Best Beltway Boxing Card -- 'The Beltway Brawl!'

Over the past 20 years, boxing fans in DC, Maryland and Virginia have been fortunate to have great boxing cards. But one card stands tall above the rest. Let me take you back to April 29, 1995 at the USAir Arena (formerly known as the Capital Centre) for a Don King-promoted card known as "The Beltway Brawl." There have been some great cards that have come through the Beltway area over the years. I think of the Triple Jeopardy card at MCI in 1999, in which three of our Beltway champions either defended or went after world titles. The Leon Spinks show in October of 1994, as crazy as it was, it was a solid card. And for an event, the Kevin McBride-Mike Tyson card in 2005 was one where the theatrics of the boxers and the fans outdid the actual boxing. But I can't think of one card that was as solid from top to bottom as the Beltway Brawl at USAir Arena. This was the first Don King card I attended as a member of the press and it had everything you could ask for. It had a strong local contingent, it had emerging stars and most importantly, it had superb main event bouts. William Joppy and Maurice Blocker were on the UNDERCARD of this show. The co-feature was the bout where Bernard Hopkins won his first middleweight world title, defeating Segundo Mercado. This was a bout dominated by Hopkins, coming off their controversial draw the year before. The main event was the superb matchup between IBF Junior Middleweight champ Vincent Pettway and Simon Brown. The bout was a foul fest, but it was extremely exciting. The end of the bout is still regarded as one of the greatest knockouts in the history of the sport. In the sixth round, Brown missed with a punch. Pettway came back with one of his own and stopped Brown in his tracks. The image of Brown lying on his back throwing punches at the air is one of the most indelible images I can remember in my career. But amazingly, that wasn't even the best bout of the night. When Darryll "Terrible T" Tyson defended his USBA Junior Welterweight championship against former world champion "Fearless" Freddie Pendleton, no one knew how great that bout would be. It was two old-school boxing guys showing old-school heart. Pendleton stopped Tyson in the 10th round after surviving a knockdown of his own. It was a remarkable fight that you only saw if you were in the arena that night.The Beltway Brawl set a new standard that all other Beltway Boxing cards are judged by. This was the entire card that evening: Vincent Pettway retained his IBF Junior Middleweight title with a sixth-round KO over Simon Brown. Bernard Hopkins captured the vacant IBF Middleweight title with a seventh-round TKO over Segundo Mercado. Freddie Pendleton won the USBA Junior Welterweight title with a 10th round TKO over Darryll Tyson. Oba Carr stopped Alfredo Rojas with a fifth round KO. Lamar Murphy knocked out DC's Lyndon Paul Walker in the first round. William Joppy won a 10-round decision over Joaquin Velasquez. Former IBF Welterweight champ Maurice Blocker (from DC) scored a fifth-round KO over Bobby Butters. Former WBA Middleweight champ John David Jackson won by eight-round decision over James Green. DC's Tim "Da Bamma" Hillie won a 10-round unanimous decision over Ernest Mateen. DC's Antonio "Starchild" Reese scored a first round KO over Bernard "Preacherman" Grant. "Dangerous D" Darryl Lattimore of DC won a six-round decision over David Gonzales. Humberto Aranda won a six-round decision over Ed Griffin of Baltimore.