Abril: You don't win championships by smothering and holding

Abril stopped boxing near the middle of the fight. Rios had effectively closed the gap by round 4, but Abril was landing. Around round 6, Rios started catching the jab and continued to close the distance. The majority of the 2nd half was fought in the clinch, where Abril simply didn't punch. He threw the fight away.

 

You are better than this Doc, show some class...im not a Rios hater but he clearly lost last night.

 

Well said. I totally forgot about the coming in overweight, too.

 

Nah, Cubano. He's not. He's one of the biggest ****s on this board. If Abril wok by knockout, he'd still be saying he didn't deserve it.

 

:deal

 

I partially agree and although Abril should have lost points Rios did nothing in this fight and there is no way he deserved the decision, not even close.

 

Molina was very cagey and I thought fought a great fight. BUT he was holding more than he was fighting and was gonna get KTFO if the ref did not **** up and stop the fight early.

Abril, was just as cagey but his game was more complete . . . he stood right in the pocket half the time (not holding) and rios could not do ****. He walked Rios back like Molina but Molina was scared as **** in there.

Molina got stopped by a ******ed ref who should have been on Molina for holding (but hey if you do not get caught its not breaking the rules right). I thought Molina fought a spoiler type fight like a poor mans Bhop (I hate Hopkins) while Abril outclassed Rios (with the shoulder roll ala PBF . . . who i am a big fan of).

I was impressed by both fighters (Molina and Rios) and both fighters fought at a high skill level but Molina held A lot more and Abril moved more. Molina was hurt as a Mofo and was gonna get KTFO if the ref did not stop it like a ****** while Abril was not even phased by anything that Rios threw. Both fighters won almost all of the first 10 rounds and think both deserve a rematch. I think Kirkland will adjust and catch Molina a lot earlier and Rios has no answer to Abril' style and would get shut out again.

 

I thought Abril did a wonderful job making Rios look like an amateur. This is boxing not brawling and clinching is a part of boxing. Hopkins, Ward, Wladimir Klitschko, Ali and many more champions have used clinching. Maybe Rios should have used another tactic then to run constantly in the clinch. This was a robbery. Abril won this fight.

 

It's technically illegal and Abril went overboard, there were rounds where he was just looking to lock up Rios' arm.

 

lol @ blaming a guy for being clinched....and in the clinch, he was landing more.

 

True! But there seems to be no worldwide ruling on how many times you can clinch without being penalised. In Germany it seems you can clinch all day. I wish someone could school me on that.

 

out of thousands here on ESB and only five or six agreed with the decision, let them be they are too fanatics or ignorants to c the true...

 

Was he close to what Molina was doing against Kirkland where the ref just let him push him to the ropes and tie him up everytime and hitting him on the breaks?
If so then I don't mind yesterday's decision, that's one BS way to win.