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Sunday, November 1, 2009

10-31-09 Showtime Perez vs. Agbeko



Perez Upsets Agbeko, Captures IBF Bantamweight Title

Round 1: Toe-to-toe action at a very fast pace. Perez landed clean left hooks and rights to the head. A left uppercut split the guard of Agbeko. Agbeko was successful scoring to the body and head. (Scored for Perez 10-9)

Round 2: An overhand right scores for Agbeko. Perez hits Agbeko with a left uppercut-left hook combination. Back & forth action - Both fighters landing clean punches, but Perez's punches seem more damaging. After the round, Agbeko spits blood into the bucket in his corner. (Scored for Perez 10-9)

Round 3:
Agbeko is busier, but Perez lands a big right. Agbeko nails Perez with a solid right. Perez fires and lands a left uppercut. Agbeko scores with some effective body shots. (Scored for Agbeko 10-9)

Round 4:
Agbeko gets a little sloppy throwing his punches. Perez continues to fight composed. (Scored for Perez 10-9)

Round 5:
Perez sends Agbeko into the ropes. Perez lands a left hook. Agbeko is working hard and landing his shots, but Perez's punches look more effective (Scored for Perez 10-9)

Round 6:
Perez is placing the hook well in their heated exchanges. Agbeko slowed a bit as Perez gets his punches off first. Agbeko comes on strong late and lands a left hook to the body. (Scored for Perez 10-9)

Round 7: Agbeko lands an overhand right and some left hooks. Agbeko has stepped up his punch output. He lands a right to Perez's body. (Scored for Agbeko 10-9)

Round 8:
Early on, Perez imposes his will. Agbeko closed the round strong by pressing forward and landing solid body shots. (Even 10-10)

Round 9:
The fight continues at a furious pace. Both fighters are taking each others' shots and throwing combinations back. (Even 10-10)

Round 10: Agbeko is beating Perez to the punch, landing the overhand right. Agbeko goes down. There was a clash of heads and Agbeko turned with his glove touching his forehead when Perez hit him with a left hook to the body. The referee never saw the clash of heads and as a result, he never called for time and ruled it a knockdown. Showtime's replay indicates that there was in fact a clash of heads. Before every fight, the referee says, "protect yourself at all times" and Agbeko clearly did not at that moment. I scored the round (Even 9-9) because I had Agbeko winning the round before the knockdown. I cannot score a two point round for Perez when Agbeko was clearly winning this round.

Round 11: Perez has cuts over both eyes. Perez was throwing and landing more shots early, but Agbeko landed many of his shots in the second half of the round. (Scored for Agbeko)

Round 12:
Both fighters are landing clean right hands and fighting with energy like it is the first round. (Even 10-10)

Overall Summary:
Not much was known about Yonnhy Perez (20-0, 14 KO's) heading into his fight with Joseph Agbeko (27-2, 22 KO's) on Saturday night. Perez is a hard hitting Colombian fighter, who now resides in Santa Fe Springs, California and has 247 amateur bouts to his credit. He came off an impressive 12th round TKO of Silence Mabuza in South Africa, who had previously been a tough opponent against Mexico's Rafael Marquez in two bouts. The pressure was on Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko to have a solid outing defending his newly won IBF title against Perez, an unknown fighter to the average boxing fan here in the United States, after defeating the "Raging Bull" Vic Darchinyan in impressive fashion. Train your hands with boxing gloves by Everlast and Ringside.

In a fight promoted as "Halloween Thrilla," fight fans witnessed a "Fight of the Year" candidate between two of the world's elite bantamweights at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The punches thrown in this fight seemed to occur at 100 miles per hour. It was almost impossible at times to score this bout appropriately due to the non-stop action with both fighters landing fast, clean shots. The official judges scored the bout 116-111 twice and 117-110 in favor of Perez by unanimous decision. I scored the bout 116-114 for Perez, but I had four rounds even. This may have been the closest fight I ever scored and I do not have any problem with the official ringside judges scoring the fight the way they did.

Both Agbeko and Perez fought their hearts out from the opening bell at a pace that never slowed down. Perez was very effective breaking through Agbeko's defense with his left uppercut. He also was successful landing left hooks to Agbeko's head. Agbeko was able to score with sound body punching and overhand rights. Both fighters traded many hard right hand shots throughout the fight.

With all the clean punches that were landing, the fight was nearly impossible to score. The one question I asked myself was: Who was landing the more effective shots? To me, it was decisively clear that while both men landed many clean shots the entire fight, Perez's punches had more effect. Although Perez's face looked more damaged after the bout, he reacted better during the exchanges when he was hit by Agbeko. At times, it was more clear when Perez landed because he caught Agbeko flush on the chin, while many of Agbeko's punches to Perez's head hit his gloves with some punches scoring. I gave the edge in body punching to Agbeko, but it came in spurts throughout the rounds.

This fight warrants a rematch for two simple reasons. First, it was close as Agbeko fought well enough to earn a chance to regain his title. Secondly, if anyone missed seeing it on Showtime, they sure will not want to miss a rematch as this fight was as competitive as one can be. Another possible fight in the near future for Yonnhy Perez could be a bout with Japan's Hozumi Hasegawa, who is regarded by many boxing experts as the best bantamweight (119 lbs.) in the world. A match up with Perez and Hasegawa is extremely intriguing. You do not have to take my word for it. Check out the videos of Hozumi Hasegawa on this blog through You Tube. Perez vs. Hasegawa would be another great fight that could very well be a potential "Fight of the Year" candidate if it happens in 2010. Save $10 on your subscription to SI.

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