ESPN FIGHT NIGHT: WHEN A COCKY FIGHTER GETS KNOCKED OUT (PHOTOS)
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 16 Sep 2017
LAS VEGAS -- A funny thing happened tonight at the Marquee Ballroom on the far end of the MGM Grand Casino Hotel. A showboating, dancing cocky ?house fighter? from the red corner paid dearly for his antics.
Claudio Marrero (22-2-0, 16KO) of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic was the ?house fighter?. That?s obvious because all the house fighters were assigned to the red corner. Marrero was matched against a nonchalant fighter from Caguas, Puerto Rico, Jesus Rojas (26-2-2 (19KO).
In the early part of the supposedly 12-round fight for the WBA Interim Featherweight title, Marrero was all over the seemingly hapless Rojas. He was throwing his shots from all over the place almost at will but Rojas was focused on his game plan to keep on pushing forward no matter what. In one instance, Marrero pushed Rojas so hard causing him to fall, drawing a ?no pushing warning? from the referee. Marrero would dance to the house music while waiting for the bell to begin each round drawing scattered catcalls from the fans.
In the fifth round, Rojas suddenly started to find his mark. His body shots were connecting and his roundhouse right was doing some damage as well. But Marrero would shake his head and kept on talking to Rojas telling him "it didn?t hurt" each time he gets tagged.
In the sixth round, Marrero suddenly slowed down and tried to score some points with his rapid fire two-handed attack. But, just like the previous rounds, Rojas persevered and kept on throwing back, occasionally landing hard solid shots in response to the many pity-patty punches from Marrero.
Referee Russell Mora waves off the fight as Marrero fails to beat the count.
The seven round started like the two previous rounds. Marrero however did not dance anymore while waiting for the bell. He was just standing waiting for referee Russel Mora to signal the start of the round as the bell sounded. What was noticeable however was his open-mouth breathing.
Obviously Rojas saw that too - so as the round started he advanced relentlessly toward Marrero throwing as many punches as he receives. But his punches appeared more telling than those of Marrero?s and it noticeably slowed down Marrero.
Then it happened! Rojas landed a clean right and Marrero toppled over to the seat of his fancy looking trunks. Then he sat up appearing to wait for Mora to reach the 8th count. But when he Mora got to seven, Marrero started to get up. Alas, his body didn?t respond as he thought it would and he just sat motionless as Mora finished the 10 count and waved his hand signally victory for Rojas.
Seeing this, Rojas ran to a neutral corner near us, then knelt and cried as he prayed to thank the Lord for his unexpected win. Then everybody rushed into the ring celebrating a great victory that received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Other fight results:
Alexis Salazar (12-3-0-3KO) of Tlaquepaque, MX scored a surprising UD over Even Torres (6-5-0, 5KO) of El Paso Texas. Most of the folks at ring side thought Torres won the fight but after hearing the scores from the announcer which came more than a few minutes after the final bell, Salazar was announced the winner with the following scores: 60-54, 59-55, 58-56.
The most spectacular fight of the evening was between undefeated Ryan Garcia of Victorville, CA (11-0-0 (10KO) and Miguel Carrizoza of Nogales, MX (10-3-0-2KO)
Garcia?s first punch for the night as the fight started was a straight right. It landed so hard that it dropped Carriozoza. It came so fast, most ringside photogs missed it.
Carriozoza however beat the 8 count and stood up. As the fight resumed, Garcia landed another right again dropping Carriozoza, and the referee waved off the fight. Time: 30 seconds of the first round.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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