Pictures of Perez vs. Agbeko 10-31-09

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Pictures of Demarco vs. Alfaro 10-31-09

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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.

10-31-09 Showtime Demarco vs. Alfaro

Demarco Stops Alfaro In 10 Rounds

Round 1: Demarco is throwing his jab. Alfaro is looking to land a right hand lead. (Scored for Demarco 10-9)

Round 2: Demarco lands a left uppercut and follows it with a right hook. A right uppercut sends Alfaro back. Alfaro started to bleed slightly from his nose after absorbing a straight left from Demarco. (Scored for Demarco 10-9)

Round 3: Demarco hits Alfaro with a straight left to momentarily stop him from pressing forward. Demarco is very busy throwing combinations off his right jab. Demarco lands a left uppercut. Alfaro is hesistant to counter; looking to land one big punch. Alfaro is getting closer after firing some hooks. (Scored for Demarco 10-9)

Round 4: Alfaro starts to let his hands go more. Demarco is controlling the pace of the fight with his jab. Alfaro scores with a left hook & overhand right as the bell rings to end the round. (Scored for Demarco 10-9)

Round 5: Swelling starts to appear under Alfaro's left eye. Demarco hurt Alfaro with a left uppercut as Alfaro charged forward. Alfaro lands a hard left hook. (Scored for Demarco 10-9)

Round 6: Demarco scores with a right hook-straight left combination. Alfaro lands a left uppercut inside as Demarco is in the corner. Demarco throws a flurry. (Scored for Demarco 10-9)

Round 7: Alfaro is still working to close the gap. Demarco is controlling the distance with his jab. (Scored for Demarco 10-9)

Round 8: Demarco is scoring at ease now. (Left uppercut-right hook-right to the body) He continues to beat Alfaro to the punch and time him as he presses forward. (Scored for Demarco 10-9)

Round 9: Alfaro pushes Demarco back as he lands an overhand right. Demarco counters with a combination. Alfaro lands another overhand right. Alfaro closes the gap, but Demarco fires a straight left. Alfaro scores with body shots as Demarco is against the ropes. (Scored for Alfaro 10-9)

Round 10: Demarco scores with a right uppercut. A vicious right hook sends Alfaro into the ropes. This should have been ruled a knockdown, but referee Joe Cortez did not signal for one. (A knockdown needs to be scored if the ropes prevent a fighter from falling to the canvas as a result of a punch landing.) The action continued as Demarco swarmed Alfaro with straight lefts and right hooks. A right hook from Demarco sent Alfaro down to his knees. Alfaro rose to his feet, but Demarco floored him again with another right hook. Alfaro got up a second time. Demarco was about to score another knockdown when Cortez stopped the fight after Alfaro took a knee, which resulted in the 3rd and final knockdown of the bout.

Overall Summary: Antonio Demarco continues to roll along, adding another victory to his resume in the highly competitive lightweight division. Demarco controlled the distance the entire fight by utilizing a strong and effective right jab. All of Demarco's combinations came off of it and he prevented Alfaro from closing the gap. Demarco constantly moved into a position where Alfaro could not counter him after he threw his punches. Alfaro proved to be tough, but was ineffective due to the lack of throwing a jab to close the distance. This also led to Alfaro getting continually beaten to the punch as Demarco landed a series of sharp left uppercuts and right hooks to slow him from pressing forward. Hang a punching bag without drilling with a heavy bag stand..

Alfaro started to let his hands go more in the 4th round, but Demarco was still dictating the pace of the fight. In the 5th round, Alfaro started to have swelling under his left eye, but the tough fighter from Nicaragua continued to charge toward Demarco. The inability of Alfaro trying to close the distance without using an effective jab began to take a toll on him. Demarco started to score at ease with his punches in the 8th round. Surprisingly, Alfaro really started to pressure Demarco in the 9th round. He hit Demarco with an overhand right and followed it with some quality body punching as Demarco was against the ropes. This proved to be Alfaro's most effective round in the fight. However, Demarco would come back strong and end this bout in the 10th round.

Demarco sent Alfaro into the ropes when he connected with a vicious right hook. This should have been scored a knockdown at this point, but the action continued. Demarco went on to floor Alfaro twice with right hooks. (See Summary of Round 10) After rising to his feet a second time, Alfaro took a knee signaling the 3rd knockdown as referee Joe Cortez stopped the bout before Demarco could land more damaging punches.

Antonio Demarco improves his record to (23-1-1, 17 KO's) while Jose Alfaro falls to (23-5, 20 KO's.)

A possible next opponent for Antonio Demarco could be KO artist Edwin Valero (25-0, 25 KO's) from Venezuela. However, this fight has obstacles to overcome before it takes place in the United States. Edwin Valero and his family were denied a visa to come to the United States. In a recent interview with fightnews.com, Valero said the following to Robert Coster:
"I really feel that the decision has been a political retaliation for my being a supporter of President Hugo Chavez. I don’t plan to appeal personally. If my promoter informs me that the US authorities plan to change their stance, then I will travel and fight in the USA. Otherwise, I won’t go back and solicit a visa in my name."

Before Edwin Valero started his professional career, he suffered a fractured skull in a motorcycle accident on February 5, 2001 in Venezuela. He was not wearing a safety helmet. Valero had surgery to remove a blood clot. It was reported on January 17, 2003, Valero's Venezuelan doctor cleared him to fight again. However, he was not issued a license to fight in the United States. In January 2004, Valero was supposed to fight on HBO's Boxing After Dark, but failed an MRI due to brain scan irregularities. Valero continued to fight outside the United States and will also not be allowed to fight here until he is medically cleared from an authorizing state athletic commission.

For Valero to meet Demarco, Valero must win his upcoming bout in Venezuela on December 19th against Hector Velasquez. If both fighters continue to win, I see a match up happening down the road, but it's hard to vision it ever taking place in the United States.