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Karass Outlasts Smith in a Barnburner

posted by Kathleen Holland on April 11, 2008, in News

By Mark DeSisto

Welterweight contenders Jesus Soto Karass and Chris “The Mechanic” Smith put on an all out brawl Friday night at the Tropicana Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, NJ, with Karass coming out on top by unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 96-94(twice) and a questionable 98-92.

Jamaican national Smith immediately took the fight to Karass, perhaps catching the volume puncher by surprise with a taste of his own medicine and pushing him backwards to take the open round.

Karass had a better second round, scoring well late and round 3 had the the two fighters slugging it out to the delight of the crowd. Karass had Smith hurt midway thru the round with Smith showing tremendous heart to fight back, pushing Karass backward to end the round.

Smith had a very strong round 4, upping his work rate, getting his punches off first and continuously moving inside to smother the long reach of Karass. The mid rounds showed a slight edge to Karass who landed the more effective blows and started to throw body punches in attempt to slow down the relentless Smith.

Karass made a nice adjustment in rounds 8 and 9, showing more movement and having success boxing from the outside and not allowing Smith to keep him against the ropes so often.

The tenth and final round showed the two fighters, particularly Smith (being slightly behind) going all out at a tremendous pace once again, leaving the crowd applauding
on their feet at fight’s end. Both warriors were clearly bruised and swollen after the grueling bout.

“Karass is know as an aggressive, volume puncher, so I took it to him and thought I beat him at his own game”, stated a disappointed but affable Smith. In falling to 21-5-1(13KO), Smith gained respect for his gutsy performance against a very difficult fighter in Karass and quieted the critics who though is better days were behind him.

“I expected a tough fight and I got one” stated Los Mochis, Mexico native Karass. “I wanted the knockout and my corner was telling me to step it up, but he just wouldn’t stop coming forward”. With the hard earned victory, Karass (20-3-2 14KO) has not lost in his last 11 bouts since a 2005 decision to stick and move specialist Yuri Foreman.

In a nice battle between former world championship challengers, Puerto Rico’s Henry Bruseles scored a 98-92, 96-94, 94-96 split decision victory over the ultra-tough Ben Tackie.
Bruseles, a stable mate of world champion Miguel Cotto, fought a very intelligent fight and showed good ring generalship to just stay out of the reach of the aggressive Ghanian.

Tackie (29-10, 17KO) , who possesses one of the sports better chins, constantly moved forward and had his moments, but Bruseles dug in when he had to and counterpunched hard to get Tackie’s respect and ensure the victory.

“I knew he was strong, but not that strong”, stated Bruseles after the fight. “ He was better than I thought and prevented me from making the big statement I was looking for with a knockout.” Bruseles improved to 27-3-1(15KO) and looks to move back up the ranks in the light welterweight division since his title fight loss to Floyd Mayweather back in 2005.

In the evening’s opening bout, Philadelphia lightweight Luis Castro remained undefeated at 3-0(1KO), with a close 39-37 (twice), 38-38, majority decision over hard charging Bronx fighter Francisco Palacios.

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