Georges Beats Tyner
Upset in Motown

By Lindy Lindell
Photo by Marty Gervais

Billed as the rematch of the 1812 War between Canada and the U.S., Canadian Andres Georges scored a well-deserved split verdict win in an eight over the much more experienced Lanardo Tyner, now (24-4). Windsorite Georges (10-1) used height, speed and crafty boxing techniques to thwart Detroit-area favorite Tyner, who lost for the first time in front of his 313-area code partisans. Moments after the decision was announced, one of Tyner’s backers yelled, “Straight up: Tyner was robbed!” The only robbery committed was that Georges was deprived of a unanimous decision win. The eyes of this journalist saw an easy win for Georges and had him sweeping the first seven of the eight rounds. The fight was for the NABA US welterweight championship.

An impartial observer of the fight thought Tyner “looked like he was stuck in the mud,” an analogy that looked to be more apt than the above comment. When the message that the fight was slipping away for Tyner was finally registered in round eight, Tyner tore into Georges with a two-fisted attack that seemed to hurt him. But when Tyner backed Georges into into the ropes in his attempt to knock him out, Georges took a couple of punches more and then bull-rushed Tyner with a clinch that sent both sprawling to the other side of the ring. Tyner’s assault had been blunted and he seemed tired, failing to resume his assault with the mad-dog conviction earlier in the round. Whether Georges was relieved about this is unknown. Suffice to say that he could have fought Tyner in this fashion–with Tyner standing at arm’s length–until the cows came home. Scores were for Georges a mincing 78-77 (three even rounds), 77-75, and a stunning 77-74 for Tyner. I had it 79-73 for Georges.

In something of a surprise, the normally light-hitting Robert Jones, 8-8, Ann Arbor, surprised the very inactive Pete Cantu, 16-7, Pontiac, and probably ended the two-decade vet’s career with a decisive third-round stoppage that included two knockdowns. The junior-middleweight matchup started slowly, but heated up in the second, Cantu seeming to warm to the task as he stunned Jones with a right. But Cantu took a left hook high on the head in the third, reacted belatedly, and went down. He arose smartly, but with nothing to defend himself and when he found himself on the floor several seconds later, the referee stopped it.

A Charge of Jackie Kallen’s, welterweight Michael Dallas, (16-0), Bakersfield, CA, destroyed Devaris Crayton, (6-11-2), Orlando, FL, with a heavy right in round two; Crayton easily beat the count, but went in search of a door in his corner and when he refused eye contact with the ref, the contest was stopped. In a good scrap at the top of the evening, Ramon Valenzuela, (3-0), Chicago, bested a durable Tony Hervey, (0-1), Detroit, via unanimous decision. Two of the six fights failed to materialize. In one instance, the (3-8) Rasool Shakoor made the weigh-in and signed his contract the day before, but “failed to show for undisclosed reasons” the night of the fight.

Jackie Kallen, a Californian for over a decade now, visited Detroit several months ago and agreed to work on the present show with Palace promoter, Joe Donofrio. She did. This was Donofrio’s first show since a red ink bath taken with a show held for Mary Jo Sanders in 2009. This time the fighters’ paycheck amounted to less, but the enthusiastic crowd was very small.