Fight:1530772
Tommie Speller 166 lbs lost to Dennis Hasson 168 lbs by UD in round 8 of 8
- Date: 2010-09-25
- Location: Bally's Atlantic City, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
- Referee: Ricardo Vera
- Judge: John Stewart 72-80
- Judge: Steve Weisfeld 72-80
- Judge: Hilton Whitaker 73-79
In the preliminary bout to the main event on the Teon Kennedy versus Alex Becerra fight card at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, super middleweights Dennis 'D-Hep' Hasson and Tommie 'Big Poppa' Speller, both of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, fought an eight round inside war from the orthodox stance, with Speller moving straight ahead, and Hasson moving side to side. The contrasting styles made for a close bout, much closer than the scoring indicated. Hasson spent most of the bout moving side to side with an aggressive jab, and effective power shot counterpunching. Speller came forward bobbing and weaving in the classic tradition and style of Philly fighter Joe Frazier. Speller did not have Frazier's power,but he remained dangerous all night, and took Hasson's best shots with out being bothered by them, until the last two rounds. Speller appeared to win the first, with Hasson bleeding profusely from a cut off the corner of his left eye which did not affect his vision. Good job by the Hasson corner working the cut, as Hasson won nearly every round from that point and the cut was not a factor. Both fighters went to work in center ring, fighting a Roy Jones Jr. style clash, with both big men throwing a big punch or two, then trying to clinch and tie the other man up. Both fighters fought cautiously this way, throwing single shots in a pattern fight with no combinations. Hasson held a low left in the first four rounds. Speller, who wasn't stupid, immediately landed counter rights to Hasson's head when he saw the opening. Not enough to win, but enough to ring Hasson's bell when magnified by the eye cut. Hasson's corner stayed on top of the situation and got the fighter to make the correction and bring the left hand back up defensively. Hasson landed the majority of punches, throwing many single left and right hand leads as the agressor. The bout may have been closer than the scoring as the fourth and the fifth rounds appeared to be even. Since neither fighter was landing with power or cutting the ring, both fighters went around in circles. In the sixth, seventh, and eighth, Hasson began landing overhand lefts and rights with more consistency, while continuing to move side to side out of range. Hasson's best rounds were the seventh and eighth. Speller began taking a number of damaging head shots the last two rounds, but hung tough and fought mostly to survive at that point. After the bout, Speller explained "I just wanted to take my time. I had Hasson in the first. I let things slip away from me. We (Speller's corner) thought the bout was closer than the scoring. Entering the last round, at most we thought it could have been a draw."