Mauricio Herrera and Hank Lundy was tonight’s feature bout on HBO Latino in front of a real boxing crowd at the LA Sports Arena in Los Angles, California. Many considered this fight the best of a big boxing weekend as it pitted two evenly matched fighters against one another in a must-win situation.
Lundy made it a point to stay busy in the first, although he was only being busy by comparison as the tempo of the fight had yet to pick up much. The jab was sharp for Lundy and Herrera seemed flustered by it, even though he is no stranger to making rough fights. Herrera was imitating the clinching in close quarters, but both men were coming in hard, which led to an accidental clash of heads responsible for a dirty cut over Herrera’s right eye.
The cut seemed to bother Herrera a bit and Lundy took full advantage in the second round. Lundy landed some hard power shots and Herrera had no answer for them other than putting his back against the rope and encouraging Lundy to come in and attack. Lundy stayed smart however, and refused to engage Herrera in any other way than what was working for him.
We’d seen Lundy in this position before, where he’s winning a beautifully fought fight, but his problem has been staying composed.
There were a few more head clashes before the bell ended the 2nd, and one of them was pretty significant. Still, Lundy was sharp with his punches and refused to fight Herrera’s fight, for the most part.
The matchup of orthodox versus southpaw was playing a huge role in the sloppiness of the fight. It did little to help Lundy gain and keep momentum, and instead played into the hands of Herrera, but he didn’t take much advantage of it.
Herrera looked tired in the early goings of the fight and even resorted to putting his back to the corner and waving in Lundy to engage.
The fight was a lot more even when referee Jack Reese decided to stop the bout in the 5th when Herrera’s eye wound seem to devastating to continue. And because it was after the 4th, the fight went to the scorecards, and even though the 5th was not completed it still has to be scored by the judges.
The judges scored the bout 48-48 and 48-47 twice, giving Mauricio Herrera the majority decision win.
Herrera was finally able to get the benefit of the doubt in a close decision, but Lundy deserves credit as well and both men should rematch at some point to properly conclude this fight.
