Salamone (Del Valle) Defeated Last Minute Opponent – by Jim Balloch

KNOXVILLE, TENN. April 28 — Melissa Salamone defeated last minute substitute opponent Sophia Johnson of Atlanta, when the referee stopped the fight at 1:37 of the 5th round of a scheduled 6 rounder. There were no knockdowns.

Johnson was game and aggressive, but inexperienced and nowhere near Salamone’s class. Salamone easily eluded most of Johnson’s major punches.

In the 4th round, Salamone landed a couple of big rights. Between the 4th and 5th rounds, Johnson appeared hurt and could be heard complaining of difficulty in breathing, but answered the bell. Taking her time, Salamone landed a couple of combinations. Shortly thereafter the referee asked Johnson if she wished to continue and stopped the fight when she indicated she did not.

The fight extends Salamone’s record to 21-0-1. Johnson was reportedly 2-1coming into the fight.

It was Salamone’s second consecutive fight with a clearly overmatched opponent. On April 12, she defeated 8-17-1 Shakurah Witherspoon.

In a lengthy interview the day before Saturday’s fight, when 0-11 Ashtabula fighter Chris “Crazy Horse” Miller was still the expected opponent, the personable Salamone candidly acknowledged that she expects a lot of criticism for taking such opponents, and explained her reasons.

She said she needs some tune-up fights to work herself out of a slump that began with a year of inactivity before her Aug. 12, 2000 controversial draw with Laura Serrano.

Salamone’s detailed comments from that interview are included later in this report.

In a brief interview with WBAN after the Johnson fight, Salamone credited Johnson for a good effort.

“She knew of me, and came here to go to war,” Salamone said. “I felt like my timing was off, and I’m still not in (top) shape, but I did what I had to do to get the ‘W’ and that was the most important thing. I’m probably about 60 to 65 percent in shape. I will (continue to) get better. I will fight tougher opponents. Be patient.”

Johnson was brought in after Miller’s car was reportedly towed after she was in a minor accident en route to Knoxville.

Johnson was accompanied by a man later identified to WBAN as Mezaughn Kemp of Atlanta. In a 1999 Miami Herald story, Kemp was identified as a provider

of readily available but minimally trained women boxers recruited from a variety places of not normally associated with athletic endeavor, such as jails and strip clubs.

Trying to get information out of Johnson and Kemp was like fishing for bass in a mud hole. They refused to identify themselves to WBAN before the fight, and Kemp evaded a number of other questions – like, where are you and your fighter from?

“We’re from all over.”

Where does your fighter work?

“In a fast food restaurant”

How much will your fighter be paid?

“Minimum wage.”

When WBAN expressed some doubt that professional fighters were paid hourly, he amended this answer to, “about $100 a round.”

And though Kemp was the manager of a main event fighter, a complete bewilderment as to his identity seemed to beset a number of other people associated with the fight, including Andy Zulewski, president of Power Promotion, and his vice president, Jimmy Adams.

After the fight, Johnson, apparently angry about the outcome of the fight and her decision to have taken it in the first place, still refused to talk to WBAN and local reporters.

Though still refusing to identify himself, Kemp did talk to WBAN about the fight.

“She would have went six, but it was just a psychological thing, she wasn’t hurt,” he said of his fighter. “She came here thinking she was going to have a four round fight, they changed it to six. I’m proud of her effort, but not her attitude. It stinks. Win or lose you are supposed to show sportsmanship and she ain’t been around long enough to know that.”

Salamone and matchmaker Jim Westmoreland said that it was always understood that the fight was to be a six rounder and that Johnson knew it.

“She knew it was for six, she was supposed to be the original opponent, then pulled out, for some reason,” Salamone said.

Her are key excerpts from WBAN’s interview with Salamone on Friday, in which she discussed the reasons for taking some of her recent fights and her thoughts on how it will effect her future:

……”I support women’s boxing and will do whatever I have to do to give it a good name, but in all reality, (after the Serrano fight) I had lost the desire to fight, I didn’t want to fight any more, and I feel like I need to go back to Square One in order to become the fighter that I need to become,” she said.

“If I have to fight a Shakurah five times, I will. I can’t worry about what people think, I can’t worry about if it is going to be hurting women’s boxing, because I have to make a living. I do this full time and I don’t have any control over my promoter getting me fights and then fighters pulling out at the last minute. If there is a Shakurah available to replace the person who pulled out, I will take it. I have to make a living.”

“I understand it probably will hurt me, that people will criticize me, but I don’t worry about that. I know that later on, down the road, it will be better for me,” she continued. “I’m building the desire to fight and compete again. And I will be better. I’m not afraid to fight anyone from 126 to 140.  Eventually (I will be) fighting the better quality fighters, once I’ve got myself focused and right in the mind.”

……”The woman I’m fighting this week, we tried to get a better opponent (with) a better record, I don’t think the record matters. What that means is she’s had 11 fights. She may not be up there in skills but Its going to give me activity and its going to give me the confidence for the fights in the future. ”

……”I have to tell you, these girls who have 0 and 11 records, they can be just as hard to fight as the girls who are 7-0, 8-0, because they know if they upset me they will be on top of the world, So they have something to gain by it (and nothing to lose). So they come out and fight, they come out with all their heart and soul trying to beat me.”

……”Before my sports days are over with I would like to be the best female fighter in the world… I know why I’m doing it (what I am) and later they will see it. I’m working to be the best in the world, and I’m going to be the highest paid woman fighter in the world.”

(A special thanks to Jim Balloch, who is a news writer for the Knoxville Sentinel, and freelanced to cover this event for WBAN)  Any comments to this story, go here

©Copyrighted by Jim Balloch. All Rights Reserved.