Solo Boxeo Tecate: Eric Morel vs. Luis Maldonado RBR

Wow, totally even tale of the tape. Weight, height, and reach. You rarely see that.

Round 1

Caballero jabs low, then hooks high and rocks Perez a little. Perez stays outside, remaining cautious, and leaps forward with his own nice left hook and lands. Perez now diving into clinches. Caballero is timing him with straight shots, bouncing them off Perez's shoulders and bald spot. Caballero gets him against the ropes and bludgeons him with both fists. Perez tries to slip and reach in to grab Caballero but nearly gets himself tangled up between the top and 2nd rope. These guys are only 5'6", did I mention? The ropes are taller than them, almost. Caballero jabs to the body, driving Perez back. Big right hands by Caballero - doubled, and now tripled up. Perez goes down. Perez beats the count just in time for the bell to end the round.

10-8 Caballero

 

Poor Perez. Balding, short, huge protruding larynx, with a boxer's build but not really muscular in the way that is found sexy.

Not a ladies' man, basically. And on his way to being 7-3 professionally. Poor squirrel. :verysad

 

Round 2

Caballero comes forward and drubs Perez with hard body shots and clubbing right hands across the back of the neck. Perez tries to block as best he can and take advantage of Cab's lulls to land hard left hooks to the body and overhand rights but his handspeed, power, and accuracy are all a cut below. BRUTAL body/head combo by Caballero and Perez turns his back, falling forward between two sets of ropes and getting caught up and suspended in midair. Caballero had reached around from behind and smacked Perez in the face with two lefts while Perez was running...and then spanked him with a right once he was through the ropes. :yep Damn, that was pretty savage, almost excessive.

It's OVER!

 

Yeah. It's always nice when guys can finish, rather than blowing their load with wild frenetic misses or just being overly patient and tactical.

 

Solo Boxeo doing their around-the-sport recap...

A few words on Gamboa ? en espanol)...then some footage of Jhonny Gonzalez training, hitting the heavy bag happy looking macho!)...then a clip of the Pascal-Hopkins brawl roll: old hat)

 

Main event!

 

Round 1

Morel turns his jab over, flashing it out into Maldonado's face. Maldonado stays low and looks to hook some body shots. Nice thrusting jab to the gut by Maldonado. Morel takes a quick hop to the left and hooks before landing. Hook to the body by Maldonado. Three punch combo while skipping forward by Morel. Both staying just a pace or two apart, measuring. Maldonado shakes his right jab out on a rubber-wrist and looks to drop left hands to the body of Morel. Knockdown just at the bell for Morel. Literally the bell rang and his short hook landed at exactly the same time, while Maldonado had his legs spread and his center of balance low.

10-8 Morel

 

Round 2

Morel lands a jab to the face. Maldonado is in a weird non-stance, neither southpaw nor orthodox...almost a wrestler's stance with his knees squared up together and his gloves turned outward. Maldonado turns back into a proper lefty and keeps trying to lean forward and jab to the body. Morel is peppering him with stiff jabs and right crosses to the face. A pair of hard right crosses knocks Maldonado back to the ropes with a bit of a dip in his knees. Morel now circles out wide, as Maldonado has switched orthodox and tries to alternate between lead rights and left jabs. Maldonado flies in and out, throwing one at a time. Morel doubles his jab charging forward, and nearly lands a big cross. Maldonado is hopping in place, staying low and moving off to either side. Morel isn't much interested in chasing him down.

20-17 EM

 

I'm not 100% sure, but there may have been another last-second KD at the bell to end the 2nd...

They cut away to commercial just as a punch landed and Maldonado looked to be losing his balance...