LEWISTON — It wasn’t the result either fighter, or a disappointed crowd, wanted, but Joel “The Baby Bull” Bishop and Jarod “Last Minute” Lawton had to settle for a draw in Saturday’s New England Fights super middleweight fight at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
One judge scored the fight 39-37 for Lawton, the Gardiner native and MMA veteran. The other two scored it a draw, 38-38, resulting in a draw by majority and drawing boos from 1,000 fight fans after one of the evening’s most entertaining bouts.
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Both fighters were equally disappointed with the decision, but also blamed themselves for not taking full advantage of their opportunities.
“I thought it was very close. It could have gone either way,” said Bishop, the Bingham native who was making his pro debut after posting a 10-4 record as an amateur. “I wasn’t very happy with my performance. I wish I did a little more. But he was tough.”
“I knew I was coming in against a really, really experienced guy and it was going to be a tough fight,” Lawton said. “I feel like I did enough to win the fight, but that’s up to the judges, and I don’t like to leave it in the judges’ hands.”
Lawton used his reach advantage and a quick jab to gain the upper hand in the first round.
“Every time I tried to come inside of him, he’d touch me every single time. It was very hard to get in there,” Bishop said. “Every once in a while, I could get in there and throw a jab but it was just a matter of getting in there.”
Bishop started to find openings inside in the second round and stunned Lawton with a left hook to control the balance of the round.
Lawton danced out of further trouble early in the third, nearly losing his footing at one point before taking a couple of strong combinations from Bishop. Lawton started to close up again and keep Bishop at bay by returning to his jab.
Bishop appeared to tire in the fourth and left some openings for Lawton to land some combinations of his own.
“I’ve been working with my coach, Jason Bell, and for this fight I was working with Glenn Cugno and the Gamache family, and as far as I’m concerned there’s no better boxers in the greater New England area,” Lawton said. “I’ve been working really diligently with them on all of the basic stuff and it really paid off. They fixed a lot of holes in my game and put a good strategy in place for me to implement.”
Lawton said more boxing may be in his future.
“MMA’s my main thing, but I’ve really come to enjoy the challenge of boxing, so who knows? Maybe I’ll be out there for the next show, too,” Lawton said.
In other undercard bouts, James “Boxcar Willie” of Lisbon, Bruce “Pretty Boy” Boyington of Brewer and Lewiston’s Stevie Gamache, son of former champion Joey Gamache, all won by unanimous decision.
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