Moises Fuentes wins fierce bout with Francisco Rodriguez

By Cliff Rold

It looked like the best fight of the week on paper and it delivered.

30-year old former WBO 105 lb. titlist Moises Fuentes (23-2-1, 12 KO), 107 ¼, of Mexico City, Mexico, won a hard fought twelve-round split decision over 22-year old former unified WBO and IBF 105 lb. titlist Francisco Rodriguez Jr. (17-4-1, 11 KO), 109 ¼, of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, on Saturday night at the Gimnasio Municipal Gustavo Díaz Ordaz in Tecate, Baja California. It was a bout marked by wild exchanges and several shifts of momentum that left fans giving them an encore round of applause at the close.

The referee was Russell Mora.

Rodriguez burst from the corner but quickly settled, looking for openings as the taller Fuentes sought to box. Rodriguez was more successful. He landed the first big shot of the fight, a right, and jarred Fuentes with a two-shot combination to the head. He backed Fuentes to the ropes with a salvo but Fuentes shook it off. Late in the round, Fuentes responded better off the ropes, keeping Rodriguez honest with some short uppercuts inside.

Fuentes started sticking the jab in the second and used his feet to control range well. When Rodriguez got close, Fuentes worked in combination, busting Rodriguez inside with uppercuts. Both men had moments in a fiery third, Fuentes driven into the ropes in the final minute with a big right hand.

Warnings were issued in the third and fourth to Fuentes for pushing down on the neck of Rodriguez. It was a small complaint as both men were still letting it fly. Rodriguez had the better of the first two minutes of the fourth but then Fuentes came on with hard shots to the head and body. The fifth played out almost opposite to that, Rodriguez coming on stronger in the final minute, Fuentes brazenly waving him on at the bell.

The sixth was a more awkward round, Rodriguez turning southpaw down the stretch. It looked odd, but he made it work and got some hard straight lefts in. In the seventh, Fuentes landed three hard lefts in short order and Rodriguez waved him on for more. Both men were landing hard in close quarters as the action flowed. By the end of the round, both men were talking trash between bombs.

Rodriguez jogged to mid-ring to start the eight and they resumed exchanging. Fuentes might have had the edge as the round wore on, both men warned late for fouling inside. Fuentes got yet another warning for pushing down in the ninth, but no points were assessed. Relative to earlier in the fight, there was a slowing of the pace in the eighth and ninth but there was still plenty of leather landing.

Both men were exhausted in the tenth but still digging deep. They would exchange, clinch, and then exchange some more, taking turns with the advantage. Overall, Rodriguez looked to have done the better work over three minutes but it was like rounds of the fight difficult to score.

The eleventh was a more measured frame until the final thirty seconds with both men firing at will into the bell. Fuentes raised his arms as he turned to sit on his stool but victory was unsure for either man with three minutes to go. They followed a similar patter in the twelfth, Rodriguez moving more as Fuentes’ attack to the body seemed to make him wary. It didn’t stop them another wild round closing and both men celebrated as the final bell sounded.

The crowd gave both men a roar before the scores were announced. The judges all agreed on the score, but they didn’t agree on the winner. The first score announced favored Rodriguez at 116-112 Rodriguez but was overruled twice over by the same tab for Fuentes. Fuentes extends his winning streak to four while Rodriguez drops his second straight.

Fuentes is now in line for a potential third fight with the last man to defeat him, WBO and Ring Magazine 108 lb. titlist Donnie Nietes. Fuentes held Nietes to a draw in their first fight and was stopped in the ninth round of their rematch. Nietes is toying with a move to 112 lbs. and pursuit of pound-for-pound king Roman Gonzalez. Who Fuentes will get a title shot against remains to be seen.

Rodriguez lost a decision to Nietes in a title attempt in July. The fight was originally set for 108 lbs. but Rodriguez couldn’t make that limit. His attempts to fight that low on the scale may have hit a wall.

The broadcast opened with a mild upset in the bantamweight division.

28-year old Jose Cayetano (18-4, 9 KO), 119 ½, of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, scored a seventh round stoppage of 30-year old former two-time 115 lb. title challenger Felipe Orucuta (31-4, 25 KO), 119, of Nicolas Romero, Mexico, when Orucuta was unable to continue after six rounds of action.

The referee was Fernando Renteria.

Cayetano was hell on Orucuta from early on, hurting him in the second and scoring a knockdown in the third. Orucuta, trained by the great Nacho Beristain, appeared several times to be righting the ship, boxing well and controlling large parts of rounds. Cayetano kept landing bombs between sips of the sweet science, swelling the right eye of Orucuta. In the sixth, Orucuta was hurt again and a cut opened to make the right eye a mess. Orucuta was counted out in the corner to start the seventh, saving him further punishment.

Orucuta challenged Omar Narvaez for the WBO 115 lb. belt in 2013 and 2014 with many feeling he’d done enough to win the first contest. Saturday’s was the first stoppage loss of his career. Orucuta entered the bout rated ninth by the WBO at 118 lbs., a position sure to slip away from him.

The card was televised in the US on BeIn Espanol, promoted by Zanfer.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com