IRVINE BOXING : Former Olympian Tillman Defeats Lee

Heavyweight Henry Tillman, at least 20 pounds over his former fighting weight, still managed to win a decision over Mark Lee in the main event of the monthly boxing card Thursday at the Irvine Marriott.

Tillman, of Diamond Bar, who weighed in at 234 pounds, had only a few strong moments but still won by lopsided scores of 98-92, 100-89 and 99-90.

It was the first fight for Tillman since November, 1990, and his main goal was to get in as much action as possible.

“I’m pleased with the way it went out there,” Tillman said, “because I got 10 rounds of work in.” Tillman plans to fight again in mid-April.

Tillman, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, was close to his old form for parts of the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds.

The fight appeared over in the sixth when Tillman (24-5) dropped Lee with two hard rights. Lee (30-18) seemed uninterested in getting up until the count got to seven. He then rolled over and popped up like a man much lighter than his 224 pounds and continued.

The final four rounds lacked much action save for a two-punch flurry here and there. This caused some of the sellout crowd of 1,459 to boo. Others did chants of the fighters’ names. Some hummed the theme from “Rocky” and more than a few left early.

One reason for the restlessness was that the four undercard matches had been exciting.

The best of these was the co-main event, in which Mike Semaza of Orange remained undefeated with a tough, eight-round decision over Vincente Gonzales of Bell.