Marco Antonio Rubio vs. Carlos Manuel Baldomir RBR

Bottom of the hour. :good

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Round 1

Rubio jabs the body as Baldomir shuffles leftward. Quick change-up jab up top by Rubio. Baldomir rushes in with a probing double jab and tries to spoon a right to the body but only succeeds in clashing foreheads with Rubio accidentally. Both paw at their brows and nod in mutual respect and understanding it wasn't intentional. Rubio continues to out-jab Baldomir and backs him into a corner with a staggering uppercut to the chest. Baldomir fights his way out and there's another headbutt as both men come forward in mid-swing. Baldomir is hurt by this one. Rubio circles left and jabs. Straight combo down the pipe by Rubio as Baldomir tries timing him with a wide left hook. Rubio blocks after reeling his jab in and then pops it back out again. Another incidental clash. Rubio sweeps out a low hook to the body.

10-9 Rubio

 

Round 2

Rubio dances around Baldomir, blocking his right hand. Hard straight right counter by Veneno, planting his feet quickly as Baldomir telegraphed his way in. Quick flams to the head by Rubio. Baldomir hurries his circling and jabs in at the side of Rubio's face, then falls in and holds missing a right to the body as Rubio spins from it. Rubio has his left arm low, rocking back and forth in short swings between jabs. Baldomir tries to charge in headfirst to gore Rubio in the body and force some infighting. Rubio simply steps back and lines up his right hand. Baldomir is pushed to the ropes but fights his way off with a few high chops. Finally they get into a tight clinch with Baldomir inciting Rubio to brawl. Instead they're split up and Rubio lands a 1-2 to the face from mid-range. Another long clinch to end the round.

20-18 Rubio

 

Round 3

Rubio jabs on the forward step and then moves laterally, not letting the slower and more deliberate Baldomir wind up a counter. Slashing rights to the head by Rubio, causing Baldomir to lean too far forward and have to hold on to Rubio's trunks. BIG hooks by Baldomir, staging a miniature rally as he tries to bash Rubio to the ropes. Rubio manages to catch most of the blows on the gloves although some thud behind his ears. Still weathering the storm and not looking to hit back, Rubio stop moving backward before reaching the ropes and ties Baldomir up. Jab through the gloves by Rubio but Baldomir is able to reach around with a hook and a right hand, grazing. High strong jabs by Baldomir, insistently forcing Rubio to back up and flick out his right glove to catch them. Baldomir is actually landing several of his jabs, and keeping them poured on Rubio nonstop. They collide, maybe a minor head clash, then step apart and touch gloves. NICE right hand to the body by Baldomir. A right up top is caught on the gloves and Rubio pulls him into a clinch. Hard piano-dropping right to the face by Rubio, and Baldomir stumblse almost imperceptibly. Hook to the face by Rubio.

Too little offense from Rubio at the end to steal. Baldomir wasted a lot of energy but managed to shut Rubio down and actually get a fair amount of leather on him.

10-9 Baldomir

29-28 Rubio

 

Round 4

Clinch. Baldomir shoves Rubio across the ring. He moves in and starts winding up hooks to the body but is grabbed again and spun to get Rubio's back off the ropes. 1-2 by Rubio. Baldomir is trying desperately to make contact now, leaping in with hooks to the body and getting countered with razor-sharp 1-2's to the face and then held once his feet touch down. Rubio is making an impact now, affecting Baldomir with his punches between holding. Baldomir's face is marking up and his body language deflating. Rubio scores repeatedly as Baldomir stubbornly comes forward, pushing up his jab even as Rubio sends his own jabs and crosses flying past it into the calloused mug of the Argentinian. Baldomir leaps in a few more times with his hands down, winging big hooks, still getting dodged, blocked, countered to the face and grabbed.

10-9 Rubio

39-37 Rubio


edit: Baldomir doesn't answer the bell for the fifth!! No mas!! Rubio has made him quit!!!!

 

By the way, it's easy to point back to Alvarez thrashing Tata and discredit Rubio's victory over him by writing him off as "long since done".

However, it really isn't that cut and dry.

Baldomir is a throwback *******, refusing to go quietly into that good night. He fought his ass off during his two-year homestand in Argentina between Canelo and Veneno, and arguably should have been 5-0 against some solid domestic-level local rivals ranging from C to B- level. (I thought Godoy received a gift over him)

This very fight was sort of a microcosm of his career. He lost 3/4 of the rounds...and ultimately being slow, predictable and hittable proved to be his undoing - but he did have moments in the third where cojones alone helped him change the complexion of the match. It was starting to look a bit wooly for Rubio before he made that tactical adjustment, adopting sort of a hybrid Ricky Hatton & Wladimir Klitschko style that Baldo couldn't hope to solve.

Props to Carlos for still trying so hard as long as he did (lifelong and on the night), and to Marco for using brains as well as brute force to do something nobody else has ever done to the old man: extinguishing his will to fight. :respect

 

Actually, both are basically light middleweights.

For the first half of his career Rubio mostly bounced back and forth between welter and light middle. It wasn't until 2006 that he began to regularly campaign at 160. That's where he has mostly fought since, with a couple of isolated excursions up into SMW/LHW.

Baldomir did the same thing - bouncing back and forth between WW and LMW - except he did it for a lot longer. Seventeen years instead of six. Since the loss to Canelo, his first comeback bout was at JMW but since then he's had: three at MW, one at LHW, and now the one at SMW against Rubio.

Naturally they're about the same size. Rubio was never a massive middleweight (looked tiny next to Chavez and even Lemieux) and Baldomir was a freakishly huge welterweight.

Both 154lbers at peak fighting weight.