Acuna and Chavez both pick up wins; Mike Jones shocked! Antonio DeMarco dropped but comes out on top8/25/2014 This past Saturday was one of the weakest in boxing this year. It really was lacking in terms of fighters and excitement. Thankfully however 4 world class ladies gave us two memorable bouts whilst some men gave us some interest action.
For us the most important bout of the day was in Argentina where female veteran and female boxing legend Marcela Eliana Acuna (42-6-1, 18) successfully defended her WBO female Super Bantamweight title with a 10 round decision over WBA female Featherweight champion Edith Soledad Matthysse (12-7-1, 1). The bout was the second meeting between the two world class females though the skill level between the two was clear with Acuna taking a unanimous decision against the cruder Matthysse who never stopped trying even when the fight looked to be a lost cause. We do tend to view Acuna as one of the greatest females to lace up the gloves and although she is getting to the end of her career we cannot ignore the fact she is still one of the most talented out there. The other two females in action were the amazing Jessica Chavez (21-3-3, 4) and the little ball of aggression Melissa McMorrow (9-5-3, 1). Like Acuna we saw Chavez using her skills to over-come an aggressive and highly determined foe via a unanimous decision. Although Chavez won on all 3 cards she'll be well aware that she was in a fight. Sadly for McMorrow this further muddies her record though she is one of those fighters with a very misleading record and although she's suffered back-to-back losses she is very difficult to beat. As for men the big story was in the US as former world title contender Mike Jones (26-2, 19) suffered a huge shock loss to Jaime Herrera (12-2, 7). Jones, a former sparring partner of Ryota Murata, was fighting for the first time in over 2 years and was supposed to blitz Herrera. Instead what we saw was Herrera scoring his 5th straight win. Herrera was in serious trouble in rounds 2 and 3 though gritted his teeth and fought back valiantly eventually forcing Jones to quit in his corner. With this loss we imagine Jones's career really is close to over barring something major changing in his. In Mexico former world champion Antonio DeMarco (31-3-1, 23) was given a real scare in the opening round against the tough and under-rated Lanardo Tyner (31-11-2, 20). DeMarco was dropped in the opening round though fought back well to win every other round and take a clear decision over the talented though frustrating Tyner. It's a shame Tyner has never managed to make the most of his skills though he is one of the US's best journeymen right now and a man we do enjoy seeing, just a shame he doesn't seem capable of picking up the wins any more.
0 Comments
This coming Saturday is certainly not a great one for fight fans looking for amazing fights in the west though we do have 2 very under-rated contests in female boxing. We know many fans don't care about female boxing but we can safely say that those fans are genuinely missing out on some great fights and fighters, just like the fans who refuse to watch the lower divisions.
The better of the fights, at least in our eyes, takes place in Mexico as popular Mexican Jessica Chavez (20-3-3, 4) battles the always fun to watch American Melissa McMorrow (9-4-3, 1) in a bout for the WBC International female Flyweight title. If you've never seen these two in action you've really missed out. McMorrow is an all action girl who throws relentlessly and enjoys a "good old fashioned tear up". Not only does McMorrow enjoy all action fights but she's happy to fight the best anywhere on the planet and has travelled to Mexico and Germany in the past for big fights, a real credit to the sport. Chavez is the more talented fighter and has fought a who's who of female boxing including Tenkai Tsunami, Irma Sanchez, Arely Mucino and Yesica Yolanda Bopp. Although neither McMorrow nor Chavez are big punchers they both extremely hard in the ring and put on amazing fights with a lot of punchers and a lot of action. We expect to see that again this weekend in what could well be the fight of the weekend. The other female bout sees Argentinian legend Marcela Eliana Acuna (41-6-1, 18) defending her WBO female Super Bantamweight title against fellow Argentinian Edith Soledad Matthysse (12-6-1, 1). Matthysse is the sister of Lucas and although she lacks her brothers concussive power she does boast a really impressive work rate and desire to win, both traits that we expect to see here as she attempts to avenge a previous loss to Acuna. The champion however is one of the true greats of female boxing and combines skill, speed and power very well and will clearly be favoured over Matthysse. Strangely if Acuna loses we imagine that she will wave good bye to boxing due to the fact she is fast approaching 40, it would be a shame to lose to such a great though we do expect her to pass the torch sooner rather than later. Saying that it's unlikely that the torch will be passed to Matthysse here. It's rare to say this but this past Saturday saw the most interesting international bout of the day being between two females as opposed to their male equivalent. Although it's rare for female boxing to be one of the true highlights of the weekend it did come with a good reason. That's because the bout in question featured former world champion, and Mexican boxing goddess, Mariana Juarez (39-7-3, 16), pictured, fighting against American buzzsaw Melissa McMorrow (9-4-3, 1) in a Super Flyweight contest. The bout, a hard fought one to say the least, saw Juarez just coming out with a narrow unanimous decision in a bout that could easily have gone either way. What it set up for Juarez was a WBC title fight with fellow Mexican Zulina Munoz though with McMorrow retaining her high standard she may be viewed as a potential opponent for another champion possibly even Naoko Fujioka who surely has to be looking to her next fight having taken the WBA belt at 115lbs late last year. As well as the female contest we also saw a few world ranked men in action. The two notable ones were both Dominican. These saw Featherweight hopeful Claudio Marrero (15-1, 11) take an expected decision victory over veteran Jose Angel Beranza (36-29-2, 28) whilst Juan Carlos Payano (15-0, 8) took a decision over the stubborn German Meraz (46-30-1, 25). Unfortunately, as you can tell from the records, both contests were mismatches and between them the Dominican's lost just a round or two. Payano, a Bantamweight prospect, will need to fight top Asian's to get to a world title whilst Marrero, a good Featherweight, will likely have a number of Asian's aiming for his head and the world ranking he holds. (Picture courtesy of boxrec.com) Whilst much of Saturday's important action is in Macau there is a small number of notable bouts taking place elsewhere. The stand out bout, from where we're sat, is in Mexico as Mexican female fighting icon Mariana "Barbie" Juarez (38-7-3, 16), a former Riyo Togo opponent, takes on the excellent little American Melissa McMorrow (9-3-3, 1). This bout might not be one that registers in the mind of many boxing fans world wide due to the general view on female boxing but this is as close to a female super fight that you can get. Whilst the Juarez/McMorrow is a big fight on it's own it's a bigger fight for us when you consider it's in the Super Flyweight division, the same division that currently has Japanese sensation Naoko Fujioka as one of the champions. Although the Juarez/McMorrow fight is effectively an eliminator for the WBC title we'd certainly not mind either of the women challenging Fujioka for the WBA belt. In the US we get two other bouts of note, both on the same card and both featuring world ranked Dominicans. One of those fights sees the unbeaten Juan Carlos Payano (14-0, 8) fighting against the experienced German Meraz (46-29-1, 25). Ranked #2 by the WBA and #10 by the WBC at Bantamweight Payano is certainly a contender that Asian fans should be making a note of. His WBA ranking sits him a place ahead of Tabtimdeang Na Rachawat (#2) whilst his WBC ranking sees him sandwiched between Petch Sor Chitpattan (#9) and Kohei Oba (#11). It would seem very likely that if he wants a Bantamweight title he will need to fight at least 1 top Asian opponent in the near future and that could make for an interesting contests. The other bout on the show sees Payano's compatriot Claudio Marrero (14-1, 11), ranked #10 by the WBA at Featherweight. Marrero, like Payano,is in easy against an experienced but limited Jose Angel Beranza (36-28-2, 28). Although Marrero is coming in after his first loss, he should still have a field day with Beranza who is tough but very limited and has been collecting a lot of losses in recent years. |
InternationalWe know that not every fight involves an Asian fighter but a lot of fights do affect Asian fighter. As a result we've decided to add this new section to Asian boxing where we look at selected International bouts. Archives
December 2015
Categories
All
|