SAUL ALVAREZ, PONCE DE LEON,SAID OUALI PROVIDE FIREWORKS IN VEGAS
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 02 May 2010
Undefeated 19 year old welterweight Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez, featherweight contender Daniel Ponce De Leon and Moroccan Said Ouali provided fireworks on the undercard that set the stage for the masterful display of Floyd Mayweather Jr who simply overwhelmed an ageing Shane Mosley in the main event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Alvarez who many people felt was being overhyped behind a 31-0-1, 23 knockout record lived up to the pre-fight predictions by scoring a 9th round TKO over tough and game Puerto Rican Jose Miguel Cotto, the 32 year old brother of the more illustrious former WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto.
WBC president Don Jose Sulaiman told us before the fight that ?Alvarez is going to knock out the other guy. He is a very strong fighter, he is tough and can take a punch and he is really a great prospect.?
To the delight of Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya, CEO Richard Schaefer and vice president and international matchmaker Eric Gomez, Alvarez delivered on his promise.
Alvarez proved Sulaiman was correct when Cotto caught him against the ropes and landed a solid right that stunned the teenaged phenomenon and went all out to try and finish him off. Alvarez proved he could take a punch and then came back from the second round onwards where referee Tony Weeks called a knockdown when Cotto?s glove touched the canvas and after the Puerto Rican protested mildly Weeks, according to respected boxing writer Jake Donovan , later indicated there was no knockdown.
Alvarez, gaining in confidence with every round and savoring the adulation of Mexican fight fans, began to batter Cotto with cracking body shots and stinging uppercuts before a flurry of unanswered punches with Cotto trapped against the ropes forced Weeks to step in and call a halt at 2:51 of the 9th round .
Former WBO junior featherweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon whose power and warrior?s instincts sent Filipino prospect Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista reeling to a first round stoppage and overcame veteran two-division world champion Gerry Penalosa with an overwhelming number of punches , showed a new and matured style in successfully defending his WBC Latino title with a unanimous ten round decision over 31 year old southpaw Cornelius Lock. The scorecards were too close to fairly reflect the overall dominance of Ponce De Leon with two judges giving it to him by a margin of 96-94 and the third judge 97-93.
Although Ponce De Leon was cut under the left eyebrow in round four his corner did an excellent job in preventing it from bothering the Mexican whose ring composure was a far cry from the wild-swinging champion of the past.
Lock, egged on by his corner was left with too much to do in the last couple of rounds and although he did tag Ponce De Leon with some precise punches in the last two rounds they were nowhere near enough to stop the previously menacing-looking Mexican from scoring a comfortable victory and chasing a second world title as a featherweight.
The opening bout on the pay-per-view telecast was a dandy and fight fans who have the nasty habit of skipping much of the undercard, lost the opportunity to see some fireworks in the ring as Argentina?s Hector David Saldivia and Las Vegas based Moroccan Said Ouali went after each other from the opening bell.
Salidivia who had a record of 26 knockouts in 33 wins with only one loss charged into Ouali and hammered him with two monstrous right hands that dropped the Moroccan within 20 seconds. Ouali shook his head and banged the canvas in apparent disgust at getting caught but he quickly retaliated, nailing Saldivia with counter-left that caught the Argentine flush on the jaw and sent him crashing to the canvas.
Ouali pounced on the visibly groggy Saldivia and ripped him with a vicious right hook that put him on queer street forcing referee Russel Mora to call a halt and allow ?El Tigre? Saldivia to live to fight another day while Ouali who stopped his fancied opponent in 1:47 of the first round, Ouali is another Mayweather prot?g? who may eventually get a shot at Mosley?s WBA title should Mosley decide to continue fighting and if the WBA doesn?t take the title away from Mosley because of the loss to Mayweather even though the title was not on the line.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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