Cristian Mijares vs. Jesús Arévalo & Francisco Horta vs. Edgar Lozano RBR

Co-feature to Cristian Mijares vs. Jesús Arévalo, which just ended*; currently set to begin airing live on Televisa.

(results are not yet on BoxRec; you can read a little more about the Diamante match here: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/cristian-ricardo-lucio-el-diamante-mijares.595216/ and I will post video whenever it gets uploaded)

Cristian Mijares vs. Jesús Arévalo:

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Francisco Horta vs. Edgar Lozano, 10 rounds @ super bantamweight

 

Round 1

Horta is throwing hard overhand rights at Lozano, backing him up and then swooping away from the counter uppercuts and chopping rights coming in return. Horta is leaning back, arms down, letting his neck muscles loosen and head dip behind his shoulders to slip punches, then performing a slingshot move to roll in with more overhands. Good pace, both circling and firing nonstop.

10-9 Horta

 

Round 2

Horta is hooking the body and then sidestepping to dissuade Lozano from mounting a counterattack by immediately sticking a high lancing jab into his face. Nice fluid offense and lateral movement based defense by Horta, never moving backward, always in range to punch but evasive after connecting, not pausing to admire his work. Lozano is attempting to just time him with big left hooks, ambushing him after lulling him with a lowering of the arms or intentional misstep to create the appearance of an error in footwork and positioning. Violent chess here, good stuff. Both landing well.

10-9 Horta

20-18 Horta

 

Roberto Sosa has it 20-18 Horta.

 

Round 3

Horta is feinting the jab but then sheathing it, ramming his entire left side into Lozano and leading instead with a left hook to his liver. Double left hooks by Lozano as he lies in wait, combined with flush right uppercuts on the chin, payload delivered unseen as he winds up the arm behind the flank starboard. Lozano now asserting his jab a bit, more of a light floating shot with his toes on the leading foot depressed and the ball raising him up to balance on them and pitch forward a bit, just fluttering the shot in Horta's face. Nice body work by Horta as he gets under the jab.

10-9 Horta

30-27 Horta

 

Round 4

Horta is shoving the jab into Lozano's face and landing hard with it, a step-through punch, throwing all of his weight behind it. Lozano is drawing up the well-pail and flipping out a defensive jab when Horta gets in close but mostly carrying his arms low and circling away now. Body shots getting to Lozano. Horta as if sensing this jumps in and starts to spin himself into massive torquing right hands looped into Lozano's side, clearly agonizing him. Lozano takes some more punishment and goes down as Horta lands a cuffing shot behind the head - not ruled a KD.

10-9 Horta

40-36 Horta

 

Roberto Sosa has it 40-36 Horta.

 

Round 5

Horta is putting his face down, upper body planked forward as Lozano bats at his ear and exposed cheek with left hooks, unable to slow him down. Lozano has a bit of success laying against the ropes and buoying himself off them in order to leverage big uppercuts that land repeatedly as Horta keeps hurling the entirety of his being at him, willingly providing a target gift-wrapped on Lozano's doorstep. Lozano is content to stay in this position and bounce himself off the ropes and his fists off Horta's chest and face.

10-9 Lozano

49-46 Horta

 

Round 6

Lozano is now getting his left arm out in the way to disrupt Horta's attempted body punches, intercepting the left hook and deflecting it off the forearm while shooting a jab designed not to land but to provide exactly this one function. Horta is getting smacked above the ear with left hooks as he ducks forward and flurries ineffectively. Lozano now playing matador, leading Horta into the corner and then exploding with a leap inside and rattling off a combo. Horta getting outsmarted for now by the lighter-hitting fighter with the less fundamentally sound technique.

10-9 Lozano

58-56 Horta

 

Sosa has it 58-56 Horta

 

Round 7

Horta is jabbing between the elbows and sticking the belly, although he's getting his face swept by hooks on the way inside. Horta selling out and faking a jab and then LUNGING with far-flung powerful left hooks on the body, getting a piece of Lozano but also sacrificing his positioning and getting tagged in return. Horta is connecting but he's fighting Lozano's fight and looking sloppier by the second in pursuit, and losing gas from all the chasing and missing (and the exertion of reaching so far with his body punches). Lozano falls on the canvas again, yet another non-knockdown, just tripped while backing away while throwing his own punch although Horta was bearing down on him.

10-9 Lozano, very close

67-66 Horta

 

Sosa has it 67-66 Horta.

 

Round 8

Horta is throwing all he can at the body, pumping away. Lozano is putting in his own body work now, slamming hard at Horta's sides and standing in the pocket with him. Lozano takes a few steps away but soon plants himself. Legs starting to feel a bit heavier, it seems. Lozano pushes into Horta, shoulder to his belly and drives him into the ropes before the ref breaks them up. Horta keeps attacking, using his last remaining vestiges of energy. Shoeshines upstairs and down. Lozano throws Horta into a headlock while backing up as Horta charges headfirst, bent forward. Lozano is pinned in a corner and hit on the body a few times and finally succumbs, winded and under fire. Down, taking most of the count, and that'll be that!

TKO8!!!!!!!!

 

This was actually pretty damn thrilling, for a co-feature in which most outside the local scene don't have any interest or stake. (guessing the only reason it was put on after Mijares vs. Arevalo is that Horta was born in Cameche and has a following here)

There was a sharp turnaround after four rounds; this was super easy to score (even the relatively close rounds were still very clear in one direction or the other; note that Sosa and I were in lockstep the entire way, and the graphic with his scores flashed onscreen after I had posted mine) and the shift in momentum was clearly delineated. It felt like a shame (albeit still at the same time a familiar tale in the sport) that Horta, the better puncher and tidier fighter overall, was going to squander his excellent start and lose to a conventionally inferior boxer simply due to his flagging gas tank and Lozano's quick-thinking strategy change. Lozano, though, as it turns out, could not keep up the Calzaghe-like generalship and his own stamina fizzled just before he was about to even things up on points and create the feeling that an upset of the hometown boy was inevitable, given that Horta seemed unlikely to catch a second wind and every indication was that Lozano would continue to surge in the final 2½ rounds before he abruptly crashed into his own wall.