The irony of Dominick Guinn's split decision loss to Monte Barrett last Saturday was that throughout the fight, Guinn appeared cool, calm, and collective.

It is ironic because that is the same demeanor he'd been praised for in his previous wins over Michael Grant and Duncan Dokiwari. It seemed that Guinn's poise under fire served him well when he was WINNING, but did him no favours against Barrett, who, according to trainer Ronnie Shields, Guinn should've taken the fight to.

Guinn's almost complacent attitude might have been attributed to nerves, as it was the first time he was fighting in front of his home crowd in Arkansas; still, it must have been disheartening to hear the crowd chant "Monte! Monte!" halfway into the fight. In Guinn's defence, he had said before the fight that Barrett would be his toughest opponent (having previously sparred 20 rounds with him in New Jersey), and to Barrett's credit he came into the ring pumped up and confident, after a deflating loss to Joe Mesi late last year.

Guinn started the first round more agressive than usual, pumping out jabs and ducking under Barrett's right hand, trying to land his patent left hook. In the 7th round, Guinn was in serious trouble of being knocked out by Barrett's own left hook, but hung in there, using his feet to avoid Barrett's flurries.

I scored the fight 96-94 for Barrett, and though it was Guinn's first professional loss, it was by no means a "Southern Disaster". Guinn is still one of the top 10 heavyweights on the scene, and the loss was not so one-sided that it questions his legitimacy as a serious challenger to the heavyweight throne.

If the crowd was dissapointed by the undercard, then Jermain Taylor won them over with a dramatic 7th round stoppage of Alex Bunema in the main event.

The crowd was on it's feet from the first round on, when the closing bell sounded to Taylor and Bunema standing toe-to-toe, jawing at eachother and setting the tone for the rounds ahead. When Taylor started pumping his incredibly accurate jab into Bunema's face, he assumed control of the action and pace until he dropped him in the 7th with a left-right combination. Bunema beat the count, but moments later was down again when Taylor landed a similar combination, at which point the referee wisely halted the bout.

Little Rock's favourite son, Olympic bronze-medalist Jermain Taylor had done what he was supposed to do. And the roof in Arkansa's Alltel Arena was on fire.