I'm really liking how KO-Chul has looked in his comeback so far, seems to have settled in well at 122lbs, carried up his power too. He's really loosened up, which is a positive. Against Donaire and even Hasegawa he was far too static in there, which to an extent really negated what had made him successful before. He was standing very upright and stiff, just making himself a more vulnerable target, but his upper body movement looks a lot more fluid now and he's used it well against both Cermeno and Lopez. I love that he's incorporated that right hook again, where he's almost moved behind the opponent when he throws it. He'll do three little shuffle-steps to the outside of his adversaries right foot, and throw a right hook right behind it. Very hard to nullify, and he's starting to vary it too, not just leading with it but he's started throwing his jab while making those movements to disguise them.
I thought his fluidity and more efficent movement was key in the success he had at bantamweight to be honest. He did seem quite static at the start vs Hasegawa but I thought it was improving round by round until he got that great stoppage. The Concepcion was hugely impressive to me. Ok concepcion's nothing special but he's a decent fighter and Montiel just destroyed him. It was a virtually perfect performance in my mind and I thought it was primarily down to the way his punches flowed effortlessly and the fact that his foot movement was spot on in cutting the ring off to Concepcion , allowing him to land nice combos. That fight was why I was so looking forward to KO-Chul-Donaire so much. I thought Donaire would win but that it would be a close affair over 12 rounds but Montiel just reverted back to some of his sloppier performances down at super-fly. He looked as rigid as he did vs Gorres and Gonzalez, where I thought he looked lacklustre, and that was always going to play into Nonito's hands. Cermeno was a great comeback fight imo. A good fighter who is always there willing to fight and who puts pressure on whenever he can so it was going to be a good litmus test of what Montiel had left. He looked sharp and focused which bodes well for the future and indicates he can be force at super-bantam without doubt. One area which worried me slightly though vs both cermeno and Perez though was that he seemed open for wild looping punches. His head movement seemed good in evading the short, compact punches that cermeno threw but perez was a lot more wild and strangely enough that seemed to trouble KO-Chul more. He just lingered to long after throwing and the Donaire Ko says it all about how dangerous that can be. Saying that i can't wait to see him at superbantamweight now. With Montiel moving up, it's probably became my second favourite division in boxing atm behind bantamweight. Marquez, Nishioka, WV2, Arce, Gonzalez= a lot of good fights