By Ryan Burton & Mark DeSisto at ringside
In the SHOWTIME televised main event at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cuban light middleweight prospect Erislandy Lara kept his undefeated record intact with an uneventful unanimous decision over divisional gatekeeper Danny Perez.
The Guantanamo native held significant advantages in speed and technical boxing skills over Perez (34-7, 17KO) who could only land a few body shots from time to time before the shifty southpaw would slide away.
Lara threw some decent combinations, with the right hook to the body being his best punch, but never seemed to really bother the light punching Perez.
All three judges saw the contest the same, at 99-91 apiece, in favor of Lara, who improves to 11-0 (6KO) with the win, by far the most lackluster of his young career.
Perez falls to 34-7 (17KO), suffering his second straight loss after having won three straight to momentarily keep his career afloat.
While Perez’ days of in-ring relevance are winding down, Lara’s are just getting started.
However, as his handlers continue to move his career at an accelerated pace, the Cuban standout will have to find more power if he wants to seriously challenge the upper tier of 154 pounders. Plans call for Lara to challenge for a major title by year’s end. If so, ‘win today, look good the next time’ won’t do him any favors in a division starving for notoriety and leadership.
In the Shobox televised co-feature, undefeated super featherweight prospect Carlos Ivan Velasquez scored a fourth round TKO over Ira Lee Terry.
Velasquez came out strong in the opening round, displaying a nice left hook he used equally to head and body. The second round began with them mixing up more on the inside. Midway through the round Velasquez landed a nice right hook to the body that got Terry's attention. Towards the end of the second, Velasquez picked up the pace and started landing power shots almost at will.
By the third it was painfully obvious that Terry couldn't handle the speed of Velasquez and an in fight adjustment wasn't in the cards. It was more a matter of how many rounds would he last.
It was apparent by the start of the fourth that Terry was done. Velasquez landed as clean right to the temple and Terry staggered into the ropes. Velasquez didn't land anymore clean punches but the damage was done and Terry fell to the ground and couldn’t rise to his feet.
The official time was 0:20 of round four.
Velasquez advances to 12-0 (10KO) with the win in his first fight in more than eight months. Terry, who accepted the fight on very late notice, falls to 24-3 (14KO) with the loss, ending a modest three-fight win streak.
NON-TELEVISED UNDERCARD
Lightweight prospect Michael Perez remained undefeated with an impressive 59-55, 60-54 (twice)
unanimous decision over tough Sergi Ganjelashvili in the evening’s opening six round bout.
Despite a lack of punching power, Ganjelashvili (4-5-1, 0KO) – who hails from the Republic of Georgia – was as tough as they come, providing solid opposition for the 20 year old Perez, who fights out of New Jersey.
Perez (7-0, 3KO) had his opponent in serious trouble in the last round thanks to a committed body attack and a well-timed left hook, but was unable to complete his corner’s wishes for a late stoppage.
Heavyweight Olympian Deontay Wilder needed all of 33 seconds to stop extremely overmatched opponent Ty Cobb. A left hook to the side of Cobb’s (7-2, 6KO) head put the Texas native down and unable to continue. Alabama’s Wilder kept his perfect record intact, now 9-0 with 9 stoppage victories.
Hector Manuel Sanchez (19-1) was uspet by the much shorter Cleotis Pendarvis (11-2) in their junior welterweight bout. Sanchez dropped Pendarvis twice in the first round. Pendarvis, sporting about a 6" height disadvantage had a better second round but not enough to win the round. In the third and fourth rounds Sanchez wasn't using his height and reach advantage and Pendarvis was landing a lot of shots to the body and the momentum of the fight was changing.
All of a sudden Pendarvis landed a wicked right hook at to the head when he had Sanchez in the ropes and that was it for Sanchez. He got to his feet but was clearly staggered and the ref had no choice but to stop the fight at the 2:29 mark of the fifth round.
In a super featherweight bout, Dale Toddy jr. (5-1) won a unanimous decision over Luis Alejandro Martinez (1-3-1). The scores were 38-38 39-37 39-37.
Martinez started out by charging Toddy and he brought the fight to him. Martinez' aggressiveness was controlled effectively by Toddy's counter punching. Toddy won the first round but the second round was much closer and could have went either way.
The third round was very exciting. Every punch that Toddy landed seemed to spark Martinez and he would land his own counter shots but Toddy seemed to do enough to win the round. The fourth round opened with a furious exchange but neither man had enough power to inflict a lot of damage although Toddy began to bleed from the nose. Again Toddy seemed to do enough to pick up another round and win the fight.
The main event will feature a junior middleweight bout between rising prospect Erislandy Lara and the rugged Danny Perez.
