ShoBox: Devin Miles Haney vs. Xolisani Ndongeni & Ruben Villa IV vs. Ruben Hernández Cervera RBR

Round 7

Cervera is pushing a very weak left jab, being easily ducked & countered. Frustrated, he starts throwing pendulums at the body, and one strays very low. Brief time out. Time in. Villa is dancing around Cervera, needling his face with jabs, always quick to leap away every time Cervera betrays his intentions with a telltale bark even before telegraphing his very slow wound-up punches. Villa is pulling his head back to keep his chin a few inches off the tip of Cervera's lunging right hands, then chasing the arm in as it recoils and zapping him with counters before circling away.

10-9 Villa

70-63 Villa

 

Round 8

Cervera is brushing the guard with a jab and trying over & over with a right hand, never coming even close to landing in the first half of this final session. Villa is content to circle & pot-shot with right jabs. Cervera finally gets a piece of him with a right hand as Villa stopped to admire his work for a moment. Villa rolled with it, and Cervera has very little steam left in his punches anyway, so very little impact despite thudding heavily. Villa trickling in combos and parrying away Cervera's left jab with his right glove while moving counter-clockwise on his toes at a pace's breadth from him, ducking when Cervera hurls a right.

10-9 Villa

80-72 Villa

 

Final stats:

Jabs
Villa 105 of 295, 36%
Cervera 23 of 274, 8%

Power
Villa 75 of 148, 51%
Cervera 36 of 277, 13%

 

Official cards:

Bruce McDaniel 80-72
Pat Dayton 80-72
Mickey Lofton 80-72

UD for RV4

 

I don't understand...this was a MASSIVE step down from José "Torito" González. Why are they regressing Villa?

 

Like a goddamn video game...with Ruben Cervera the stage 1 boss on easy mode.

 

Could be worth tuning in for the historic value, the death rattle of the PPV era (indeed maybe the last big PPV we see in this sport, depending on how much longer Showtime hangs in to compete with the upstart streaming apps that already killed off their bigger rival) - and fitting that old Pac-Man gets to give the medium its send-off, as he thrashes Broner.

 

For some reason, I believe Pac can get the KO. Like, almost certain of it.

 

Okay, so count Barry Tompkins among the people who don't actually know the difference between "the former" and "the latter". My girlfriend mixes them up constantly and I keep telling her that she's ******ed and nobody else makes that mistake...guess I ought to apologize.

Maybe. After the fight. Unless I forget.

(I'll forget)