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RINGSIDE Donaire Closes Stellar 2012 In Fine Fashion
Arce tried patience, then aggression, nothing worked. Donaire convinced him retirement was the obvious option. (photo by Rachel McCarson)
Houston – The Transnational Boxing Ranking Board’s junior featherweight champion, Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KOs), closed his impressive four-fight 2012 campaign in fitting fashion. The “Filipino Flash” battered gallant warrior Jorge Arce (61-7-2-1, 46 KOs) from pillar to post in what could only be described as a one-sided beatdown. With the win, Donaire retained his linear TBRB championship, along with the WBO and Ring Magazine belts.
Over 7,250 fans in attendance rose to their feet to greet the combatants as they entered the arena. Despite losing notable Top Rank stars Mike Lee and Guillermo Rigondeaux on the card earlier in the week, Houston fight fans showed up loud and proud at the Toyota Center Saturday night, home of the NBA’s Houston Rockets.
Arce came to the ring first and was greeted affectionately by the pro-Mexico crowd. Fans adorned their heads with sombreros for crowns and their bodies with Mexican flags for robes as they chanted with vigor – Mexico, Mexico, Mexico. Next up was Donaire, who was booed heavily as he entered the fray while bopping his head up and down to handpicked entrance music seemingly unaware of it. The pre-fight introductions remained consistent, though the small but vocal Donaire contingent in attendance did their best to even things out.
After a somewhat cautious start, a strong right hand from Donaire set the tone in the first round. His crisp punches snapped the courageous Arce’s head back each time they found their mark. It was clear from the beginning to those at ringside what this fight would be: Donaire the stalking predator, Arce the formidable but overmatched prey.
Arce dug a good, deep shot to his opponent’s body in the second, but Donaire followed it up promptly with two clean blows that sent the Mexican down to his knee. He was up quickly, seemingly unfazed, unhurt and ready to brawl. During the rest of the round, Arce employed strategic aggression to try and even things up while the ever confident Donaire remained content to alternate powerful potshots with timely and adept defense.
At the beginning of the third round, the two fighters got tangled together and collapsed in heap to the canvas. After referee Laurence Cole brushed each man’s gloves off, the two continued what began in the preceding round. Arce bullied his way in at times; Donaire countered and jabbed. To his credit, Arce was able to land some clean blows in the round, but Donaire was landing the cleaner, harder ones. Three straight shots from Donaire sent Arce down for the count once again and this time left him reeling and wobbled. Ever the brave warrior, Arce made it to his feet for one more go, but he was knocked out cold seconds later from a brutal left hook. The referee called the fight off immediately when Arce fell flat to the canvas.
“My left hook was my damaging punch tonight,” said Donaire afterward. “I just felt great.”
Head trainer Robert Garcia concurred. He was beaming with pride from what he had just witnessed, perhaps his 30-year-old protégé’s most impressive performance to date.
“His power was unreal, beautiful, perfect,” he said. “Whenever Nonito hits you…it’s gonna hurt real bad.”
Arce announced his retirement immediately following the fight. The fight officially ended at 2:59 of round number three.
Donaire-Arce Undercard Highlights
Houston – Fight fans coming out to support Top Rank’s Donaire-Arce live boxing promotion were treated to a slew of solid undercard fights Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston. Here is a recap of the notable action.
Light heavyweight Cedric Agnew (25-0, 13 KOs) of Houston used sharp jabs and crisp right hooks from a high guarded, southpaw stance to defeat Alfredo Contreras (12-15-3, 5 KOs) by unanimous decision. The heavily tattooed Agnew controlled the pace early with clear, crisp shots and never really looked back. Ever durable Contreras had his moments, but he got hit far too often from his opponent’s lead hand bombs along with a handful of well-placed lefts. The three judges at ringside scored it 58-56, 60-54 and 59-55 for the winner, Agnew.
Super featherweight Saul Rodriguez (8-0-1, 5 KOs) had to bulldoze his way over the scrappy Pablo Brates to earn a win. After learning he couldn’t out-quick the crafty Brates in the first, Rodriguez just started mauling him with heavier-handed blows in the second. It worked, and Rodriguez rode that strategy all the way to a unanimous decision victory. Scores read 40-36 across the board at the end of the four-round fight.
Jose Felix, Jr. (22-0-1, 18 KOs) knocked out Meachor Major (20-6-1, 17 KOs) with a clean left hook in round number three of a lightweight contest that had been fairly close up until that point. Major waddled first, and then stumbled down in a delayed reaction all the way to the canvas where the bout ultimately ended for the fighter nicknamed “Major Pain.”
Welterweight Larry Smith (10-14, 7 KOs) came out of his dressing room hooting and hollering to anyone that would listen that he would be the victor. He danced in his corner as his name was read before the bout, and when red corner opponent Daniel Sandoval (30-2, 29 KOs) came to the middle of the ring after the bell sounded to touch his opponent’s glove in a show of sportsmanship, Smith obliged with a quick one-two combination. It all went downhill from there for Smith in the first. Sure, he continued whatever it was he was doing in there up to that point—let’s call it showmanship—but only in-between being on the wrong end of a constant barrage of power punches roving up and down his torso. The pace cooled a bit from there. Smith was just crafty enough to stay in the fight despite being outworked throughout the six-round clash, except possibly the final round where it almost appeared even. In the end, Mexico’s Sandoval took home the unanimous decision victory by scores of 60-54, 59-55 and 60-54.
Featherweight Victor Terrazas (36-2-1, 20 KOs) wanted to keep Juan Ruiz (23-11, 7 KOs) on the end of his jab where he could land his shots as the taller man without taking considerable return fire. When he accomplished this, he found success, but when the dodgy, aggressive Ruiz was able to slip and rip, Terrazas was made uncomfortable. The pattern played itself out fairly consistently through all eight rounds, so what fans in attendance got by arriving early enough to see it was a mini-version of something akin (at least stylistically) to Ali-Frazier. Neither of these men will reach anything close to that level in their careers, but no matter. It was a damn fine scrap between two eager combatants for all eight rounds. In the end, it was Terrazas earning the split decision win by scores of 74-78, 78-74 and 79-73.
Finally, one of Top Rank’s young, impressive uber-prospects, Alex Saucedo (7-0, 5 KO), fought Eddie Cordova (3-4-1, 1 KO) at welterweight in a scheduled four-rounder. How good is Saucedo? Look at it this way: after light heavyweight Mike Lee dropped off the card due to illness, and the co-main event of Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym was called off due the latter being unlicensable in Texas, Saucedo was moved all the way to the top of the undercard, as close to the limelight as possible, in what was only his seventh professional fight. He did not disappoint. Saucedo looked every bit as good as his handlers believe him to be. He dominated the action from start to finish in every way possible. He hurt Cordova in the first with strafing right hands and made him miss wildly as he did it. Cordova was game but overmatched, and he went down in the third from a brutal combination before succumbing again to a brilliant right hand counter. The fight was halted at 2:14 of round number three. Keep your eye on Alex Saucedo.
How good is Bakhodir Jalolov? Some would argue that in terms of pure talent, the six-foot-seven southpaw from Uzbekistan who has knocked out all 14 of his opponents since turning pro, is better than any heavyweight you can name. Others say that this can’t possibly be true or his braintrust wouldn’t keep feeding him junk food. Jalolov has been brought along as gingerly as Christopher Lovejoy who was exposed as a fraud after running up a skein of 19 straight fast knockouts,
One thing that’s indisputable is that Jalolov was one of the best amateurs to come down the pike in recent memory. A three-time Olympian and two-time gold medalist, Jalolov won 58 of his last 59 amateur bouts. The exception was a match in which he did not compete which translated into a win by walkover for his opponent, countryman Lazizbek Mullojonov.
The circumstances are vague. Was Jalolov a no-show because of an injury or illness or a technicality? Amateur boxing, save in a few places or in an Olympic year, is the quintessential niche sport. The mainstream media does not cover it.
What we do know, thanks to boxrec, is that Jalolov caught up with Mullojonov in May of last year in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk and won a split decision. And Mollojonov was no slouch. He too won a gold medal at the Paris Games, winning the heavyweight division to give the powerful Uzbekistan contingent the championship in the two heaviest weight classes.
Jalolov, whose late father was a champion free-style wrestler, has answered the bell as a pro for only 35 rounds. The Belgian-Congolese campaigner Jack Mulowayi came closest to taking the big Uzbek the distance, lasting into the eighth round of an 8-round fight. But when Jalolov closed the show, he did it with a highlight reel knockout, knocking Mulowayi into dreamland with a vicious left hook.
The KO was reminiscent of Jalolov’s most talked-about win as an amateur, his first-round blast-out of Richard Torrez Jr at a tournament in Ekaterinburg, Russia, in 2019. Torrez, knocked out cold with a left hook, left the ring on a stretcher and was removed to a hospital for evaluation.
This was the first AIBA-sanctioned international tournament in which pros were allowed to compete and WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman was incensed, calling the match-up “criminal” in a tweet that was widely circulated. (Jalolov then had six pro fights under his belt.) They would meet again in the finals of the Tokyo Olympiad with the Uzbek winning a unanimous decision.
Perhaps there will be a third meeting down the road. When Jared Anderson was roughed-up and stopped by Martin Bakole, Torrez Jr (currently 12-0, 11 KOs) vaulted ahead of him on the list of the top home-grown American heavyweights. But Torrez Jr, a short-armed heavyweight who overcomes his physical limitations with a windmill offense, would be a heavy underdog should they ever meet again.
Bakhodir Jalolov’s last bout before heading off to Paris was against the obscure South African Chris Thompson. His match on Thursday at the Montreal Casino in Montreal pits him against an obscure 33-year-old Frenchman, David Spilmont.
Spilmont’s last two opponents were the same guy, an undersized Lithuanian slug who has lost 36 of his 41 documented fights. It seems almost inevitable that Spilmont will suffer the same fate as Thompson who was KOed in the first round.
There’s talk that Jalolov doesn’t really care how far he advances at the professional level; that he has his sights set on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles where he would have an opportunity to become only the fourth boxer to win three Olympic gold medals, joining the immortal Teofilo Stevenson, Hungarian legend Laszlo Papp, and Cuban standout Felix Savon. Were he to accomplish the hat trick, they would build monuments to him in Uzbekistan. But, if that is his mindset, he’s skating on thin ice. There’s no guarantee that boxing will be on the docket at the Los Angeles Games and, if so, the powers-that-be may choose to roll back the calendar to the days when the competition was off-limits to anyone with professional experience.
While it’s true that Jalolov needs to work off some rust, a pox on promoter Camille Estephan and his enabler, the Quebec Boxing Commission, for not dredging up a more credible opponent than the grossly overmatched David Spilmont.
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Jalolov vs. Spilmont is ostensibly the co-feature. The main event is a 10-round junior welterweight clash between Movladdin “Arthur” Biyarslanov (17-0, 14 KOs) and Spilmont stablemate Mohamed Mimoune (24-6, 5 KOs). Undefeated light heavyweights Albert Ramirez and Mehmet Unal will appear in separate bouts on the undercard. The Feb. 6 event, currently consisting of seven bouts, will air in the U.S. on ESPN+ starting at 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT.
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Claressa Shields blasted her way to the undisputed heavyweight championship and nearly knocked out challenger Danielle Perkins in the final seconds, but settled for a win by unanimous decision on Sunday.
Yes, she can punch.
“I just feel overwhelmed and so happy.” Shields said.
Shields (16-0, 3 KOs) proved that even the super athletic Perkins (5-1, 2 KOs), a true heavyweight, could not stop her from becoming an undisputed world champion in a third weight division at Dort Arena in Flint, Michigan, her home town.
In the opening round it was easy to see the size difference. Shields calmly measured Perkins long right jabs then countered with rocket rights through the guard. The speed was evident in Shield’s punches. Perkins used jabs to work her way in but was caught with counters.
“That girl was strong as hell,” said Shields describing Perkins.
Perkins, a southpaw, was somewhat confident that she was the stronger puncher and the stronger fighter overall. But when Shields connected with 10 rocket overhand rights in the third round the power moved Perkins several feet backward.
Suddenly, Perkins realized that indeed Shields has power.
Perkins became more cautious with her approaches. Though the true heavyweight was not frozen in fear, she was wary about getting caught flush with Shields rights. But bullet jabs and lightning combinations still rained on Perkins.
Finding a way to nullify Shields speed was crucial for Perkins.
The former basketball player Perkins continually proved her athleticism with agile moves here and there, but Shields just was superior in every way.
When Perkins became focused too much on the right, a Shields left hook caught the New York native flush. Suddenly there was another Shields weapon to worry about.
Many critics of Shields had focused on her lack of knockouts. But in her previous fight against another heavyweight, the two-time Olympic gold medalist surprised Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse with knockout power. It’s the same power Shields showed Perkins as if firing a fast ball by powering her right with leverage by using her left leg to produce momentum and an explosive punch.
In the 10th and final round Shields and Perkins exchanged blows. Perkins was looking to connect with one of her power shots when suddenly Shields countered with a perfectly timed right to the chin and down went Perkins with about 10 seconds remaining. She beat the count to finish the round.
“I showed I was the bigger puncher and better boxer,” said Shields. “I knew I could do it because I’m really strong at heavyweight.”
All three judges favored Shields 100-89, 99-90 and 97-92.
It was another convincing performance by Shields. So what is next for the best female fighter pound for pound?
“I want to fight Franchon Crews, Hanna Gabriels,” said Shields also naming a few others. “Flint, (Michigan) I love you all so much.”
Other Bouts
A heavyweight clash saw why there is a rule against holding. Brandon Moore (17-1) and Skylar Lacy (8-1-2) punched and held throughout their eight rounds. Referee Steve Willis finally disqualified Lacy when he tackled Moore and took him through the ropes and on to table below.
No, holding and clinching is not part of the fight game. Now you know why.
Moore was ruled the winner by disqualification due to unsportsmanlike conduct by Lacy at 1:35 of the eighth. No need to describe the fight.
A battle between undefeated welterweights saw Joseph Hicks (12-0, 8 KOs) stop Keon Papillon (10-1-1, 7 KOs) at 1:35 of the seventh round. Hicks stunned Papillon at the end of the sixth, then unloaded in the seventh round to force a stoppage.
Joshua Pagan (12-0) out-battled Ronal Ron (16-8) over eight rounds to win the lightweight match by unanimous decision.
Samantha Worthington (11-0) defeated Vaida Masiokaite (10-27-6) by decision after eight rounds in a super lightweight bout.
Featherweight Caroline Veyre (9-1) out-boxed the shorter Carmen Vargas (5-3-1) to win by decision after six rounds.
Super bantamweight Asheleyann Lozada (1-0) won her pro debut by unanimous decision over Denise Moran (3-1) in a four-round fight.
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David Benavidez showed fans why they call him “El Monstro” as he plowed through Cuba’s heavy-punching David Morrell to retain a number one ranking in the light heavyweight division by unanimous decision on Saturday.
Not even a flash knockdown for Morrell could make a difference.
Phoenix native Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) gave Morrell (11-1, 9 KOs) his first loss as a professional in front of more than 15,000 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. No one needed to hear the judge’s decision.
“I prepared for everything. I know he’s a great fighter,” said Benavidez. “I thought he was going to hit harder, but he didn’t.”
Before the fight, Morrell was almost an even bet according to oddsmakers, but that was not the case once the fight commenced.
Immediately Benavidez pounded the body and exposed the weaknesses of Morrell’s peek-a-boo defense by using his own left glove to push down the Cuban’s guard. Then immediately firing a crushing right to the jaw.
For the first four rounds Benavidez pounded away on the left and right side of Morrell’s body. And when the openings came the uppercuts caught Morrell’s chin. But he absorbed the blows.
Morrell didn’t waver in trying to find a solution. Though Benavidez connected often to the body and head, the Cuban fighter who moved up from super middleweight displayed a very solid chin.
In the fourth round during a furious exchange Morrell beat Benavidez to the punch that stunned him momentarily. But the blow seemed to spark outrage and a storm of blows followed from Benavidez.
It must have seemed like a nightmare for Morrell.
At times the Cuban fighter would connect perfectly with a right hook and pause. Then Benavidez would return fire with massive blows.
The look on Morrell’s face bore traces of disappointment.
As the rounds continued Benavidez became emboldened by his success. Soon the Mexican Monster began launching lead right uppercuts through Morrell’s guard especially in the sixth round.
“He was easier to hit than I expected,” Benavidez said.
During the breaks Morrell’s corner asked him to pressure Benavidez. It was a fruitless suggestion. How do you corner a Monster?
Benavidez continued to stalk Morrell who never stopped swinging but could not seem to hurt the Monster. In the 11th round Morrell managed to catch Benavidez perfectly with a right hook and down went Benavidez. He immediately got up and the two fighters unloaded on each other. Morrell fired one punch after the bell and was deducted a point by referee Thomas Taylor. That negated the extra point gained from the knockdown.
“I wasn’t really hurt,” said Benavidez. “That bullshit knockdown caught me off-balance.”
The final round saw both resume their efforts to knock the other out. Both showed great chins and the ability to trade. Benavidez was simply better. Even Morrell didn’t wait for the decision to be read as he raised the arm of the Monster at the final bell. All three judges scored in favor of Benavidez 115-111 twice and 118-108.
“He knows this is Monstro’s world. Big shout out for Morrell, he’s a tough fighter,” Benavidez said.
Other Bouts
In a fight dedicated to honor the late Israel Vazquez, the ultimate Aztec warrior, super lightweights Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (27-3-1) and Angel Fierro (23-3-2) battled like demons for 10 nonstop rounds. Cruz was ruled the winner by unanimous decision.
With little resemblance of defense, Cruz and Fierro whacked each other relentlessly with shots that might have stopped a moving car. Cruz was tagged by a right cross on the top of the head that staggered him momentarily. Fierro was driven back four feet by an overhand right to the chin early in the fight.
Both fighters took cruel and unusual punishment and never wavered more than a few seconds. It was brutal war and fans were the winners after 10 rounds of violent and savage action.
All three judges saw Cruz the winner 96-94, 97-93, 98-92.
“I’m so happy I gave the fans a great fight,” Cruz said.
Fulton Wins
Stephen Fulton (23-1, 8 KOs) defeated Brandon Figueroa (23-2-1, 19 KOs) again and took the WBC featherweight title by unanimous decision after 12 rounds. He had previously defeated Figueroa in 2021 for the WBC and WBO super bantamweight titles.
Most of the action took place in nose-to-nose fashion where Fulton landed the cleaner shots especially with uppercuts. Figueroa had his moments but was unable to hurt the challenger who lost to Naoya Inoue by knockout 17 months ago.
Fulton landed clean shots but as his record shows he lacks the power with only eight knockouts on his record. But Figueroa was unable to hurt or knock down Fulton. After 12 rounds all three judges saw Fulton win by scores of 116-112 twice and 117-111,
“It feels good. I’m champion again,” said Fulton.
Ramos Wins
Jesus Ramos (22-1, 18 KOs) won by technical knockout over former world champion Jeison Rosario (24-5-2) in the eighth round of a middleweight fight. Both fighters attacked the body but by the sixth round Ramos was the busier fighter and began to dominate the fight. At 2:18 of the eighth round referee Robert Hoyle stopped the fight.
“I like to throw a lot of body punches. It’s kind of my style,” said Ramos.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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