David Sánchez vs. Luis Concepción RBR

Round 10

Sánchez is mounting his rally, hooking all over Concepción. He runs low on fuel within a minute as his fists clang off Concepción with nothing to show for it. Concepción now takes his turn. Left uppercuts on the body. Right hooks on the face. 1-2s up top. Sánchez is knocked into the ropes and struggling to keep upright as his already broken nose is reopened, spurting blood and limiting his capacity to breathe. Sánchez is caught in an exchange by a HUGE double 1-2 and sent into a full about-face before falling. He beats the count but Concepción is all over him. Body shots by Concepción, shrugging off a clinch attempt. Concepción eats a big left hook on the way in and shrugs and grins. Concepción is bullying Sánchez into the ropes and lands a brutal series of straight head punches and body hooks. About ten or eleven unanswered. Finally Sánchez explodes with his buttocks almost touching the ropes with a big uppercut at the bell to force Concepción to back off.

10-8 Concepción

97-91 Concepción

 

Sánchez's corner does the right thing.

RTD10!

 

:nod

...and Sánchez, at 23, still has a future.

Hell, look at how many people wrote off Concepción back in 2011...

 

You guys are really putting this Barraza vs. Young business over that? :think

I'll have to check it out.

 

The judges were Colombian, Puerto Rican, and Nicaraguan - so there's a good chance that Concepción would have gotten the legit nod anyway even had it gone the extra pair. (his nickname is a reference to his youth spent in Nicaragua, ages 7 until 16...and we all know Puerto Rico and Mexico have deep enmity, in and outside the boxing ring... although Colombia does have better cultural relations with Mexico than with Panama, so maybe it would've been a SD for Concepción :yep)

I'm curious to see the scores anyway.

 

That isn't exactly "hurt by Dustin Nichols" level embarrassing. JJ was at least kind of a prospect not long ago. Wouldn't call him feather-fisted.

 

The book on this one boiled down to:

• Sánchez being the more "complete" all-around fighter (which held true; he looked the part)

• Concepción being a vulnerable banger who seeks to lay hands on you before you can touch him.

The latter - well substantiated by past history (obviously the Marquez fights, but Concepción was also dropped by Salas and Baules, and hurt by Carillo) - just didn't bear out tonight. Like, at all. Concepción stood up to absolutely everything including the kitchen sink and kept pouring it on, seeming comfortable attacking from every direction and from either stance. Nothing from Sánchez even gave him pause, and it became a battle of attrition - exactly the sort of thing you'd figure on paper might work against Concepción, especially with Sánchez having a very good chin (though we saw Concepción's awesome power on display from the very first minute). Sánchez had a few comebacks in him tonight, but none of them bore fruit. The only rounds Concepción lost were almost willingly given away so he could rest up a little and then resume his juggernaut routine, and he steadily cracked the kid's will (though he never entirely broke it, as Sánchez would've happily kept trying in the eleventh and twelfth or gotten KTFO trying) along with his face.