Friday Night Fight Results: Burgos Knocks Out Vasquez, Martinez Decisions Brewer,

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    Every boxing fan loves a good Friday night card as an appetizer to a big Saturday night fight. Last night’s sampler platter consisted of 2 KO’s and a competitive 8 round decision. ESPN, Thompson Boxing Promotions, and Banner Promotions served up an entertaining night of fights.

    The Vegas crowd and everyone at home had a chance to see the debut of Acelino “Popo” Freitas’ nephew, Vitor-Freitas Jones. What an impressive and very short debut it was. Freitas-Jones took on Rocco Espinoza (3-5 0KO’s coming into the fight) in a scheduled 4 round super featherweight fight. Right from the first bell it was clear that the 19 year old Freitas-Jones was a class above Espinoza. Vitor was able to cash in on a few counter opportunities. With a little over 1:00 left in the first a left to the body followed by a left to the head hurt Espinoza and put him to the ropes. Freitas-Jones noticed his opponent was in trouble and attacked landing a series of left and right hooks. One of the left hooks left Espinoza with noodle legs and after a couple more hooks,  a right hand put him to the canvas. Referee Tony Weeks ran over and stopped the fight, a good stoppage might I add (do we expect anything less from Tony?). The official stoppage was 2 min 11 seconds into the 1st round. A great start to the card and a great start to a career as Freitas-Jones ended the night 1-0 1KO. It was the 4th straight loss for Espinoza who’s suffered 3 KO’s in that stretch.

    Next up was an 8 round welterweight fight between Aaron Martinez and Prenice Brewer. In the first round, the lengthy Brewer was able to keep distance from the stalking Martinez. He worked behind a jab, which he didn’t use enough, and good footwork to dictate the pace and location. I scored the first 10-9 in favor of Brewer. The second round started off looking like the first, with Brewer keeping range landing 1’s, 2’s and backing out whenever Martinez got close. Right around the minute mark as Brewer backed out standing straight up Martinez landed a solid straight left that forced Brewer to cover up. Martinez smothered him for the rest of the round landing a few good uppercuts and dropping a shot or two to the body. Martinez gets the 2nd 10-9

    To begin the third I expected Martinez to apply the same pressure as the end of the second, but Brewer was back to the jab and keeping Martinez at a distance. Throughout the whole round, besides one hard right hook which again landed when Brewer backed out straight up, Brewer out-boxed Martinez pulling the round out for me 10-9. For the first 1:30 of the fourth Brewer was again sticking to the game plan. For whatever reason Brewer got away from his footwork and Martinez closed the gap, but Brewer held his own in the pocket, they both landed some solid shots. The last: 30 was back to Brewer’s type of fight winning him the round 10-9.

    After winning back to back rounds Brewer almost seemed like he decided to not use his feet and gave Martinez a chance to fight in close. Why? I don’t know; because it was obvious from the get go Martinez was the stronger man. Martinez landed good body work, snuck a couple uppercuts threw Brewers guard and an occasional hook around it. The last 1:30 of the round I don’t remember Brewer even throwing a punch. Martinez won the fifth easily.

    Brewer started the sixth back on track. He went back to what I know his corner had to be preaching to him, keep your distance work, behind the jab, you’re too long to be inside. But again for whatever reason, got off his bicycle and let Martinez close the gap and rip off more body work and uppercuts. That made it back to back rounds for Martinez.

    The seventh and the eighth pretty much looked exactly the same. Both rounds were fought in the pocket, exactly where Martinez wanted to be and not where Brewer wanted to. Even though Martinez wasn’t exactly hurting Brewer, he was still landing the cleaner, more effective punches. Either the body work showed up or Brewer just didn’t listen to his corner in the last 4 rounds, but Brewer stood in front of Martinez and attempted to trade off. I gave both rounds seven and eight to Martinez.

    On the official scorecards it was a split decision;  77-75, 77-75 for Martinez and 77-75 for Brewer making Martinez the winner. My card was 77-75. With the win Martinez improved his record to 18-1-1 4KO’s and Brewer now has lost 3 of his last 4 including back to back loses.

    The main event gave us another knockout finish. Juan Carlos Burgos squared off against Cesar Vazquez in a scheduled 12 round super featherweight bout. Burgos came into the fight ranked top 10 by every major sanctioning body, including Tha Boxing Voice. Vazquez stepped into the ring with a perfect 25-0 16KO record. You have to give it to Burgos for risking his rank against an undefeated fighter looking to notch his biggest win of his career.

    The opening round was slow to star; both fighters landing a few good punches but nothing significant. Burgos was working the ring well for the first half of the round but Vazquez was able to get off some nice hard shots including a thudding left hook down the stretch to get the round on my card 10-9 in a closely contested round.

     The first minute of the second was looking like a Vazquez round. Then from the 2 min mark on,Burgos discovered that Vazquez had no answer for his left hook. This round was fought inside where Vazquez wanted it but Burgos landed left hook after left hook. Again it was a close round but those heavy lefts, and Burgos controlling the action gave the round to Burgos 10-9

    The third started off even for the first minute and 15 seconds. Each fighter landing some nice punches, but both absorbed them well until a left hand from Burgos landed that seriously hurt Vazquez. Burgos jumped right on him landing hooks with both hands and surprisingly Vazquez was able to stay up. Vazquez had no legs under him and tried to get away from Burgos, but ended up getting stuck on the ropes taking a few hooks and straights to the head, then body until Tony Weeks stopped the fight. For the second time of the evening Weeks had a good stoppage, both fighters were definitely done. The official time of the stoppage was 1:50 into the third round. Burgos helped his title run and boosted his record to 30-1 20KO’s. Vazquez suffered his first loss.

     My pre-fight predictions were Burgos and Martinez, both by decision. I got the winners right but in Burgos’ case I didn’t call the knockout. It was yet again a successful night for ESPN and more importantly a successful night for boxing. Enjoy the Broner-Escobedo fight tonight (don’t forget I picked Broner by UD)

     

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