The preliminary bouts to build records landed the LSUBF with a pair of undefeated fighters heading into the four-man tournament to crown the first light-heavyweight champion.
Philadelphia Jack O’Brien emerged 16-0 with 7 KOs, while Gabriel Campillo achieved an 11-0 mark, though with only four knockouts. Tomasz Adamek (11-2, 8 KO) and Georges Carpentier (10-1, 6 KO) rounded out the field.
Antonio Tarver, Jack Dillon and Glen Johnson hadn’t fought the requisite 10 bouts to qualify, so they would have to wait to earn their chances down the line.
Adamek knocked out Campillo in the 7th round of their semifinal matchup, while O’Brien picked apart a very frustrated Carpentier who, clearly down in the fight in the 10th, headbutted O’Brien to draw a disqualification, sending O’Brien into the title match.
In the title fight, O’Brien would weather a pair of knockdowns and take Adamek into the deep end of the pool, where he couldn’t stay afloat. On the strength of a clean sweep of rounds 10-14, O’Brien is crowned the first LSUBF Light Heavyweight champion by unanimous decision, 145-139, 145-139, 144-140.
O”Brien’s first defense would come the following June, when he would drop the belt via majority decision in a terrific bout to Dillon, 144-142 (x2), 143-143.
O”Brien would also break his hand in the fight, sidelining him and putting and possible rematch on hold.
Dillon meanwhile would take a unanimous decision over Jack Root in a successful first defense before being stunningly obliterated by Zsolt Erdei in a 6th round TKO defeat.
Erdei would then defend against Tarver, who would win the belt via TKO in the ninth of a bout that started with Tarver putting the champ on the canvas twice.
Tarver wouldn’t defend for 10 months, and when he did it would be to give Erdei his rematch. Tarver would take a unanimous decision to keep the belt, and then dominate Glencoffe Johnson three months later in what would become a technical unanimous decision after a gruesome cut to Johnson caused by a butt caused the fight to be stopped.
Most recently, Tarver defended against O”Brien, getting his first shot since losing the title two years prior. With the cards even through five, referee Kenny Bayless becomes the most hated man in the room when he disqualifies Tarver for an intentional head butt, putting the title back in the hands of its first holder, Philadelphia Jack O’Brien!
Tarver is due a rematch in the next five months, and will meet both the mandatory rematch and #1 contender requirements for O’Brien. From there, it will be interesting to see where O’Brien heads if he retains, as there are several up and comers recently into the Top 10, including Joe Knight (9-1-1, 7 KO), a resurgent Bob Foster (9-6, 8 KO) and a much talked about young fighter by the name of Archie Moore.
