Forbes defeats Teague in Oregon

By Ricardo Ibarra
Photos by Mike Blair/Boxingprospects.net

Shaking off over four years of ring rust, former IBF jr. lightweight world champion Steve “2 Pound” Forbes (36-14, 11 KOs) returned to the ring on Saturday night at the Clackamas Armory in Clackamas, Oregon, scoring a unanimous decision win over the crafty Tavorus Teague (6-26-4, 3 KOs). Fighting in the main event of the 2Pound Sports & Entertainment promoted event, Forbes had to overcome a tricky and elusive style to outwork the journeyman fighter over the stretch of the fight.
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Early on, Teague, of Paramount, California, maneuvered around the ring well, setting the distance with probing jabs and following up with sharp right hands, all while staying away from Forbes’ counter attempts.

For the first two rounds, the Californian was getting off first and landing the sharper shots as Forbes struggled to find his range, pressing forward but coming up short with his offensive.

In the third, though, Forbes began to close the distance and land his counter right hands, blocking with his shoulder and firing back in the pocket. He kept up the pressure and by the fourth had drawn Teague into an inside fight, where Forbes appeared to be more effective as he dug hard with hooks to the mid-section and came back upstairs with solid punches to the head.

Teague swung the pendulum back in his favor in the fifth, working more from a distance as Forbes looked to press inside, landing at a slightly higher rate with stiff one-twos. Late in the round, as the two exchanged hard right hands, Teague snapped back the head of Forbes, cinching a close round.

Forbes wrestled back the momentum in the sixth round, closing the gap and working hard in the pocket. Teague stood his ground and traded with the former world champ, but Forbes was landing at a more consistent rate. In the final round, as Forbes came out pressing the action, Teague went into a defensive posture and moved around the ring, not letting his hands go with any consistency. Forbes, on the other hand, continued to work and easily banked the round. All three judges saw the fight for Forbes, with scores of 69-64, 68-65, and 67-66.

“I was happy to get the rounds in,” said Forbes after the fight. “I was happy to work on the things we worked on in the gym. His style was so awkward. I’d never fought a guy like that. It was a good test for me…I’m going to keep coming down in weight and this was a good way to test my strength a little bit. This guy is more of a middleweight than anything else…I felt good in there coming back after so many years.”

“It’s a work in progress,” continued Forbes. “I feel kind of like when George Foreman came back, you know he came back a little heavier and brought it back down. We’re not in a rush. We promote ourselves and we can get ourselves going. I know we’ve got some stuff to work on, but overall it was good. My defense was good, and we were safe in there. A couple times I got a little lackadaisical in there because I knew he couldn’t hurt me, and I was trying to get a good shot in. But other than that, I feel good with it…we’ll be back in August.”

With the win, the Portland native adds his thirty-sixth victory in his twenty-third year as a pro. Teague, meanwhile, suffers his fifth straight loss. The bout was contested in the middleweight division.

Four fights rounded out the remainder of the card. In the semi-main event, unbeaten Jr. lightweight prospect Victor Morales, Jr. (11-0, 7 KOs) defeated the tough but outgunned Marcelo Gallardo (7-5-2, 3 KOs), scoring a seventh-round stoppage win. Morales, of nearby Vancouver, Washington, and a clear fan favorite, set a fast pace early, pressing forward behind stiff jabs and unloading with blistering combinations to the head and body. Morales kept up the pressure in the second, drilling his opponent with thudding left hooks to the mid-section and coming back upstairs with right hands, but as the round wore on Gallardo began to inch his way closer and find a home for his own right hand. Morales punctuated the action with a flurry of rapid punches to finish out a close round.

Morales maintained his work rate in the third, working off his jab and catching Gallardo flush as he lunged in with right hands. In the fourth, Morales unloaded with a vicious assault, buckling the knees of Gallardo with perfectly timed uppercuts. Morales again buckled Gallardo late in the round, this time with a left hook to the torso. Morales kept up the pressure in the fifth and by the sixth round was teeing off on the still game, but thoroughly outmatched Gallardo.

Prior to the start of the seventh, the doctor was called up to check on Gallardo, but he allowed the fight to go on. Morales proceeded to dish out a vicious assault over the remainder of the round, slamming Gallardo with precision. After a flurry caught the bleeding and battered Gallardo along the ropes, referee Joel Scobie mercifully stepped in and stopped the bout at 2:40 of the seventh round, giving the young Morales his eleventh straight win. The bout was fought at the 130 lbs. limit.

With a large and vocal cheering section on hand to support him, local amateur stand-out Lorenzo Caldera (1-0, 1 KO) made an impressive entrance into the paid ranks, stopping Great Falls, Montana’s Jerald Gregori (0-1) in the first round. Boxing out of a southpaw stance, Caldera began the bout working patiently behind his jab. He quickly upped his aggression though, exploding with a vicious right hook counter as Gregori stepped in, sending him reeling back to the ropes. Caldera followed, unloading with a barrage that deposited his opponent on the canvas. Caldera pounced after the action was allowed to resume and again found his mark with a flush right hook, sending Gregori down again. Referee Joe Passarella made the decision to call it, awarding the win to Caldera at 1:46 of the opening round. The fight was contested in the lightweight division.

Undefeated welterweight Daquan Wyatt (3-0, 3 KOs), of Las Vegas, added his third consecutive win inside the distance, stopping Cottonwood, California’s Somethonit Phoumychak (0-6) in the second round. Wyatt worked well off his jab early in the fight, using it to measure his opponent before unloading with right hands. Throughout the first round he landed effectively and at a greater rate, though Phoumychak was a game competitor, snapping back with his own attack. In the second, as Wyatt stepped up his output, Phoumychak managed to slip in a few more eye-catching shots. The success was fleeting, though. Mid-way through the round Wyatt stepped up his assault and drilled Phoumychak with a sustained attack. After a series of punches landed flush, Phoumychak was forced to a knee in the corner. Wyatt followed up quickly after the referee allowed the fight to go on, unloading with a frenzied barrage that went unanswered, forcing referee Joel Scobie to step in and call it at 2:45 of the second round.

The evening opened with a last-minute fight put together less than twenty-four hours prior to the event after a scheduled heavyweight fight between Justin Milani and Johnny James was scrapped due to a paperwork issue. In a four round battle between two winless fighters looking to score their first victory, Abdul Kamara (1-1), of Vancouver, Washington, pitched a shut-out decision win over Portland’s Ian King (0-2). Kamara proved to be the more skilled boxer, using his movement effectively in the bout, maneuvering in and out of punching range with solid combinations to the head and body. King showed a lot of heart, pressing forward throughout the fight, but was mostly ineffective with his offense, only managing to land sporadic right hands. By the fourth round Kamara had found his rhythm and was teeing off with sharp combinations, smashing his foe repeatedly with heavy shots before moving away. All three judges scored the fight 40-36, awarding the former Oregon Golden Gloves champion his first win as a professional fighter. The bout was contested in the Jr. middleweight division.

2Pound Sports & Entertainment will return to the Clackamas Armory on August 3rd. For more information visit 2poundsports.com or the 2Pound Sports & Entertainment Facebook page.


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