ANTONIO ESCALANTE THRIUMPS OVER CORNELIUS LOOK
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 25 Jul 2009
At a fight card held at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas and presented on ESPN?s Friday Night Fights, hometown boy Antonio Escalante beat Cornelius Lock of Detroit, Michigan via a sweet unanimous decision, scoring two KD?s along the way.
In the first co-main undercard, Carlos Velasquez scored an apparent KD on the second round with a looping right cross against Juan Narzario. However in spite of being knocked down to a squat position, Nazario?s hands did not seem to touch the canvass and the referee allowed the fight to continue.
Throughout the fight however, Velasquez showed total domination scoring hard shots to the body and head almost every time he threw a punch.
Referee Rocky Burke managed the fight well, beginning with the on ring instructions which he conducted in both English and Spanish.
In round 5 due to excessive holding for which he was previously warned by Burke, NazaRio was given a point deduction. But, it was also apparent that Velasquez played a good role in allowing himself to be held that gave the referee a reason to deduct the point from Nazario.
Nazario to his credit displayed a very good chin, absorbing many looping right crosses from Velasquez but never went down.
In the end, Valasquez won via a one sided unanimous decision with the three judges identically scoring a 60-53 for him.
With the win, Velasquez remained undefeated with a 11-0-0 (9KO) while Nazario suffered his first defeat and ended up with a 6-1-1
In the second co-main event, Carlos Velasquez? twin brother, Juan Velasquez met a seemingly undersize Mexican veteran, Jose Angel Beranza. Beranza fought mostly at 112 to 122 lbs and lost in his last 7 fights. Velasquez was a natural 122 pounder.
However Beranza gave a good account of himself, in spite of taking a hard accidental head butt in round one over his left check bone.
Beranza may have been smaller but had many more fights than Velasquez who was fighting his only 9th fight. Thus he used his vast experience all throughout the fight.
Velasquez on the other hand was taller, had a longer reach and a vast amateur experience which he used through out the fight as an advantage.
In round 3, Velasquez was KD twice. The first one came as a surprise, more of a flash KD. It was a result of a right body shot that buckled the right foot of Velasquez. The second one was a clear KD with a left upper cut.
The undefeated Velasquez on the succeeding rounds tried hard to catch up by throwing bombs while Beranza was consistent with his offensive, at times timing his shots effectively.
Towards the last seconds of round 5, Beranza was on an offensive resulting in Velasquez dropping his mouthpiece after a clean right from Beranza . But the referee Robert Velez, in a very poorly judged action stopped Beranza?s offensive to allow Velasquez to put back his mouthpiece clearly robbing Beranza a chance to follow up his attack.
In the end, Jose Angel Beranza scored a great upset over the unbeaten Carlos Velasquez via a unanimous decision. The judges scores were 58-54 , 58-54 and 57-55 all for the wily veteran. Beranza with the win, improved to 32-15-2, 25 KO. Velasquez on the other hand dropped to 9-1-0, 5KO.
The main event between Antonio Escalante and Cornelius Look was a humdinger that started rather slowly with Escalante scoring a few heavy body shots and Lock counter punching to score a few hits. Indeed, a good exhibit of contrasting fighting styles. Round one appeared even.
As round 2 started, the two fighters exchanged combinations during the whole action packed round. Lock was warned for a seemingly low blow that landed on the belt line of Escalante. Escalante suffered a cut on the left eyelid that was declared as a result of a punch by the referee Rocky Burke but appeared to be from a head butt at the TV replay. Round to Escalante
In round three, there as a furious exchange in the middle of the ring. A left hand from Escalante dropped Lock who immediately stood up to take an eight count.
Towards the end of the round, Lock again was dropped by a big right body shot but he survived the round.
A 10-7 round for Escalante.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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