Jesus Cuellar (28-1, 21KOs) successfully defended his WBA “regular” featherweight title against Jonathan Oquendo (26-5, 16KOs) in the co-feature of Jacobs-Quillin on Showtime Championship Boxing live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Cuellar dominated from the opening bell, pretty much, although it wasn’t quite clear the fight would be all his. He utilized the same game plan throughout the fight, but his performance lacked a high connect consistency. He was throwing enough punches, but he wasn’t landing a whole lot and when he did it was rare that it made Oquendo think twice.
Oquendo fell into an unsuspecting and problematic game plan set up by Cuellar. It was important for Oquendo to throw more than he was throwing, but it never really happened.
However, in the 5th round Oquendo stepped up his activity a bit, but more than anything he was being much more effective with his punches. He landed a few hard shots in the beginning of the round. The problem was Cuellar came back and took the round with activity and even managed to land some hard shots upstairs.
It wasn’t the last moment Oquendo would have, in fact from that round on he was at least throwing with more conviction. In round 10 especially, Oquendo was digging deep and letting hard shots go, probably realizing he was down on the cards.
Cuellar never stepped up his game or changed levels, but to be fair he really didn’t have to. I mean, it would’ve been the only way he was going to gain a stoppage, but he was clearly content to earn the decision victory, which was inevitable notwithstanding some terrible judging.
The southpaw Cuellar was never bothered by Oquendo’s right hand, the typical advantage for a right handed fighter when facing a southpaw.
The fight went the distance and the judges scored the fight 120-107 and 116-111 twice.
It was a solid performance from Cuellar, and it was something he can grow from. A few extra target mitt sessions could help him with his connect percentage and accuracy, but he lets his hands go and that is something that will keep him in high demand.
In the ShoExtreme prelims which aired prior to the start of the main card, Chris Algieri (21-2, 8KOs) defeated Erick Bone (16-3, 8KOs) in a welterweight showdown.
It was a highly competitive and entertaining matchup. Algieri’s biggest issue in this fight was his lack of power. He was able to land big, wide open shots from different angles, yet Bone went nowhere.
Bone fired back and put together some solid rounds of his own. In the end, Algieri was able to use his athleticism and ability to put punches together to earn a unanimous decision by the scores of 95-94, and 97-92 twice.
