By: Sean Crose
Believe it or not, boxing has a long history of fights going down on the 4th of July. Jack Johnson defeated former world champion James J. Jeffries on July 4th 1910, while Jack Dempsey won the heavyweight title off of Jess Willard in brutal fashion on July 4th, 1919. Dempsey also went on to beat Tommy Gibbons in a fight that nearly destroyed the town Shelby, Montana on the Fourth of July, 1923. Aaron Pryor proved just how good he was again on July 4th, 1982 when he bested Akio Kameda in six. Again, boxing matches of note have long gone down on July 4th.
The connection continued Saturday night in Cleveland as Abdullah Mason took on Albert Bell in an Independence Day throwdown for Mason’s WBO lightweight title. Scheduled for 12, the bout went down in Mason’s home town of Cleveland and was aired live on TNT and the DAZN streaming service respectively. Notably enough, each man was undefeated stepping into the ring. The fight was the main event of a card that also featured Rene Palacios challenging Bruce Carrington for Carrington’s WBC featherweight title. Overall, it was a solid card of boxing to wrap up America’s 250th Birthday with.
The opening round was a feeling out process for both men. Bell slipped and hit the floor at one point but it wasn’t a knock down nor was it ruled as one. A headbutt at the end of the second round might have been a sign of things to come. Aside from that, each man landed well in the chapter. Bell did fine work in the third using his long reach to his advantage. At that point, Mason had no answers for Bell’s strategy. Mason had an aggressive 4th but he still wasn’t doing enough to take control of the fight from Bell.
The 5th saw Bell remain in control. Mason tried to turn up the volume on his punches and aggression, but he couldn’t make anything happen consistently. By the 6th it was obvious that Mason was in trouble, not because of Bell’s power but because of Bell’s height and cool professionalism. The older challenger was simply in control. No matter what he tried to do, Mason couldn’t regularly get in on his man. With that being said, the young champion landed well on Bell in the 7th. Indeed it looked as if Mason might have actually won the round.
Then sure enough Mason took control in the 8th. Using effective aggression he landed and landed regularly. Bell tried to keep his distance, but Mason rose to the occasion and kept up with him. The defending champion unloaded on Bell’s body in the 9th. Attacking Bell’s midsection with blistering shots, Mason truly took control of the fight. The pace slowed down in the 10th, which might not have been a good thing for Mason on the judge’s cards. Bell was having nowhere near the success he had earlier in the fight.
Bell looked completely wiped out in the 11th. As the broadcast team stated, he didn’t seem to be looking to win anymore. He still however had the 12th round which might have been enough to carry him to victory should he have won it. A high-speed combination put Bell down at the beginning of the 12th, however. He got up, but Mason went right for the kill. Bell went down again from what looked to be exhaustion… and the referee abruptly stopped the fight. It wasn’t fair. Not to Bell. Not to Mason. Not to the fans. Mason looked like he might have been on his way to a legitimate victory but was denied the chance to get it. Instead, the ending of a very interesting fight ended up being about the referee. Never a good thing.
