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Omar Figueroa Wins SD Over Jerry Belmontes

Published

11 years ago

April 27, 2014

Omar Figueroa and Jerry Belmontes engaged in a nice lightweight rumble for the first half of their bout, to kick off the night on the TV portion of the Golden Boy card at the StubHub Center in CA. Things chilled out in the second half, when Belmontes started moving more, so when they went to the cards, you could have flipped a coin. Would they go for the slicker boxer or the volume guy?

The judges liked the volume guy, Figgy, by scores of 115-113 (Belmontes), 116-112 (Fig) and 118-110 (Fig).

After, Fig said it takes two to tango, and Belmontes didn’t want to fight. He said the fact that Bel beat him five times in the amateurs had him knowing what the loser would do. Bel thought he won, and he hated the 118-110 card. “C’mon, man,” he said.

Fig went 188-837 to 161-434 for Belmontes.

The WBC lightweight title held by Fig was up for grabs.

Belmontes did nice work to the body, but a tradefest was cooking by the third, and Omar liked that. Bel showed nice hand speed, and slipped smartly, as well. Fig’s three punch combo landed clean but Bel didn’t blink twice, and handled the power OK. Fig tossed 100 punches in the third, and you knew the judges liked that.

In the fourth, Bel looked for opps to counter, but maybe waited too much. Fig went lefty midway through and then switched back. We wondered where Bel’s jab was, and his volume was weak in the fourth as well. Blood dripped from Fig’s nose at the end of the round. They fought in tight to start the fifth, with Bel being more busy than the previous round. He made Fig miss in fine fashion, and Fig’s power was somewhat blunted with Bel in his face at times. But he threw 128 punches and c’mon, you had to think that would take the round.

Bel showed the faster hands in the sixth.

Bel ate jabs to start the seventh, but then he went lefty, and that jab fell off. Al Bernstein and Steve Farhood tied while Danny Jacobs had Fig up a round, after six. Bel started moving more in the seventh, giving a different look. He kept that up through nine, and the crowd disliked it. So did Fig, as his face registered frustration in the ninth. The crowd, too, made it clear they wanted the rumbling pair, not the mover Belmontes doing his smarter thing, to minimize contact. He landed a real nice right cross, though, maybe the best power shot of the round.

In the tenth, Fig went lefty, threw, and fell in, and blunted himself. Al and Steve had Bel leading, while Jacobs liked Fig’s work more. A left slapped Fig, snapped his head back and it showed Bel’s confidence was sky high fighting as a mover. His legs were taking rounds, and taking Fig out of his comfort zone, making him a chaser, often fruitlessly. In the 11th, Bel snapped the jab, trying to drive through the target, as opposed to Fig.They worked through the 12th, and went to the cards.

Al B had it 115-114 for Bel, Farhood saw it 116-112 for the loser, and Jacobs saw a draw. I liked Farhood’s card the most, btw.

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Michael Woods

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2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

The WBC World Super Featherweight title bout between Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura came on one of the biggest boxing stages of 2015, as the bout served as the HBO pay-per-view’s co-main event on November 21st, in support of Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez.

Miura entered the fight with a (29-2-2) record and he was making the fifth defense of his world title, while Vargas entered the fight with an undefeated mark of (22-0-1) in what was his first world title fight. Both men had a reputation for all-out fighting, with Miura especially earning high praise for his title defense in Mexico where he defeated Sergio Thompson in a fiercely contested battle.

The fight started out hotly contested, and the intensity never let up. Vargas seemed to win the first two rounds, but by the fourth round, Miura seemed to pull ahead, scoring a knock-down and fighting with a lot of confidence. After brawling the first four rounds, Miura appeared to settle into a more technical approach. Rounds 5 and 6 saw the pendulum swing back towards Vargas, as he withstood Miura’s rush to open the fifth round and the sixth round saw both men exchanging hard punches.

The big swinging continued, and though Vargas likely edged Miura in rounds 5 and 6, Vargas’ face was cut in at least two spots and Miura started to assert himself again in rounds 7 and 8. Miura was beginning to grow in confidence while it appeared that Vargas was beginning to slow down, and Miura appeared to hurt Vargas at the end of the 8th round.

Vargas turned the tide again at the start of the ninth round, scoring a knock down with an uppercut and a straight right hand that took Miura’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Purely on instinct, Miura got back up and continued to fight, but Vargas was landing frequently and with force. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the fight at the halfway point of round 9 as Miura was sustaining a barrage of punches.

Miura still had a minute and a half to survive if he was going to get out of the round, and it was clear that he was not going to stop fighting.

A back and forth battle of wills between two world championship level fighters, Takashi Miura versus “El Bandido” Vargas wins the 2015 Fight of the Year.

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Jan 9 in Germany – Feigenbutz and De Carolis To Settle Score

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

This coming Saturday, January 9th, the stage is set at the Baden Arena in Offenburg, Germany for a re-match between Vincent Feigenbutz and Giovanni De Carolis. The highly anticipated re-match is set to air on SAT.1 in Germany, and Feigenbutz will once again be defending his GBU and interim WBA World titles at Super Middleweight.

The first meeting between the two was less than three months ago, on October 17th and that meeting saw Feigenbutz controversially edge De Carolis on the judge’s cards by scores of (115-113, 114-113 and 115-113). De Carolis scored a flash knock down in the opening round, and he appeared to outbox Feigenbutz in the early going, but the 20 year old German champion came on in the later rounds.

The first bout is described as one of the most crowd-pleasing bouts of the year in Germany, and De Carolis and many observers felt that the Italian had done enough to win.

De Carolis told German language website RAN.DE that he was more prepared for the re-match, and that due to the arrogance Feigenbutz displayed in the aftermath of the first fight, he was confident that he had won over some of the audience. Though De Carolis fell short of predicting victory, he promised a re-vamped strategy tailored to what he has learned about Feigenbutz, whom he termed immature and inexperienced.

The stage is set for Feigenbutz vs De Carolis 2, this Saturday January 9th in Offenburg, Germany. If you can get to the live event do it, if not you have SAT.1 in Germany airing the fights, and The Boxing Channel right back here for full results.

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2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

Published

9 years ago

December 29, 2015

The Sweet Science

On May 9th of 2015, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a resonant knock-out of James Kirkland on HBO that wins the 2015 KO of the Year.

The knock-out itself came in the third round, after slightly more than two minutes of action. The end came when Alvarez delivered a single, big right hand that caught Kirkland on the jaw and left him flat on his back after spinning to the canvas.Alvarez was clearly the big star heading into the fight. The fight was telecast by HBO for free just one week after the controversial and disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight, and Alvarez was under pressure to deliver the type of finish that people were going to talk about. Kirkland was happy to oblige Alvarez, taking it right to Alvarez from the start. Kirkland’s aggression saw him appear to land blows that troubled the young Mexican in the early going. Alvarez played good defense, and he floored Kirkland in the first round, displaying his power and his technique in knocking down an aggressive opponent.

However, Kirkland kept coming at Alvarez and the fight entered the third round with both men working hard and the feeling that the fight would not go the distance. Kirkland continued to move forward, keeping “Canelo” against the ropes and scoring points with a barrage of punches while looking for an opening.

At around the two minute mark, Alvarez landed an uppercut that sent Kirkland to the canvas again. Kirkland got up, but it was clear that he did not have his legs under him. Kirkland was going to try to survive the round, but Alvarez had an opportunity to close out the fight. The question was would he take it?

Alvarez closed in on Kirkland, putting his opponent’s back to the ropes. Kirkland was hurt, but he was still dangerous, pawing with punches and loading up for one big shot.

But it was the big shot “Canelo” threw that ended the night. Kirkland never saw it coming, as he was loading up with a huge right hand of his own. The right Alvarez threw cracked Kirkland in the jaw, and his eyes went blank. His big right hand whizzed harmlessly over the head of a ducking Alvarez, providing the momentum for the spin that left Kirkland prone on the canvas.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez went on to defeat Miguel Cotto in his second fight of 2015 and he is clearly one of boxing’s biggest stars heading into 2016. On May 9th Alvarez added another reel to his highlight film when he knocked out James Kirkland with the 2015 “Knock Out of the Year”.

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