ESPN: Mark DeLuca vs. Ramsés Agatón & Jason Quigley vs. Daniel Rosario Cruiz RBR

Hard to believe that eye is holding up this long.

 

Ahh, they just mentioned on commentary that he was a jarhead, I'd forgotten that. Being in the Marines is a good excuse to interrupt your boxing career, yep.

 

Round 5

Agatón is bravely standing in and jabbing at DeLuca. Agatón is playing matador, trotting into the corner and flashing right hooks on the backfoot when DeLuca presses in. DeLuca is turning orthodox at times and landing the line drive 1-2 from a partial crouch.

10-9 DeLuca

50-42 DeLuca

 

Round 6

Agatón is jousting with DeLuca, sallying in with the stiff right jab and then retreating in brief sorties. DeLuca is doing the shift between stances on the front-foot, jabbing with the front hand, whichever that happens to be. Agatón getting popped in the mouth with straight leads by DeLuca. Pause to check the cut one more time. Looking bad. Time in, though. Agatón is drifting to his right, letting DeLuca skim his face with a 1-2, but rolling down with it while landing a no-look left hand. Agatón doing very well for how outmatched he is, and with that cut, and coming on short notice. Game SOB.

10-9 DeLuca

60-51 DeLuca

 

B+ showing by the Bazooka. Not too much fault to find in the performance but he could probably have taken Agatón out by now if he put his mind to it.

 

Round 7

Trickle of jabs and big hacking left by Agatón. DeLuca is ducking and working the body, pushing his man back. Agatón is getting hit with left hooks up top, rights on the body. Agatón is putting his mitts out, catching shots on his palms as he backs into the corner. DeLuca is bodying up against Agatón, flipping his elbows out into his rib cage to drive him across the ring, hitting him heavily with the left downstairs in the corner, and Agatón goes to a knee. He rises but Mike Ryan waves it off, probably more because of the cut being bad enough to stop it anyway than anything to do with the knockdown.

KO7!

 

Comeback DeLuca (2014-present) is now 12-0 (7), while pre-layoff DeLuca (2007-2010) was 8-0 (5), so he's staying pretty close to his baseline of hovering near a 60% rate of stoppage even as he steps up in competition. Not a big puncher, and certainly doesn't have the greatest killer instincts with some coasting tendencies, but heavy-handed enough and with good punching form, at least.

 

Final stats:

DeLuca 104 of 356, 29%
Agatón 66 of 368, 18%

 

So, all of the three televised A-sides somehow managed to dominate (losing only one round between them, of 19 completed, and that only because Falcão suffered a flash KD in a round he otherwise won) but still turn in somewhat underwhelming and "flat" performances against opponents all three probably should've taken out early.