LV’s Harmon wins unanimous decision

Dean Juipe

Monday, April 15, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.

For much of his fight with Glencoffe Johnson, Derrick Harmon acted as if he was getting paid by the round.

Occasionally reluctant to mix it up and naturally elusive anyhow, Harmon gave the appearance of a man committed to going a long, long distance. There was no questioning his stamina.

But Harmon offered enough controlled aggression in his Sunday fight at the Hard Rock to escape with a victory that figures to add to his stature in the light heavyweight ranks.

"It didn't seem that close to me," he said afterward. "I landed the shots that had more power."

Yet Harmon's advisors were concerned and had to be on edge before the judges' scores were announced.

"I tend to score the close rounds for the other guy," said Harmon's manager, Arnie Rosenthal, "and I use that to inspire my guy.

"Derrick took a couple of rounds off but he paced himself well. He had Johnson looking like an old man at the end."

Harmon, of Las Vegas, improved to 22-2 in the nationally televised fight promoted by Goossen Tutor. Receiving $8,450 for his efforts, Harmon prevailed in the judges' eyes as Carol Castellano saw it 98-92 while both Bill Graham and Dalby Shirley scored it 97-93.

Johnson, of Miami, believed he was "homered" by the decision and a Sun scorecard that had him ahead 96-94 supports that contention.

"That's OK," Harmon rationalized. "I could have knocked him out and there still would have been people who thought he won."

But those people would have been few in number, as the bulk of the Hard Rock crowd enthusiastically cheered for Harmon. The southpaw responded with a pivotal victory and dropped Johnson, who received $6,500, to 38-8 despite his formidable and sometimes fearless opposition.

There were no knockdowns in the 10-round fight and neither man suffered a serious cut or injury.

"Derrick stepped up today but he still needs to step up some more," said his new trainer, Kenny Adams. "He still gets a little lazy, but there's no doubting his ability.

"He had some wide open shots at Johnson and his defense was pretty good."

In an undercard bout of note, 2000 Olympic gold medalist Mohamad Abdulaev survived a bloody and foul-plagued match with Joel Salas to win by disqualification at 1:56 of the ninth round when referee Tony Weeks tired of Salas' low blows and stopped the fight.

Abdulaev, a welterweight who trains in Las Vegas, improved to 7-0 while the gritty Salas fell to 10-2-1.