GBP on ESPN2: Neeco Montiel Macias vs. Jesús Soto Karass RBR

Hell of a way for JSK to go out, if he chooses to do so.

Outworking a younger fighter with an all-universe workrate to secure a deserved decision when he could just as easily have shelled up and rode out the storm is a damned good swan song.

 

I scored this final “Golden Boy on ESPN” fight on ESPN2 for Jesus Soto-Karass, 8-2 rounds, 98-92 points, giving Neeco Macias the first two rounds, and Soto-Karass everything after. The 5th round was the closest and most difficult round to score, but I felt surprisingly comfortable about my scoring in every other round, considering the unrelenting action. And how about the action? CompuBox has been in existence since 1985, and this fight SHATTERED the alltime CompuBox records for punches thrown and landed, with 3,353 and 1,119, respectively. I have never watched the 1993 Padilla vs Oliveira fight that previously held the CompuBox record with a combined 3,020 punches thrown, but after tonight I almost feel it would be a letdown if I did!

Literally every second of this fight was non-stop action, and literally almost every second of every round of this fight was fought with Soto-Karass backed into a corner or against the ropes in a figurative phone booth, with Macias right on top of him. Soto-Karass spent entire rounds backed into his own corner, and also spent considerable time in each neutral corner, but he never once made it across the ring into Macias’ corner. He even developed a red rope burn across his lower back as early as the 3rd round! This seemed an obvious strategy by Soto-Karass to preserve his legs for the entirety of the fight, given his age and ring rust and knowledge of Macias’ reputation for extreme punch outputs, and anyway he always seemed comfortable backed against the corners and ropes, not only because he has been in firefights throughout his career, but also because Macias really lacks power in his punches. This fight featured zero jabs, zero defense, and zero “sweet science”. Macias won the opening two rounds by obviously outthrowing and outlanding Soto-Karass, and he kept a similar pace for the first half of the fight. However, it really seemed that essentially all his punches were arm punches, thrown with speed and frequency but without any leverage at all, let alone “sitting down” on any of them; they were punches thrown to overwhelm his opponent rather than actually hurt him. Soto-Karass grew into the fight by the 3rd round; he too was throwing a lot of arm punches, but unlike Macias, he was able to get leverage on the occasional punch and visibly snap Macias’ head. The commentators (Bernardo Osuna and Beto Duran) did not single out many specific punches during the fight, but the large majority of the ones they did were thrown by Soto-Karass. Macias was consistently mixing in left and right hooks to the body in the first half of the fight, but in such close quarters, most of these were rabbit punches, and in the 6th round the referee finally gave Macias a formal warning about those punches; after that warning, I counted one single body shot thrown by Macias in the entire rest of the fight. (I thought at the time that Soto-Karass’s redness across his lower back was mainly from all the rabbit punches Macias was throwing, but then I realized the redness was too uniform across his back for that to likely be the case.) So in the 6th round, not only did Macias suddenly remove body shots from his arsenal, but he started seeming to be visibly tiring in a relative sense, as although he continued throwing large numbers of punches, Soto-Karass was now clearly in the ascendancy, outpunching and outlanding him, increasingly mixing in effective body work, and continuing to throw the more visibly effective shots. This would be the pattern for the remainder of the fight. Soto-Karass’ most dominant round was clearly the 9th, and the 10th wasn’t far behind, although he did get briefly staggered once in that round (I think he was just caught off-balance).

Immediately upon the final bell to end the fight, the fighters embraced in a show of great respect. Postfight, both fighters had noticeable swelling around both eyes, and Macias had sustained a cut above his right eye in the 2nd round from a headbutt that bled on Soto-Karass more than it seemed to cause himself problems during the fight, but considering all the punches thrown and landed, both fighters looked relatively good. When the scores were announced and Soto-Karass was declared the winner, there were smiles and good fellowship all around. Macias was happy to bask in the glow of a truly historic and fan-friendly fight. Soto-Karass claimed his first victory in 5+ years and snapped a six-fight winless streak, and now hopefully (but per his postfight interview, not definitely) will retire on this truly high note. This fight was a fantastic way to end the “Golden Boy on ESPN” series.

 

Wow didn't think Karass could do it. Massive props to him.

 

I hope Karass truly is done. He couldn't have gotten a better swansong win than this. Upset an undefeated prospect and smashed punchstat records in the process. Will really be unfortunate if hes to continue... It made the moment even more special. But most guys who say they're done in this sport never dick to it the first time so it's likely Karass will be back.