Michael "Artista" Perez vs. Jose "Loco" Hernandez - a brand new lost gem!

I finally got around to watching this scorcher from last Friday night, the headliner of Solo Boxeo Tecate.

People have been saying two things about this contest in unison: that it was a FOTY candidate, and that it was a hometown decision.

Have a look for yourself.

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Round 1: Perez hurt abruptly by a jab and subsequent follow-up attacks before he'd recovered. Hernandez continued to make a dent with body shots and hard rights up top but Perez scored well down the stretch and got back into it with some lateral movement. Hernandez just looked so much stronger to set the pace for the night, and stole the round with a vicious body attack at the bell if he hadn't already sealed it. 10-9 Hernandez.

Round 2: Hernandez was aggressive but his jab was less accurate. Perez really timed him well coming in and even got to come forward a bit. Perez showed a nice tight defense, respecting Hernandez' brawn a bit more now. Nice body shots from Perez gave Hernandez a taste of his own medicine. In the toe-to-toe volleys Hernandez still looks stronger but Perez offsets this with speed and volume. 10-9 Perez

Round 3: Huge 1-2 by Hernandez set the tone, and he doesn't relent. Perez tried gamely to fight his way off the ropes and Jose just bashes him like a seagull with a crab. Brutal round. Perez could easily have been on the unkind end of a towel or referee stoppage at certain moments in the first minute and a half. Hernandez was throwing such hard punches he lost his own mouthpiece. Perez scored with several nice hooks on the lateral jump after the interruption, but his dominance with finesse in the last ninety seconds wasn't quite enough to negate the Mexican's dominance with pure aggression in the first half. 10-9 Hernandez

Round 4: Hernandez began sliding his feet at a measured pace, trying to box a bit. Perez took the lead and flurried a few times but Hernandez blocked almost everything. Hernandez went to work on the body while Perez repeatedly loaded up on long right hands to the face. Hernandez shoved Perez across the ring and kept chipping away with short punches. Perez, now bleeding, backed him off a while with a nice jab and some good footwork. Hernandez caught him and his his bodysnatching acumen appeared to take over for a moment until Perez pulled out a few really sharp counters that tip the very close round his way. 10-9 Perez

Round 5: Perez drew first blood with a nice charging hook and had Hernandez legitimately jelly-legged after landing a bevy of power punches with Hernandez propped against the ropes trying to cover up or grab. Hernandez could never quite reset as Perez controlled range and picked away with less damaging but cleanly connecting pit-pats. After a brief lull Perez again exploded with the charging hook and had Hernandez in a corner taking punishment. Rather than punch himself out on the sturdy Hernandez, the Puerto Rican decided to mount his bike and potshot with jabs and lead rights for the remaining minute. Hernandez landed nicely just before the bell but nowhere near enough to steal a round in which his butt got royally kicked. 10-9 Perez

Round 6: Perez jabbed, danced and ducked his way around the ring for most of the first minute while Hernandez hopped on his toes and lunged whenever Perez drifted into range. One of those charging hooks that had been so successful was now blocked, having been scouted and figured out by Hernandez. Perez did a good job of pushing and clinching Hernandez whenever the range wasn't to his liking. Hernandez tried admirably to squash Perez on the ropes with body punches but couldn't quite pin him down. Perez did absorb several incidental slams to the sides while circling but largely outboxed his foe. 10-9 Perez but a very close round, and scoring it to Hernandez for clean body punches landed would be perfectly acceptable.

Round 7: Perez again boxed from the frontier with jabs and hooks. Hernandez again managed to use his long reach to catch Perez at the tip of some thudding shots on the turn. Perez continued to bend down and/or clinch whenever trapped. Hernandez threw combos and was landing at least one hard power punch each time but couldn't really string anything substantial together. Outside of the first thirty seconds, Perez didn't land enough jabs and hooks from outside to course correct and Hernandez eked this one out. 10-9 Hernandez

Round 8: Both missed long-reaching jabs in a curiously cautious start with neither closing in or taking risks. Perez wandered too near the ropes and paid for it with a few brushes to the body by Hernandez. Perez tried to worm forward behind a jab to put his stamp on the round and started unloading a 1-2 on Hernandez, together with some body jabs and slapping rights to the upper face over the guard. Hernandez chased but couldn't effectively corner Perez and missed wildly several times. A stiff jab like the one early in the fight landed for Hernandez and snaps Perez's head back dramatically. Hernandez started to really impose himself on Perez with the clock running out. Perez was getting hit hard and often and finding it difficult to escape and may have been in trouble were this more than an 8-rounder. 10-9 Hernandez

A draw for me, but rounds 4 & 6 could belong to Hernandez with only the slightest nudge (whereas there aren't really any given Hernandez rounds that could be transferred to Perez. The 3rd & 5th were his only indisputable paid property.

The final verdict: not a horribly egregious gift indicative of home cooking (although the one official score of 78-74 for Perez seems a bit hard to swallow). IMO it was a draw, and if one man ought to have won it was indeed Hernandez. So, this can be chalked up to a case of "the wrong man won a SD, in a very close fight". That's no need for bunched panties.

Hernandez and Perez can both be proud of putting on a great show, and each operating very well within their respective opposing and pleasantly-blending styles.

As for the FOTY murmurs...it was a very good fight, but utterly slain by Mares-Darchinyan the next night.

 

Mrs. Butt wanted to go out and get plastered on Friday for the first time in a while, so Solo Boxeo Tecate had to wait in the DVR queue for once. She puts up with a lot of weekend time not being free due to my boxing addiction, so it seemed fair and overdue. :yep

What a great card, though. That Cruz KO!!! :shock:

It starts about 46 minutes into the video posted, for those who haven't seen it. That is insane power! How did Acuna get up???????

 

Damn it! :twisted:

I was hoping the filler fight shown in case one of the co-features ended in early KO would be the one involving Abner Cotto (cousin of Jose & Miguel, rising lightweight prospect). Instead we get the relatively tame 4-rounder between a safety-first Jonuel Tapia and a sloppy Emil Gonzalez.

However...look what we have here. :hey

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It's a highlight package of the whole card. Abner Cotto is on from about 2:00 to 2:40, beating up Alberto De Jesus Trinidad en route to a 3rd round TKO.

It's not as good as seeing a full fight of his, but it's better than nothing. He looks alright for 10-0. :think

 

It wasn't Pitalua-Paredes, was it? They're welterweights, and nobody on the Telemundo card was below 135.