Takam Draws With Perez, Who Is Listless Post Mago Match

In the TV opener, Mike Perez, last seen in a stellar and then tragic outing, against Magomed Abdusalamov on Nov. 2, returned to the ring to see if mentally he could come back from a near lethal effort, and sit down on his punches and try to put the hurt on Carlos Takam. The answer: this wasn’t the same aggressor who took it to Mago, and after a few rounds Takam figured that out, and he got busier. After ten, we went to the cards, and they scored it 96-94, 95-95, 95-95, a majority draw.

The stats: Takam went 174-554 , to 154-514 for Perez.

The heavyweight scrap, set for 10 or less, unfolded at the Bell Centre in Montreal, prior to the Lucian Bute-Jean Pascal main event.

Perez (age 28; 231 pounds) , a Cuban born Irish resident, entered with a 20-0 with 12 KOs record. He met the Cameroon-born Frenchman Takam (age 33; 256 ponds) , who brought a 29-1 with 23 KOs record to the table.

In the first, Perez wanted to land the straight left and Takam threw a couple left hooks, but mostly looked defensive. Takam pawed at his right eye before the round even started, for the record. In the second, it was another mellow round. Takam didn’t look to step it up and Perez again came forward and looked for openings. In the third, a cut formed off a butt on Perez’ right eye. It got him a bit busier. Abel Sanchez closed the cut well after the round. In the fourth, Perez put more punches together. But Takam landed two solid rights.

In the fifth, Perez stepped it up some, but his pawing jab did nothing for him. Perez stayed inside, and kept working, finally, in the sixth. Takam got cooking too, and the fight picked up. He stayed standing in between rounds, too. In the seventh, a right by Takam landed clean and the Frenchman was now more confident and busy. Takam was backing up Perez to start the round in the eighth.

In the ninth, Takam worked to the body with both hands, and was again the come forward type of the two. He barked while he threw and was doing a lot of whoofing and some decent landing. In round ten, Takam sent Perez back into the ropes, this after his trainer told the fighter to land a knockdown. He worked harder, but couldn’t do that, and we went to the cards.

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