HBO Latino: Mauricio Herrera vs. Henry Lundy & Michael Pérez vs. Luis Sánchez RBR

Accidental butt near the end of the 1st. Both hurt, and Herrera cut.

 

Round 2

Lundy is now orthodox, coming in with left hook leads and building combinations, working the short right hand in skipping-stone fashion. Lundy is overwhelming Herrera, forcing him to consistently tie up, giving him no space to move. HARD chopping right by Lundy. Herrera's cut is worsened considerably. Herrera partially slips a jab leaning to his right but takes it oblong across the earlobe. Herrera whips in a pair of wide shots on Lundy's flanks. Lundy is watching and stalking a pace out. Lundy darts in with a high left jab and Herrera grabs his wrist, pulling him into a clinch. Lundy is working more fast power combos but his accuracy is lacking and every time he tries an overhand right Herrera snatches his arm from the air to yank him in close. Another headbutt. Reiss is blaming Lundy for it and warns him. 2nd cut on Herrera, given some recovery time, but takes very little. Time in. Lundy is shooting his left jab halfway out and then backhanding it up in the air to swat away Herrera's light pecking jab from outside.

10-9 Lundy

20-19 Lundy

 

Round 3

Herrera is coming in low and delivering underhanded combos on the body. Lundy throws alternating hooks at the head. Good two-way give and take, but a bit too polite, with offensive turns being taken. Herrera clinches with a minute left. Lundy shrugs him off, careful to point his skull in the opposite direction as Reiss oversees and micromanages. Wild left hooks and looping rights by Lundy in the pocket, attempting to smother Herrera on the ropes. Body jabs and uppercuts by Herrera, spreading his base wide and slinging his upper half in close. Clinch.

10-9 Herrera

29-29

 

Round 4

Long delay leaving the corner as the doctor has a look @ Herrera. Lundy is southpaw again. Wild stuff on the inside, Lundy pushing jabs over the head of Herrera and then ripping left uppercuts at point blank and missing. Herrera is liquefying his bones and rolling his shoulders up to absorb blows or deflect. Herrera is starting to score with jabs even as Lundy proves dangerously coiled, retreating into a crouch and then rising with a straight left. Herrera is throwing in three-pieces on the midsection ducking under Lundy's right jabs. Lundy ducks a Herrera lead right on the outside. Herrera is sawing with the right hand, putting it all the way in downstairs and then driving it upward. Lundy is backed up a ways.

10-9 Herrera

39-38 Herrera

 

Round 5

Herrera is tossing jabs and rights down at the head of an ululating and circumnavigating Lundy. Hard backhanded uppercut rising from a crouch by Lundy. WILD hooks by Lundy, attempting to draw Herrera into an exchange. Stiff jab on the sternum dropped in from the outside by Lundy. Double jab on the nose by Lundy. Herrera runs forward, sick of being on the receiving end, and herds Lundy into the ropes slapping at his body. Wide left hook up top by Herrera, caught on the back of Lundy's waiting glove. Long clinch. Soft taps on the head by Lundy as they grind together. Reiss interrupts and has the cut on Herrera checked out, as the "flap is now hanging over" as he informs the physician. They stop it.

10-9 Lundy

48-48

 

Yeah. It surprised me to see people questioning the legitimacy of it last night, even as tired as I was. I remembered being lucid enough to realize that while leaping jab kayos (and leaping jabs, period) are something of a strange-looking rarity in the sport, they do not defy all reason...and that didn't look fake to me. :conf

Weird =/= fake. (Dinamita vs. Likar Ramos springs to mind..)

 

Official cards:

Zachary Young 48-48 (good score, Zack )
Eddie Hernandez 48-47
Fernando Villareal 48-47

Technical majority decision for Herrera.

 

Lundy made some valid points (he did have Herrera hurt a few times, Herrera did cause most of the butts IMO by putting his head down, and at least one of the cuts was caused by a punch; I remember Jack Reiss saying "that one's from a punch" after noting a cut while separating a clinch) - but acting like he was the victim of the robbery of the century is ridiculous.

There were four completed rounds, and they were all close. It wasn't like any of the judges had a Herrera shutout, or even 49-46.

 

:good

Michael Angelo "The Artist" Pérez came on my radar around the same time as Luis "The Artisan" Cruz, another Puerto Rican stylist (technically, Pérez is PR-American) of like size. Both are 5'9" with 72" reach, and both can box well on the outside behind a jab. They had a common opponent around the time in Hevinson Herrera. Pérez stopped him in 2, while Cruz had taken 6 a year earlier and two divisions south. Pérez is the smarter and more durable fighter while Cruz is the more outright powerful and quicker to resort to gun-slinging, but also first to shy away in the rough going.

Funny that both fought on the same night on separate cards. Last night kind of sums up what I've always felt to be the chief distinguishing trait between them - Pérez handled the early adversity (two cuts from headbutts & Sánchez being a tricky and unwilling victim, and just struggling to leave 1st gear on the night) with aplomb while Cruz folded, all but surrendering when Cherry gave him problems (just by virtue of being patient and remaining aggressive). Granted, there's a gap in quality between Cherry and Sánchez but that gap is more than accounted for in the respective outcomes and the way they came about. Cruz is always going to burst like a pipe under pressure from anyone halfway decent, and has done numerous times now. Pérez is always going to get into scrapes and occasionally fight down to an opponent's level but still finds a way to beat the guys he's supposed to, even when thrown a ****** wrench.