Maureen Shea, fighting in the first female bout of a Broadway Boxing show, was disappointed Friday night when the judges awarded her opponent, Kimberly Colbert, a six-round decision. The scores were 59-55 and 58-56 for Colbert, while one judge had it 57-56 for Shea.
Many at ringside thought Shea, who made a quick exit out of the ring, had done enough to deserve the nod. While it can be argued Colbert landed the harder punches, she was much less busy than Shea, and she had absolutely no technique.
Colbert trash-talked the whole fight, usually after Shea landed a multi-punch combination.
“What are you going to do? Is that all you got?” said Colbert. “That sh*t don’t hurt.”
When a microphone was placed in front of Colbert’s mouth after the fight, she wasn’t at a loss for words.
“Once she (Shea) got up close, she hit like my four-year-old,” said Colbert. Of the 12 fighters on the night’s bout sheet, Colbert’s record was the only one that was noticeably absent. A check of BoxRec.com had Colbert listed at 2-10 (2) prior to facing Shea. Shea’s loss is something of a setback. She had gained a lot of publicity for helping prepare Hilary Swank for the Academy Award winning film “Million Dollar Baby.” Shea was Swank’s primary sparring partner and Swank showed support for Shea when Shea competed in the New York Daily News Golden Gloves tournament prior to turning pro last year. However, Swank was nowhere to be found Friday, although actress Rosario Dawson lent an air of Hollywood to the evening. John Cirillo, Lou DiBella’s top-notch public relations man, was seen making small talk with Dawson early in the night.
An informal poll at ringside conducted by BoxingTalk.com found that most surveyed had Shea winning the fight against Colbert, despite a second-round flash knockdown suffered by Shea. While a knockdown round is usually scored 10-8 for the fighter that scores the knockdown, many ringside observed felt it should have only been a 10-9 round for Colbert, as Shea seemed to be clearly winning the round up until being dropped with a few seconds left in the stanza.
With a controversial decision loss staining her previously undefeated record, it would probably be best if Shea fought an immediate rematch with Colbert, to effectively “erase” the loss, like when Lennox Lewis scored a devastating knockout of Hasim Rahman back in 2001 to regain the heavyweight title. Lewis had lost his title months earlier to Rahman by knockout.
Attempts to talk to Shea when she went to her dressing were unsuccessful, as her team kept the dressing room door closed for a good while. Colbert was not as hard to reach. Before she went to her dressing room, she was talking to reporters a mile a minute.
“For about $2,500 I’ll give her a rematch,” said Colbert, who added, “I think I’ll knock her out next time.”
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