ARCE STOPS CONCEPCION IN 9TH
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 16 Sep 2008
MEXICO CITY -- Mexican star Jorge Arce used his ring war experience to grab the WBA Interim Super Flyweight Title and stopped the very durable with a heart of a lion warrior from Panama Rafael 'El Torito' Concepcion in the 9th round before thousands of chanting hometown fans and a phletora of Mexican boxing champions past and present during the eve of the Mexican Independence Day celebration at the Arena Mexico here.
A who's who of Mexican stars -- Antonio Margarito, Jose Luis Castillo, Archie Solis, Fernando Montiel, Israel Vazquez, Marco Antonio Barrera and Julio Cesar Chavez came to witness and cheer the highly popular 'El Travieso' Arce in a place considered to be the seat of power of Mexican boxing.
Arce and Concepcion, who are both sluggers, engaged in a phone-booth battle most of the night which kept the thousands in attendance at the edges of their seats.
Arce started out strong in the first round tagging Concepcion with combinations and at one point backing up Concepcion in one corner for an extended period although Concepcion was also able to throw his own counters. Arce had a big second round throwing powerful bombs and tagging Concepcion with lefts and rights to the head which seemed to indicate for an early end of the fight in Arce's favor.
The third round saw a sudden reversal when Concepcion, showing his never say die attitude which earned him a shocking upset win over Banal last July, battled Arce toe to toe and tagged Arce with a powerful left to the head that staggered Arce and silenced the raucous Mexican crowd. Concepcion kept the pressure on Arce throughout the round but failed to finish the war torn Arce.
The fourth and fifth rounds saw a see-saw battle where both fighters threw big bombs on each other that you could almost expect either one of the could go down soon. But the battled-tested Arce and the younger and bull-strong Concepcion stood their grounds until the completion of the rounds.
The sixth round saw the beginning of the end for Concepcion when Arce hit a homerun hook to the body that visibly hurt Concepcion. Arce then followed it up with more hooks that kept Concepcion on the defensive arching very low to defend his body. In the seventh round Arce kept zeroing on in the body of Concepcion who tried to clinched and threw his patented clubbing on the side of Arce's body similar to what he did to Banal.
The eight round saw Concepcion in survival mode by clinching or running away from Arce who never stopped pounding Concepcion's midsection. Concepcion was warned by Referee Steve Smogger for continually hitting Arce on the side everytime he clinched.
The ninth round saw Concepcion badly punished as Arce who now tags the rapidly weakening Concepcion almost at will with head and body shots that turned many in the crowd shouting to the referee to stop the fight. To the credit of Concepcion, he never went down from the punishment and was able to finish the round when the 55-bout veteran Arce literally gave his all to the much younger Concepcion who was fighting for only his 15th professional fight.
When Concepcion returned to his corner, he was examined by the ring physician who recommended to the referee to stop the fight before the start of the 10th round.
PhilBoxing scored it 88-83 for Arce after the night round.
Top photo: Jorge 'Travieso' Arce of Mexico (L) and Rafael 'El Torito' Concepcion engages in a phone booth battle at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City Monday night.
Arce delivers a left uppercut on Concepcion.
Arce enters the arena with a lollipop.
Jorge Solis (L), the referee and eveyone else have eyes on Jorge Samudio who turned his back on Solis giving up the fight in the 4th round.
Mexican WBC super bantam women's champion Jackie Nava (R) goes up against Argentina's Betina Gabriela Garino.
Mexican crowd at Arena Mexico Sep. 15.
Champions all (L-R) Jose Luis Castillo, Fernando Montiel (partly hidden), Archie Solis, Marco Antonio Barrera, Israel Vazquez and Antonio Margarito atop the ring before the start of the Concepcion-Arce fight.
In the main undercard, Archie's older brother Jorge Solis (36-1-2 26KOs), whose lone defeat had been inflicted by Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao, caused another Panamanian, Jorge Samudio (17-4-1 7KOs) to call it quits at 2:02 in the 4th round after the 5'-11" Solis continually tagged Samudio with his long powerful swinging lefts and rights.
In a women's WBC super bantamweight championship, another popular Mexican fighter Jackie Nava nicknamed 'La Princesa Azteca' won by 8th round TKO over a talented warrior from Argentina Betina Gabriela Garino who gave Nava a good fight in the early rounds but ran out of gas later in the fight.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Dong Secuya.
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