Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Orlando Salido & Luis Cruz vs. Martin Honorio RBR

Round 2

Vazquez comes out aggressive and backs Diaz again to the ropes, but takes too much time setting up his big power shots and getting countered. Diaz is landing well on the inside with his free hand as they each get one arm tangled. Nice 1-2 coming forward by Diaz. Pendulum shots to the body as he pushes Vazquez to the ropes. Vazquez answers back with hard tub-thumps of his own. Vazquez is loading up on very wide punches out of the corners and getting his head rocked by sharp counters. Vazquez is a lot more powerful but also has much worse defense and punching technique. It's making this very interesting. Diaz ROCKED by a right.

20-18 IV

 

Round 3

The commentators just pointed out that for an 0-3 guy Diaz is pretty good. :shock: I hadn't even realized he was - what's the antonym of undefeated?

Diaz certainly does look better than that, flurrying well to the body and backing Vazquez up to the ropes consistently. He is only really in trouble when he steps out into Vazquez's range of execution. Diaz is getting the slight better of the phonebooth body punching war. Vazquez drifts himself to the ropes without being pushed back. Diaz watches him go, wary of getting caught with those wide mid-range bombs. Diaz gets up close to him and trades body shots. Nice right by Vazquez. They get into a heated exchange before the bell, completely abandoning defense. Good stuff.

29-28 Vazquez

 

Round 4

Vazquez has no jab whatsoever, as the commentators point out. Diaz is therefore able to trot right up to him undisturbed. Diaz is landing straight lefts to the face and digging in body shots. Vazquez tries to time him coming in with just the right hand lead but is too slow and wide with it. On the inside, Vazquez is spending a lot of energy trying to push Diaz off and doesn't have a lot left over to throw punches. Diaz lands a good left hand upstairs pushing Vazquez into the ropes and getting him to drop his hands to trade body shots. Vazquez slides along the ropes and has his head snapped with another straight left. Diaz is aggressive. Diaz is landing well but not really hurting Vazquez.

Draw for me.

 

Sullivan Barrera is a good cruiserweight prospect.

Yordenis Ugas is an accomplished Cuban amateur and Olympic bronze medalist.

Victor Bisbal and Carlos Negron are Puerto Rico's two big HW prospects.

Berto vs. Ortiz won't start until at least after 10:15pm EST - since the HBO broadcast starts at 9:45 with the Khan vs. McCloskey tape-delay (and that one lasted exactly 25 minutes). There are no other fights being shown.

This preliminary card runs until the Showtime card starts at 10:30 - so you may as well stick with it. :good

 

The judges agree with both the commentators and me, scoring it a draw.

 

Big boys in there now.

Barrera vs. Mendoza - this is one to watch! :good

 

Look in the first post! :readthre: