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Sunday, November 10, 2002

By Chuck Finder, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

CHESTER, W.Va. -- In the end, he had a nasty, four-inch cut underneath his right eye and a ugly D on his own report card. But he also had a new habit of finishing with a flourish, not to mention a new belt to go with his International Boxing Federation title.

	Challenger Dennis Holbaek, left, and Paul Spadafora exchange punches. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

Paul Spadafora last night overcome an early deficit -- two, maybe even three rounds. Then the McKees Rocks boxer rallied to win the final seven to score a unanimous decision over Dennis Holbaek before 4,500-plus inside The Harv at Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort plus a pay-per-view audience. With that, he unified a couple of boxing's alphabet-soup belts, adding the Dane's International Boxing Council belt while retaining his own from the IBF.

"I felt that in the first four, five rounds, I couldn't get off," said Spadafora, 36-0 after this 12-round triumph. "I was real sluggish. I was real slow. I didn't feel good. I didn't feel right. I give myself a 'D.' "

Added his manager, Al McCauley: "Have we all seen Paul look bad? Yeah, we've all seen Paul look bad. But he came back and fought like a champion."

It was the formula that earned Spadafora victories against Victoriano Sosa in February 2000 and, over Angel Manfredy in April.

Holbaek, also known as Pederson and Dennis the Menace, could be called nothing but the aggressor the first five rounds. He won no fewer than three of them, maybe four. He tagged Spadafora in the third round.

"Yeah, he was hurt, definitely," said Holbaek, sporting a bloody left eye and overcoming cramping thighs through the fight's middle parts. Much of that was due to his 21-month layoff, most of which was spent waiting in Denmark for a ballyhooed match with Spadafora. "I hadn't been in the ring in quite awhile. I had trouble with my legs."

It gravitated to his fists, which didn't inflict nearly as much damage as in the early rounds, when, as Spadafora admitted, "he caught me with a good shot. I was only hurt for two or three seconds. It made me get off my feet a little bit. I just went back in my corner and sucked it up." Even Manfredy, watching from the first row, yelled as if instructing Holbaek to keep up the pressure: "He's hurt."

But like the Sosa fight, like the Manfredy fight, Spadafora stormed back and owned the final rounds.

The judges' cards reflected a slightly larger triumph: Debra Barnes of New Jersey scored it 118-110, and Larry Doggett of Virginia and Gary Wolfe of West Virginia both 117-111.

"This guy's a true champion," co-trainer Jesse Reid said. "Everybody can't go to the line and fight a great fight every night. But I'll tell you something, longevity is the mark of a champion. He'll be here another year. . . two years. This guy will be around."

In the end, Holbaek's corner -- yelling instructions in Danish -- expended more energy than their fighter. He got away from the flurries, the combinations, that earned him a commanding lead in the early rounds. Spadafora closed with victories in the final seven rounds.

In the TV undercard, 2000 U.S. Olympian Jermain Taylor registered a fourth-round TKO and there was an unpopular verdict -- a draw -- in a toe-to-toe, Lamar Murphy-Victoriano Sosa fray that electrified the building.

Local favorite Johnny "Macho Midget" Bailey opened the evening, in the card's only untelevised fight, with a TKO of Abdul Blackburn of Cleveland. Then Colombian Epifanio Mendoza, noted for hard punches that earned him all 16 professional victories by knockout, knocked out himself with too many punches below the belt. The referee stopped the match at the end of the third round, with Fernando Hernandez of Chicago sprawled on the canvas and apparently winking at his own corner.

Moments before the main event of the InDemand and DirecTV pay-per-view event, Spadafora entered the ring wearing a backwards "Iron Mike 52" cap in honor of the late Mike Webster, a Steelers No. 31 jersey bearing Mike Logan's name and a wide smile. On his trunks' waistband, he had stitched the name of his 4-month-old daughter, Giana.

By night's end, he had two belts: the IBF and the IBC. Next up? The winner of Arturo Gatti-Mickey Ward later this month, then maybe the Floyd Mayweather-Jose Luis Castillo winner from next month.

Spadafora maintained that he wanted to remain at 135 pounds a little bit longer.

But not much.

Said Spadafora, "It all depends on how I feel."

And how long it continues to take him to, in his words, warm up for fights.