Boxeo Telemundo: Jose Nieves vs. Glenn Porras & Yordenis Ugas vs. Cosme Rivera RBR

Unofficial Telemundo scorer gave Rivera the 6th, and has it knotted up at 57 apiece. :shock:

Maybe I'm being too generous to the "effectiveness" of Ugas' blows compared to the bounty of Rivera's... :think

 

Round 7

Rivera is jumping around Ugas and hooking the body at an upward angle. Right uppercuts to the other side of the trunks by Rivera as he changes direction. Ugas is still looking for one big whack, otherwise covering up and letting Rivera paint his arms with set-up drum rolls to allow him to covertly blast the body.

10-9 Rivera

68-65 Ugas

 

That reminds me ugas vs Garcia

 

Round 8

Ugas paws with his jab. Rivera dances around the ring and fires the 1-2 off the ropes. Ugas reaches up with roundabout right hands, some landing as rabbit punches and some legally. Rivera moves in and ties up. Ugas flips shots into the body and crashes a few more rights down atop Rivera's head.

10-9 Ugas

78-74 Ugas

 

Round 9

Ugas is looking for a finish, charging in and zapping the body until he's got Rivera almost to the ropes and then hooking woodenly into his jaw with the left. Rivera is spoiling a bit, leaning in on Ugas and twisting his arms down, and landing counter left hooks. Rivera is again actually getting a bit more in cleanly, but Ugas has all the eye-popping connections. A few big hooks really snap Rivera's head and probably tip it Ugas' way.

10-9 Ugas

88-83 Ugas

 

Round 10

Ugas is bending forward and turning, letting Rivera's punches pass him by to either side and then letting go with pulley combos. Rivera tries to jab his way in but Ugas dumps leather on his face, backing him up with several more hurtful parting gifts. Gum shield out from Ugas. Replaced. Rivera moves in and chops the body with his right hand. Exchange of straight shots from long range. Big right hand by Ugas. Rivera takes it without blinking and keeps firing. Nice finish.

10-9 Ugas

98-92 Ugas

 

Official cards:

97-93
97-93
98-92

UD for Yordenis Ugas

 

You call the right fight. Close score cards

 

It was a messy victory, but at the end of the day he got it.

Old Cosme put up a hell of an effort against the Santiago native a decade his junior, and if you were reaching for him (and/or depending on your scoring criteria leaning more towards # of clean touches and ignoring the fact that Rivera got tagged with some huge bombs that might have lain him flat if not for his iron chin and adrenaline-fueled determination) you might have had this closer than the judges - but absolutely no closer than a draw, and even that is a reach.

 

Where does Ugas goes from here?

 

That's actually the only time he's ever been knocked out.

He's been stopped twice, but the other time was a TKO while on his feet against El Perro Angulo.

 

Maybe rematch Garcia?

If he can show improvement, maybe eventually he can go after the beast who beat Garcia. (Angelo "La Cobra" Santana)

 

The largely pro-Ugas crowd in Kissimmee actually gave Rivera an ovation after the scores were read. Pretty cool.

 

Oh, and there was a slobberknocker of a four-round swing bout between debuting Carlos Lacayo and Giovanni Vazquez.

 

The Nieves vs. Porras KO:

[yt]u_lwUhWzaVI[/yt]

Southpaw check hook!!

Note that a check hook doesn't simply denote a counter. It's got to be a hook executed with textbook perfection (90° angle, elbow pointed at a horizontal, swiveling hips to generate power) and it's got to use the charging opponent's forward momentum against them by using a pivoting matador move to land the hook while dodging their own punch. Nieves didn't have that much room to fully pivot with the ropes at his back, but he did pull back and squirm into the ideal spot to both dodge and land - so I'm willing to throw him a bone and call it a check hook.

The best view is at 6:10, a slow motion side angle.

Beautiful KO. Among the best in 2012.