both the body and head. Szaila played a steady tattoo on Whyte’s body. Whyte seemed helpless and was ready to go when the round ended. In the second round, Whyte came out and tagged Szaila with some mediocre shots that the lad from Niagara Falls took well. Whyte then started to put some power behind his shots, which stunned Szaila. Whyte poured it on, dropping Szaila to the canvas. Szaila rose from the mat and started to fire back at Whyte. The two were in the midst of an exchange when for some inexplicable reason, the referee stepped in and stopped the bout at the 2:48 mark of round two, awarding Whyte a surprising TKO victory to the utter astonishment of the audience.
Unbeknownst to the fans in attendance, this was also the pro debut for the referee. He is an amateur referee and applied amateur rather than pro rules to the fight. For instance, in the first round, when the whistle blew to signal that there were ten seconds left in the round, the ref sent both fighters to their respective corners until he was informed by the timekeeper that the round was in fact not over. Szaila’s trainer, Ray Rutter, told me after the fight, “This was a real shame. It was his pro debut and he should have been given more leeway than he was afforded. He also deserved a ref who knew what in the heck he was doing.”
The third bout of the card was for the vacant Canadian middleweight title. If you blinked once or twice, you would have missed the bout as this one was over in a hurry. Walid Smichet (the former Canadian middleweight champ) with a record of 21-8-3, 15 KO’s was up against the formidable “Irish” Janks Trotter who sported a fine ring ledger of 9-1-1, 9 KO’s. Trotter is a very well schooled and extremely disciplined fighter. He is at home in the ring and is always on balance and very accurate with all of his shots. He possesses deadly power in his right hand. Smichet entered the ring fat, and out of shape. Once the bell rang to begin the affair, Trotter calmly walked across the ring and dropped Smichet to the canvas with a left jab, straight right hand combo. Neither of Trotter’s shots traveled more than six inches to reach their mark. Trotter’s visage was impassive. He was there to do a job and he did it with brutal efficiency. Smichet (barely) beat the count and was very shaky on his legs. Trotter was on him in a flash, landing a devastating left uppercut and a beautiful right hook to drop Smichet to the mat for the second knockdown of the fight. Smichet, with the help of the ropes, pulled himself upright, only to be toppled almost immediately by a picture perfect right cross from Trotter that ended the fight. Smichet was unable to stand up without the help of his cornermen. His legs were no longer functioning. He sat on his stool for a while before he was physically able to leave the ring. The referee waved the fight off. The time of the win was 58 seconds of the first round. Trotter is now the new middleweight champion of Canada.
Trotter’s answers to various questions were very similar to his punches, short and sweet. He was asked if he was surprised at the brevity of the fight. He replied, “No. Not at all. We knew coming in that he is a slow starter. He likes to carry his hands low too. We figured it was just a matter of time until we caught him. I am happy to be the new Canadian Middleweight Champion and I hope to bring honor to the belt and my country.”
The following bout was for the Canadian cruiserweight title. The irony here of course is that Troy Ross is still one of the best cruiserweights in the world, let alone Canada. In fact, “Dangerous” Denton Daley and Troy Ross are the two best cruiserweights and fighters in Canada today. Daley will be facing Youri Kalenga for the interim WBA world cruiserweight title on Nov. 15 in Mississauga, Ontario.
Today’s Canadian cruiserweight title fight featured Montreal’s Sylvera Louis whose pro record is 6-3, 2 KO’s, taking on Toronto’s Didier Bence, who is now 10-2, 3 KO’s. Bence is a very frustrating fighter to watch at times. He always seems to be on the verge of accomplishing something big but never manages to reach his goal. He often becomes disinterested during his fights. Today he was unable to overcome his bad ring habits. Also, his balance was nowhere to be seen. Bence was simply unable to get out of his own way. His trainer, the aforementioned Chris Johnson, was screaming at him during the fight and in between rounds but all of Johnson’s exhortations and advice fell on deaf ears. Bence was just going through the motions and seemed unable to focus on the job at hand.
This turned out to be a less than stellar fight, with more clinching and clutching and holding than boxing taking place. It was an extremely tepid bout. Bence always looks like he should be a great fighter, but the truth is far different. He appeared to be exhausted and a spent force by the third round. Bence’s tactics consisted of rushing head first into Louis like a running back ramming into the defensive line. Louis scored almost all of the good shots landed in the fight, of which there were very few. The crowd became increasingly disenchanted with the fight as the rounds went slowly by. This was an eight round title fight. Usually title fights are 12 round affairs but the audience was extremely grateful that this non-action bout was limited to eight excruciating stanzas.
Louis dominated what little action there was in this bout. That was reflected on the scorecards, where Louis was awarded a majority decision. One judge had it a draw while the other two judges scored it for Louis by scores of 77-75 and 79-72. A draw would also have sufficed. Ringside Report had it 79-73 for Louis.
Next up was the feature bout of the evening for the vacant Canadian heavyweight title. The title was declared vacant when champion Neven Panjic retired due to hand problems. In actual fact, Panjic retired because he was sick and tired of the politics and B.S. that is an integral part of the sport. Panjic told Ringside Report, “Recently Kathy Duva called me up to offer me a fight with Tomasz Adamek. I said I was out of shape and needed two months to train. She said the fight is in one week and you will get $50,000. Take it or leave it.” Panjic reiterated he was not in any shape. Duva did not budge from her original offer. Panjic turned her down. Duva was looking to put an out of shape fighter in the ring with Adamek only to pad his record. Panjic said this was commonplace in his career and in most of pro boxing today, which is true. Panjic never heard from Duva again.
The Canadian heavyweight title fight was very sloppy but very exciting as well. There were seven knockdowns in the fight. Toronto’s Dillon “Big Country” Carman, who now sports a pro record of 7-2, 6 KO’s, faced Montreal’s Eric Martel “The Hammer” Bahoeli, who is now 10-4, 7 KO’s. Bahoeli is, in fact, a well-known hockey goon in Quebec. He plays semi-pro hockey in Quebec. Bahoeli has no amateur boxing experience to speak of. Bahoeli is much more comfortable with hockey fights, which usually last no more than 30 seconds to one minute. It was obvious early on that Bahoeli had virtually no stamina to speak of.
Bahoeli committed one of the cardinal sins of boxing, according to Rocky Marciano’s legendary trainer, Charley Goldman. Bahoeli was throwing punches out the window. By that I mean he was winging long, wild, arm punches from all angles, which missed their intended target by at least five feet every time he launched one of his errant missiles. Each missed shot put Bahoeli off balance. Bahoeli also fell to the canvas several times after missing some wild punches.
Bahoeli was telegraphing all of his shots. Missing so many wild punches that often by such wide margins only serves to give a fighter arm cramps as well as muscle fatigue. Bahoeli could find work as a wind turbine if he wanted to change professions. Still Bahoeli did manage to drop Carman three times in the bout. Carman was able to duck the majority of Bahoeli’s blows. Carman also showed a good, sturdy chin. The shots that dropped Carman landed high on the side of his head.
Carman was very smart. When he was knocked down, he took advantage of the count by rising to one knee and waiting until the count of nine had been tolled before rising to do battle once again. Carman dropped Bahoeli to the canvas four different times in the match with short, straight and powerful right hands square on the chin. Carman received outstanding advice in his corner from longtime trainer Billy Martin and former two-time IBF Super Featherweight World Champion, Steve Molitor.
Molitor told Carman to remember to breathe which some fighters forget to do in the midst of all the excitement and action involved in a title match. Trainer Martin looked straight into Carman’s eyes and said, “Do you want to win this fight? If you do, then throw that straight right hand counter every time you slip his jab!” Martin also wisely told Carman to keep his left glove up by his head at all times, which proved to be prescient advice. Once Carman started to do that, Bahoeli was no longer able to tag him with any wild right hands.
While Bahoeli was a spent force by round four, Carman was having a great time, smiling and waving to his fans in between rounds. Carman was enjoying himself immensely and why not? He’s young, good-looking, loaded with charisma and punches like a mule kick. Bahoeli suffered a badly swollen left eye and was bleeding heavily from his mouth. Carman was also bleeding from the mouth and sported a small mouse underneath his right eye.
This was definitely the fight of the year in Canada. It featured incredible excitement in every round and had the audience on their feet in the opening round, which is where they remained until the fight ended in round seven. Carman came out slowly in the opening round, trying to feel out Bahoeli. Bahoeli was not interested in a feeling out process. He started winging shots right away. Carman began to engage him halfway through round one and that is when the fireworks began.
Bahoeli was dropped in rounds three, five, six and seven and it did not look like he was going to beat the count on all four knockdowns. In fact, in round six, referee Mark Simmons looked to have reached ten in his count but the timekeeper said that Bahoeli had risen before the count had reached ten. Bahoeli looked at that point as if he would have been happy staying down for the full count as his gas tank was completely empty.
Bahoeli came out for round seven looking like he did not want to continue. He was gasping for air and desperately trying not to engage “Big Country” at any cost. His plan did not work. Carman came forward and landed a succession of left hooks to the liver and vicious right hooks to the head. Carman then launched a right hook all the way from home that knocked Bahoeli out cold. Bahoeli was unconscious for a good seven minutes. He did not move at all. He looked to be in serious trouble. The ring was then cleared and the ringside doctor was able to revive him. Bahoeli was still badly shaken up in his dressing room almost an hour later.
Carman remarked after the bout that he was extremely proud to be the new Canadian heavyweight champion. “I have been dreaming of this moment since I was seven years-old. I used to tell my school friends that one day I would be the 
Canadian heavyweight champion.” The new, colorful champion was justifiably proud that he made his own dream come true with his own two hands, courage and a lot of grit. When asked who his biggest influence in boxing was, he remarked, “This gentleman standing beside me!” referring to Canadian fight legend George Chuvalo. Carman is now part of the pantheon of great Canadian heavyweights stretching back all the way to former world heavyweight champion, Tommy Burns from Hanover, Ontario.
Carman was asked if he would consider giving Bahoeli a rematch. His terse response was unequivocal. “Absolutely not. He told me before the fight that if he won, he would not give me a rematch. Also, I knocked him out. It was not a controversial split decision it was a clean knockout. I came to make a statement and win the title and I did both.” He added, “None of this would have happened for me if I did not have my truly great trainer, Billy Martin. He is the one that turned me into a pro fighter and got me in shape for this fight. He always knows exactly the right thing to say to me at all times in between rounds and during the fight.” And with that, the man they call “Big Country,” let out a victory whoop and retreated happily to his dressing room along with his giddy entourage. Dillon Carman is now the new King of Canada. Get used to him. He looks to be settling in for a long reign at the top.
Canadian Boxing legend George Chuvalo