Sluggish Bowe Slugs Out a Win

At the age of 37, weighing 280 pounds, making only his second appearance in the ring after an absence of nearly eight years, former two-time heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe didn’t fool anybody Thursday night in Temecula.

Fighting in the 10-round main event at Pechanga Casino, he looked like a 37-year-old, 280-pounder attempting a comeback.

Although Bowe (42-1, 33 knockouts) won a split decision over Billy Zumbrun (18-6-1, 10), he didn’t impress the crowd of 1,518, which booed when the decision was announced.

Judges David Denkin and Lou Filippo scored the match for Bowe, 96-92. The third judge, Ray Corona, had Zumbrun winning, 95-93.

Helping Bowe earn the victory was a fourth-round shot to the right side of Zumbrun’s body that sent the Utah fighter to the canvas, an eighth-round penalty point levied on Zumbrun by referee Pat Russell for illegal use of a shoulder, and a constant, head-rattling jab by Bowe.

That helped to make up for his diminishing reflexes and onset of fatigue that reduced Bowe’s right hand to a slow-motion punch.

Bowe’s 5 1/2 -inch height advantage and his 52-pound weight advantage were neutralized by Zumbrun’s mobility and combinations.

In Bowe’s only previous fight since two bouts against Andrew Golota in 1996, Bowe scored a second-round technical knockout over Marcus Rhode last September.

“At the end of the day, it was good that I went 10 rounds,” Bowe said. “Yeah, he shook me up a couple of times, but my experience was the difference. I weighed 320 pounds before I started training. Give me another six weeks and see what I can do.”

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Middleweight Roy Ashworth might have a future in wrestling, but boxing is not his game.

In the nearly three rounds of the scheduled six-round semi-main event he fought against Andre Ward, Ashworth squeezed in practically every infraction imaginable. He hit Ward when the 2004 Olympic gold medal winner was down from a push, hit him on the break, hit him on the back of the head, held him and attempted to head butt. Finally, Corona, the referee, had enough, disqualifying Ashworth (3-2) at 3:56 of the third round.

“When you are fighting a wild guy,” Ward said, “you just have to stay controlled.”

Corona penalized Ashworth a point in the first round for his tactics, but that didn’t seem to discourage him.

“He wanted a way out,” Ward said. “The ref told us that, if we kept doing what we were doing, he was going to stop the fight.”

Ward (3-0, two knockouts) responded in the first round with a few blows of his own to the back of Ashworth’s head.

“I can’t be calm when a guy is trying to hit behind the head,” Ward said. “The ref wasn’t able to control him, so I got to do what I got to do.”

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In a preliminary fight, Vassiliy Jirov, a former cruiserweight champion fighting at a career-high 227 pounds, stopped Forrest Neal (16-6, 12) at 1:10 of the third round of a scheduled 10-round heavyweight match.

Jirov (34-3, 30) knocked down Neal in each of the four corners, two knockdowns coming in the second round and two in the third.

Jirov, nine pounds heavier than he was for his last fight, says he’s happy with his new weight.

“I feel good,” he said. “I don’t look fat.”