Solo Boxeo Tecate: Jose Miguel Cotto vs. Christopher Henry RBR

Warning: this is on a delay.

No spoilers please. :nono

 

Round 1

Cotto pressures, moving his head well. He misses a hook as the taller Henry keeps his chin held out of reach while circling wide. Cotto closes in and starts piling into the body. Henry grabs whenever Cotto gets going with the combos to the body. Henry tries to land long right hands while staying outside. Cotto pins him to the ropes and whacks both sides of his body. Henry tries to duck and weave but gets rocked with a big overhand right to the jaw. Henry is much taller and has much more of a gymrat build but is getting bullied badly. Cotto lands a left hook.

10-9 Cotto

 

Round 2

Henry unfurls long jabs from outside, bouncing backward on his toes to keep away from Cotto. Henry is very jumpy, and with good reason as Cotto keeps plowing forward. Cotto smashes his way inside, is grabbed and pushes out of a clinch. Cotto gets his man on the ropes and just starts ripping shots with both hands. Henry turns his back as he runs free of the ropes and takes an inadvertent rabbit punch in the process. Cotto gets him on another set of ropes and keeps wailing on him. This is an infighting clinic. Cotto just brutalizes the taller man, who tries every trick in the book to shimmy free but eventually succumbs to the shower of power punches, falling flat on his butt in the corner, wild-eyed. Henry gets up and dances around, surviving the round.

10-8 Cotto

 

Round 3

Cotto leaps in with a left hook but is just barely too short for it to land on the chin of his towering prey. Henry is launching right hands and dashing off to his right, employing hit-and-run tactics. They wind up in an accidental tackle and both spill to the ground. Cotto turns sideways and jabs his way in, trying to open up a spot on the inside to work on the body. Henry is focusing on moving his feet to stay away, but gets caught up a few moments later in trying to time Cotto with counter shots and forgets to continue moving his feet. Cotto takes advantage and works the body. Henry is given time to recover from a low blow. He takes a bit. When time in is called Cotto literally sprints across the ring and immediately starts raining punches on Henry's midsection. Henry is peppered to the ropes and pounded on. Henry is wobbling. Cotto catches him on the chin a couple of times but again Henry is saved by the bell.

10-9 Cotto

 

In the Tecate-sponsored fan text messaging live poll, "¿Qual es el boxeador con mas caracter?" - Cotto beat Henry 90% to 10%.

 

Round 4

It's a massacre by Cotto. He throws mean left hooks to the ribs and mean rights to the sternum that have Henry plopping along the ropes. IT is stopped, mercifully.

Henry then hops up on the turnbuckle and puts a fist up in the air, playing up to the crowd. I guess he's saying "Hey, yeah! Look at my cojones! I went out on my shield and finished on my feet!" They're actually obliging him with a couple of cheers (but far fewer than Cotto got for sending a simple modest nod their way). :conf

 

Super bantamweights take the stage.

Young Jesus Rojas tries his luck against battle-hardened Reynaldo Lopez.

Round 1

Lopez throws a hard right jab, actually so hard that it messes up his stepping rhythm and has him scrambling for balance. Matters are made worse when he swings with a long left hand. Rojas just follows him and looks to land a quick lead right. Lopez lands a few short whips to the body. Lopez firing off straight punches as Rojas comes forward, and Rojas answers in kind with harder straight punches while not slowing down a single pace. Lopez is keeping his hands busy enough to keep Rojas from just waltzing right in.

 

Round 2

Rojas continues to give Lopez a lot of respect, following him but not punching his way in. Rojas backs out when Lopez starts letting his hands go. Rojas slowly worms his way forward and starts to tag Lopez with hard counters on the inside. Lopez in trouble! He staggers backward and lands on the seat of his trunks. Rojas meets him again in the center of the ring once Lopez is cleared to go on and clubs him with hard overhand rights. Lopez gets inside Rojas' chest and stifles him, not giving him room to punch with leverage. Lopez keeps punching, trying to keep Rojas too occupied to counter but at the same time Lopez is leaving himself pretty wide open. Fortunately for him Rojas doesn't take advantage.

10-8 Rojas

20-17 Rojas

 

Round 3

Lopez is aggressive, throwing a hook-2 combo and then circling left, and then switching it up and moving right, keeping himself turned as a narrow target. Rojas can't find him and doesn't seem in a hurry to look. Rojas follows with a steady shuffling motion. Eventually he gets Lopez up on the ropes and hammers him but they clinch before any real damage can be done. Now Lopez is dancing around on the outside and landing counters. He slips and moves his head when Rojas tries to rush him into the ropes. Lopez lands a nice 1-2 as Rojas comes at him.

Good for the veteran.

10-9 Lopez

29-27 Rojas

 

Round 4

Lopez continues to land with a variety of punches while crowding, spinning, pushing out and evading - uppercuts, short hooks, everything - most of it pitty-pat stuff but landing nonetheless. Rojas is simply letting himself get outworked here and does land a couple of nice clean punches when he bothers trying to cut the ring, but it might not be enough to preserve the round.

 

Round 5

Lopez taunts with his right jab, cocky as you like. Rojas tries to take his head off with a lead right, and Lopez gets a move on. Lopez is busy, busy, busy. Lots of punches coming from the journeyman as he makes Rojas miss (while throwing many, many more punches). Rojas occasionally looks at the referee like "Can he do that?" and the referee just stares blankly like "What? Slip your punches? Yeah. Get in there and try to hit him!". Lopez keeps slipping, this is the second time in two rounds. He looks annoyed and says something to the ref about it. Now Rojas is able to hit him a bit more. Lopez keeps punching and moving but is clearly bothered by having to climb to his feet so often and it's thrown him a bit off his game as he takes some clean stiff jabs and at least one good right hand.

 

Round 6

Lopez slaps with several backhanded right jabs. Rojas swats him into a corner and begins to paint him with rights. Lopez keeps his composure and gets back out into open water where he again drubs Rojas with quick potshots while swerving, flinching and dodging. Rojas walks Lopez once more into a corner and opens up with a combo that nearly has Lopez in trouble but Rojas doesn't keep it going long enough. Lopez is able to squeeze through the cracks and go back to his pestering antics with the full ring at his back, Rojas now the one with his back to the ropes. Rojas follows and only lets his hands go after the ten-second clap, doubling up his right hand but unable to put Lopez out.

 

Rojas wins a split decision.

Yeah...Rojas is not exactly what you'd classify as a "go-getter".

It isn't that he's totally unskilled - he just lacks any sense of urgency whatsoever. It goes beyond being a "calm boxer". He seems more like a disinterested boxer...especially when confronted with an eager spoiler like Lopez.