Fox Deportes Recap: Mijares Wins UD10 in an Entertaining Bout With Nebran

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FOX_DEPORTES_logoCristian Mijares was in tough with Filipino Vergel Nebran in a scheduled 10 rounder at the junior lightweight limit. The fight was the main event of a Fox Deportes card live from Mexico, where Mijares is from.

 

Nebran came out very aggressive in the first round and wanted to put pressure on Mijares. However, Mijares was able to slow the round down to his pace and started scoring by appearing to be the lead fighter in the ring. Mijares wasn’t doing anything over flashy and he certainly wasn’t landing huge shots, but he was dictating the pace and keeping Nebran at the end of his punches so as to not allow him to come bursting through his guard or counter.

 

Round 2 was a bit more chaotic and action-packed. In what was shaping out to be a Nebran round anyway, the Filipino fighter landed a hard right hand that sent Mijares down to the canvas. It was well placed, although it was a lazy uppercut thrown by Mijares that allowed for such a clean look. What was more impressive than the actual shot was the way he Nebran set it up. He didn’t set it up with the punches that came right before the knockdown. Instead, he had been setting up Mijares for about 45 seconds prior to the knockdown.

 

Nebran became much more methodical and was selecting his shots, which gave Mijares a false sense of comfort that led to the lazy uppercut. Also, Mijares was almost caught with the exact same exchange, but instead of a lazy uppercut it was lazy jab that was different.

 

Mijares was able to make it to his feet with ease and luckily for him it was the end of the round.

 

However, Nebran came out strong in the 3rd as well and tried picking up where he left off. It was seek-and-destroy time for Nebran’s right hand. Mijares was actually busted up and it was unclear where the blood was coming from.

 

But the 3rd round got really heated when Mijares began to stage a comeback. He landed some hard one-two combinations that sent Nebran back a step or two. At the very least, Mijares was making Nebran respect his power and he refrained from jumping in and staying close.

 

The 3rd round ended in a dramatic back-and-forth fashion, although Mijares looked like he got the better of the firefight, but who won the round was debatable.

 

The action continued as Nebran did his best to pin Mijares back to the ropes and cement his dominance 12inches in front of him.

 

There was a ton of action and the firefights, although brief, were exciting. Nebran was doing a good job asserting himself, but Mijares was coming off with the bigger shots, and because it was in Mexico they were certainly getting the bigger cheers.

 

The action slowed down as both fighters began feeling the strains of an early war, but Nebran seemed to be effected by fatigue more than Mijares.

 

In the 9th round, Nebran was all over the place and started going to the body, which was a little too late to make a real difference. Mijares was definitely in control when he landed a quick left hook that was turned over enough to send his opponent to the canvas.

 

Nebran made it to his feet and that is when the action heated up in an epic way. Mijares had Nebran pinned against the ropes and started unleashing hard flurries. However, Nebran was fighting back and managed to land some big shots that were surely felt by Mijares. The action was off the charts and the crowd was responding as both men squared up and went shot for shot.

 

The 10th and final round was a bit slow by comparision to the last round, but that changed with 30 seconds left on the clock. Both fighters began to exchange when Nebran was caught on the chin and his legs wobbled, but he landed hard shots before the bell sounded with 15seconds left on the clock.

 

It was upsetting because we were deprived of 15 seconds of pure entertainment and excitement, but in all fairness, neither fighter was going anywhere, although that is no excuse and I for one would’ve reveled in an extra 15 seconds (although it wasn’t extra time)

 

The scorecards were much more lopsided than the action suggested, but in the end the judges awarded Mijares the unanimous decision victory with the scores of 97-91 and 98-90 twice.