A swing and a miss

Monday, June 26, 2006 | 7:13 a.m.

Calvin Brock kept his unbeaten record intact Saturday night at Caesars Palace.

He did little else, however, to capture the imagination - or bolster the confidence - of a boxing public desperate for a heavyweight hero to clean up the moribund division.

In an uninspired performance that elicited boos and catcalls from the crowd at the sweltering outdoor Roman Plaza Amphitheater, Brock pounded out a 12-round unanimous decision against Uzbekistan native Timur Ibragimov.

The fight, billed as a heavyweight eliminator, was marred by extensive bouts of holding and grappling with only short flashes of action in between.

"Nothing he did surprised me," Brock said after improving his record to 29-0 with 22 knockouts. "I controlled the fight with my jab. I was (punching) first and I was countering."

Brock started slowly and though he began connecting with combinations by the middle rounds, the match continued to unfold at a sluggish pace.

Fans were hoping Brock would show the one-punch knockout power he displayed in his previous fight in February, when he flattened Zuri Lawrence with a vicious left hook at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

But he never got much of a chance, as Ibragimov (20-1-1, 12 KOs) took his strategy of dancing around on the perimeter to an illogical extreme - perhaps, as Brock speculated, squandering his opportunity before HBO's cameras to become a recognized force in the heavyweight division.

"His main objective was not to get knocked out," Brock said. "He was a safety-first fighter. You have to fight more (than Ibragimov did) because you don't get second chances. People like winners."

Brock, 31, has been yearning for a shot at one of the major heavyweight titles by the end of the year. He said he'll leave it to his promoter, Carl Moretti, to make the match and that he has no preference as to an opponent.

At a training session in Las Vegas last week, Brock said he considers IBF champion Wladimir Klitschko the most talented of the current crop of heavyweight champions, followed by WBO titlist Sergei Liakhovich and Nikolay Valuev, the 7-foot-tall WBA belt-holder.

Brock, of Charlotte, N.C., ranked all three ahead of his primary American heavyweight rival, WBC champ Hasim Rahman of Las Vegas. Rahman meets yet another Eastern Bloc heavyweight, Oleg Maskaev, on Aug. 12 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

For the sake of the sport, let's hope Brock's style lends itself to a more exciting fight against any of those potential foes than it did against Ibragimov, who offered no excuses Saturday night.

"I was prepared for this fight 100 percent," Ibragimov said. "It was my mistake. I needed to throw more punches. He didn't hurt me at all."

Brock, a minus-400 betting favorite, said he had a premonition that Ibragimov's style could make for a less-than-compelling show.

"I told Carl Moretti early on, the way this guy stays on the outside, (the fight) could be a stinker," Brock said.

Brock silenced the boos in the sixth round by landing a pair of consecutive hard overhand rights, rallying to cap the best round for either man all night. By Round 11, however, the fans were so restless that they cheered sarcastically when Ibragimov tripped Brock and tackled him to the canvas a couple of times.

"I can't let that bother me," Brock said of the crowd's reaction. "This is my office. This is where I do my job."

Brock landed 104 of 314 total punches (33 percent), according to CompuBox calculations, to Ibragimov's 59 of 321 (18 percent).

Judge Adalaide Byrd scored the fight 119-109, Lou Filippo had it 117-111 and Robert Hoyle 115-113. The Sun's scorecard had it 116-112 for Brock.

In a much more entertaining featured undercard bout, Puerto Rican southpaw Carlos Quintana (23-0, 18 KOs) upset previously unbeaten Colombian Joel Julio (27-1, 24 KOs) by 12-round unanimous decision. With the victory, Quintana, a plus-250 betting underdog at Caesars' sports book, became the WBA's No. 1 welterweight contender.