By Jake Donovan
The idea behind loading up the preliminary bouts with young, rising talent was to give mainstream fans a glimpse of what the sport's future will look like at the top level.
That was the good news. The bad news: between Daniel Jacobs, Juan Manuel Lopez and "Vicious" Victor Ortiz, none gave fans – new or old – a very long look, each of the three posting knockouts in fights that lasted a combined 11 minutes.
That bad news leads to bad results as far as pay-per-view telecasts go, with the preliminary action continuing the trend of non-competitive time filler that continues to eat away at whatever integrity remains in the sport.
Luckily for all involved in the promotion, Manny Pacquiao's incredible performance against Oscar de la Hoya in the main event instantly rendered everything that preceded it, irrelevant.
Unfortunately for the night's mismatched victims – and fortunately for the trio of rising stars who had their hands raised - the official results still stand.
Highly touted junior welterweight prospect Victor Ortiz hasn't seen a bout go to the scorecards in more than two years, a streak that will extend into 2009 after taking out former notable prospect Jeffrey Resto in the evening's chief support. Resto suffered two knockdowns in the opening round and one more in the decisive second round of their scheduled twelve.
It didn't take long for Ortiz to get going, dropping Resto hard with a straight left hand midway through the opening. Resto, no stranger to the canvas, dusted himself and came back for more, only to be sent back down immediately thereafter, courtesy of another left hand from the hard-hitting southpaw.
To his credit, Resto braved the assault and ended the opening round by taking the fight to Ortiz. All it did, however, was prolong the inevitable. Ortiz went on the attack early in the second, pummeling Resto along the ropes before sending the Bronx native to the canvas for the third – and would become the final – time in the bout. Resto once again beat the count, but was instantly informed by referee Russell Mora that his night was over.
The official time was 1:19 of round two.
Ortiz cruises to 23-0 (18KO) with the win, his third in 2008. The three wins followed a nasty split with Top Rank, in which he filed for bankruptcy in order to get out of his contract and go on to sign with Golden Boy Promotions. For whatever reason, the story line – as well as his sparring session with de la Hoya earlier in camp – was left out of the promotion.
Where Ortiz will never be left out of, from here on out, is discussion amongst the world's ten best junior welterweights in the world.
Not so much for Resto, who may forever find himself on the outside looking in for the rest of his days as a prize fighter. Once as highly touted as the New York Yankees baseball squad that share his hometown, Resto's career has turned into a Bronx bummer. A five-fight win streak comes to a close as he now falls to 22-3 (13KO).
Recent rumors had undefeated junior featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez possibly resurfacing as early as next February on the undercard of fellow Caguas (PR) native Miguel Cotto's comeback fight.
His 98-second demolition of Sergio Medina certainly didn't do anything to discourage those plans, with Lopez scoring three knockdowns in a fight that never threatened to be competitive.
Lopez appeared to have just started warming up, when all of a sudden Medina found himself on the canvas less than 45 seconds into the fight, courtesy of body punches from the hard-hitting Puerto Rican southpaw. Medina beat the count, but spent the rest of the night with the earmuffs on, offering nothing in return as Lopez went on the attack.
Two more knockdowns followed, neither of which came with much resistance from Medina. Referee Joe Cortez saw no point in allowing the slaughter to continue, waving off the fight after the third knockdown.
The official time was 1:38 of round one.
It's been one hell of a 2008 campaign for Lopez. The 2004 Olympian improves to 24-0 (22KO), scoring his 4th win of the year, chief among them his first round blitzing of Daniel Ponce de Leon in an HBO-televised bout this past June in Atlantic City to pick up the alphabet hardware he still possesses. Lopez has now racked up 12 straight stoppages, including first round knockouts in each of his last three fights.
Medina heads back to Argentina with a record 33-2 (18KO). Both of his losses have come on Oscar de la Hoya undercards, having dropped a decision to Rey Bautista in the opening bout of de la Hoya's record setting money grab, albeit in a losing performance against Floyd Mayweather. Given tonight's performance, it's clear that Medina won't be back on American airwaves anytime soon.
The running joke heading into this week was that with Daniel Jacobs' fiancée giving birth to their newborn child earlier this week, it made for bad news and a potentially short night for Victor Lares. Jacobs hasn't needed much motivation to close the show as early as possible, with all but two of his pro fights ending in three rounds or less.
In Saturday's pay-per-view televised opener, the Brooklynite stayed true to form, punishing Lares for nearly every second of before scoring a second round stoppage. Jacobs didn't land at a particularly high percentage (31% according to Compubox), but still managed to land every conceivable punch in the book.
The beginning of the end came late in the second, when Jacobs landed a left hook to the body that left Lares in search of a safer spot in the ring. There was none to be found; two more rights found their way upstairs, as Jacobs punched Lares into a corner, and eventually to the canvas, with a left uppercut and right hand upstairs providing the most damage.
Lares beat the count, but failed to convince referee Jay Nady to allow the fight to continue any further, stopping matters at 2:44 of the second round.
Jacobs, who turned pro 52 weekends ago on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather's high profile knockout win over Ricky Hatton, already advances to 13-0 (12KO). The former amateur standout is being brought along at a furious pace, and seems to be in good hands with Golden Boy Promotions and the ubiquitous yet mysterious Al Haymon in his corner.
Lares falls to 14-4 (3KO) with the loss, the second among his last three fights.
It goes without saying that the likes of Medina, Resto and Lares all fought their way off of relevant boxing cards, in the near future if not for the remainder of their careers.
But what needs to happen from here on out if the sport is to ever rebound from its current slump is that talents like Ortiz, Lopez and Jacobs no longer find themselves in atrocious mismatches in future. They learn nothing from being matched up against powder puffs, and fans are given no reason to show up any earlier than minutes before the main event.
The question is, when will boxing learn from its own mistakes? It's not every night that a Manny Pacquiao – or even Floyd Mayweather a year prior – will come along to save the day.
Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .
