Ikeke slugs his way to No. 2 contender

Kingsley Ikeke can no longer be ignored.

The International Boxing Federation’s No. 6-ranked contender going into Friday night’s nationally televised boxing card in the Northern Quest Casino’s Pend Orielle Pavillion used a long jab to score a knockout of 10th-ranked Antwun Echols at the end of the 10th round.

“God told me I was going to win this fight, he just didn’t tell me what round it would be,” the Nigerian-born Ikeke said.

The victory, broadcast live on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights, makes Ikeke the No. 2 contender in the IBF, behind middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins and No. 1 contender Sam Soliman and ahead of Felix Sturm, Jermain Taylor and Felix Trinidad.

“This fight now means that Kingsley can’t be ignored,” manager Gary Gittleson said. “(No. 4 contender) Jermain Taylor (negotiating for a title fight with Hopkins) has never beaten anyone of the quality of Antwun Echols. His record has been carefully crafted by HBO.”

The fight lost some of its luster when the governing body announced it would not force Hopkins into a mandatory title defense against Soliman instead of his preferred fight with Taylor.

Had the IBF not agreed to the waiver and Hopkins gone forward with the Taylor fight, the popular champion would have been stripped of his title and Soliman would have fought Ikeke for the vacant title.

Ikeke’s nickname, “Sharp Knuckles,” was an early clue to the difference in this fight.

Echols, who won a controversial TKO at Northern Quest in December, bored in from the opening bell, refusing to respect Ikeke’s reach and punishing jab. Once inside, Echols scored well enough to win two of the first four rounds on most scorecards.

But by the fourth round, that strategy had taken its toll, leaving both of Echol’s eyes puffy. By the fifth, the right eye was half closed by swelling. By the sixth, ringside physician Dr. John Demakas was in the ring between rounds to observe efforts to control swelling – which ultimately proved futile.

Still, even with one eye completely closed, Echols continued his straight-ahead strategy until the 10th round.

Ikeke, who went away from the jab in the eighth and ninth rounds, returned to it in the 10th and, for the first time in the fight, got Echols moving backward. With one eye closed, he was especially open to wicked left hooks, which had him wobbly by the end of the round.

Ikeke said he respected the powerful Echols, who falls to 31-6-1.

“He did come at me hard,” Ikeke said. “But I was expecting that. Once you get inside the ring, it all goes back to what you train for. It’s just like training in the gym, only there are people there to watch you.”

In other fights, Olympic bronze medalist Andre “The Matryx” Dirrell scored an impressive, unanimous decision over Carl Cockerham.

Dirrell, who came into the fight with three wins in three professional fights, all by knockout, scored with big punches throughout the six-round bout, dropping Cockerham a minute into the third round.

Dirrell won all six rounds on two of the three judges’ scorecards.

Local favorites Shawn Hawk and Chauncy Welliver both scored unanimous decisions.

Welliver, 24-3-3, beat Billings, Mont., heavyweight Ted Reiter.

Hawk won his four-round battle with Great Falls, Mont., cruiserweight Leo Berceier to go to 5-0 in his young pro career. It was Hawk’s first victory without a knockout.

Seattle light heavyweight Tim Shocks retired after the fifth round of a scheduled six-round bout with Sam Reese. The Newport News, Va., boxer scored consistently, raising his record to 19-12-4 with his eighth KO.