Rice stops Vianello on a cut

By Boxing Bob Newman at ringside

In the opening bout of the ESPN telecast, undefeated Italian Olympian Guido Vianello took on former sparring partner Jonnie rice in a scheduled 10 round heavyweight bout. Vianello worked behind his long, pawing jab while Rice tried to counter but didn’t match Guido’s work rate. In the fifth round, the crowd grew very vocal with their discontent at the lack of meaningful action. Suddenly, a long left jab by Rice in the sixth snapped Vianello’s head back and opened a nasty cut on his left eyebrow. Corner was not able to successfully stem the flow of blood, prompting referee Benjy Esteves to call in the ringside doctor early in the seventh.

After a brief inspection, the doctor recommended the fight be stopped. Initially, Esteves told all the judges to score the round, thinking that the cut was caused by a clash of heads. After review of the video replay, the decision was reversed and it was deemed that the cut was caused by that telling punch in the sixth. Winner by technical knockout- Jonnie Rice, now 16-6-1, 11 KOs. Vianello drops his first at 10-1-1, 9 KOs. Incidentally, Vianello was ahead by scores of 59-55 twice and 58-56.

After the fight, Rice stated “I did it again… another undefeated fighter. I’m not here to call anyone out right now. I’m going to enjoy this victory and then see what’s next.”

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