Dulorme Beats Lundy Via Split Decision in BK

Hank Lundy, who talked a helluva game coming in, and Thomas Dulorme, seeking to become universally embraced by the boxing-mad Puerto Rican fanbase, engaged in a sorta sloppy but not un-interesting tenner in the TV opener of HBO’s Boxing After Dark program on Saturday evening, from Barclays Center, in Brooklyn.

Lundy, who promised to be a pitbull on a postman,  was 25-3-1 entering, to 21-1 for Dulorme, in this welterweight scrap.

Dulorme came out on message, focused on a jab-happy attack. He sent Lundy to the mat in the first, and it looked like maybe we’d get a rubout. No… Dulorme then let Lundy back in, and was helped by Lundy’s decision to get more nasty, more Philly on the Puerto Rican. After ten, we had a decision. The judges saw it for Lundy 96-93, 96-93 for Dulorme and 97-92, for the Puerto Rican.

Lundy afterwards said, “I overcame a knockdown and I had to make it an ugly fight. I thought I took the later rounds enough to win a decision.” He said he was bummed that he didn’t follow the gameplan. Dulorme said after, “It was a really tough fight, but I stuck to my gameplan.”

Tale of two gameplans, I suppose.

Co-trainer Mike Stafford, who works with Barry Hunter to oversee Lundy, told me that a cold was no excuse. He saw Lundy coming on, and thought his kid should have kayoed Dulorme. “We needed two more rounds, and this should have been a twelve round fight,” he said. “This was a championship fight, and it should never have been a ten round fight!”

Dulorme went 152-447 to 151-451 for Lundy. Day-um, you never seen punches landed and thrown so close, do ya? Behind the numbers, it was easy to perceive, though, that Lundy was too often amateurish, and lung-y with his throws, as opposed to the more refined Puerto Rican.

In the first, Dulorme looked big and long. Both snapped jabs. A right hand dropped Lundy, at 12 seconds to go. A right hand on the side of the head as Lundy was looking down was the telling toss.

In the second, D’s jab looked on message. Lundy went lefty at 1:50, and it didn’t help. Dulorme looked sharp, confident, in control.

In the third, Lundy came out bombing more so. But he was step slow of hand, however. Did that have anything to do with the bad cold he came down with this week? Possibly.. Dulorme’s jab fell off, and it was a tighter round. In the fourth, a left hook from Lundy and then a combo from the Philly fighter scored. Dulorme got the message, got back to the jab, and jazzed the crowd with a right hand.

In the fifth, Dulorme jab jab jabbed, as the Lundy corner yelled, “Let them hands go!” He didn’t, not enough. In the sixth, a right off a flurry by Hank looked clean. Dulorme grabbed twice and then got nailed by a left. Hank’s corner got excited…Was the worm turning?

In the seventh, Dulorme got back to basics, jabbing. But he started holding, and then sliding and moving, and going lefty. Lundy was now imposing his will. A lefty Lundy scored on a right hook, then a right, as a demonic sneer took over his face. Dulorme was running away more, looking not to get hit.

In the eighth, Lundy came out and threw the first punch. Judges look for that, and it sets a tone to the round. Righty Dulorme got some energy back, and wasn’t running so much, as Lundy looked a bit winded. In the ninth, to start Lundy looked to close the gap, shorten the distance, put some fear into Dulorme. Lundy stalked, but his launches were often a tad late. In the tenth, Lundy came out nastier and busier. He was wilding, sloppily but landed some cleanishly. Dulorme slid to his right, buying time. We went to the cards….

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