By Cliff Rold
Regardless of who one might have thought to be the winner, there could be little doubt that all of the fans watching on television and in the arena at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon, California on Wednesday night saw one hell of a main event. 31-year old former Super Middleweight titlist Jeff Lacy (24-1, 17 KO) of St. Petersburg, Florida picked up his third straight victory, if just barely, in a war with 32-year old Colombian spoiler Epifanio Mendoza (28-6-1, 24 KO) but where that will lead remains to be seen.
Both men weighed in just above the Super Middleweight limit of 168 lbs., Lacy at 170 and Mendoza at 171.
Lacy’s nickname and signature punch may share the title “Left Hook” but it was his right hand that controlled the first round. Slipping a big right from Mendoza, Lacy had a left blocked but connected with a glancing right. The right would land with greater affect at near a minute in, driving Mendoza into the ropes. The Colombian covered up and the fight moved into close quarters for the remainder, Lacy’s overhand right continuing to land. Mendoza’s best punch would be a right that landed to the back of Lacy’s head, drawing a warning from the referee.
Moving his head effectively to force Lacy to lean with the right, Mendoza avoided heavy fire in the second and popped his left jab. Lacy landed some long rights to the body but, continuing to lean, fell into a smashing right hand that sent a quiver through his body. Lacy was in bad trouble as Mendoza pursued. Attempting to tie the taller man up, Lacy’s head whipped back from an incidental headbutt beneath the chin that saw Lacy stumble backwards again. Searching for his legs near a corner, Lacy waved Mendoza forward and drew a line in the sand with a crackling left hook of his own against the ropes as the round drew to a close.
Neither man shied away from the inside in the third. A right uppercut for Mendoza came up through the guard of Lacy but the former IBF titlist responded with a left hook after forcing Mendoza to the ropes. At ring center, Lacy would land a hard left jab-straight right combination that again drove Mendoza back in the final thirty seconds and closed the frame working trading power with Mendoza in the corner.
Heavy hitting marked the start of the fourth in the form of a right to the cup of Mendoza that brought a brief respite. As the action resumed, Mendoza found himself against the ropes again, eating a left hook but responding with a right uppercut. Feinting, Lacy drew a long right hand from Mendoza that missed but also put Mendoza out of the way of a counter. A slapping left-right landed fort Mendoza and Lacy fired back with four shots of his own. With less than thirty seconds to go, a lead left hook snapped the head of Mendoza up and into reach of a following and longer right. Stunned, Lacy walked towards Mendoza with another left along the ropes before just missing with a right.
A right hand from Lacy early in round five forced Mendoza to attempt to hold and instead caused a near tackle that saw Mendoza turned nearly out of the ring. Pinned down when back to his feet, Mendoza took a big combination and then another left hook. Mendoza worked in a right and left to the waistline in the final minute that drew another referee’s warning but in the closing seconds was able to land three shots upstairs after tasting a Lacy left.
Mendoza found himself a victim of tough timing at the start of the sixth, landing a big right hand that appeared to rattle Lacy and dislodge his mouth guard. Lacy was able to step back and the referee halted the action to reinsert it. A right uppercut at the halfway point drew blood from the nose of Lacy and Lacy eased off the bigger power stuff in the final minute, opting instead to move his hands for connecting if not damaging blows.
While landing some harsh blows in the opening seconds of the seventh, Lacy stayed with a high contact strategy for the bulk of the round. His left eye beginning to swell, Lacy would land a sharp right in the final minute, but Mendoza responded well with a hard right and left hook of his own.
Bouncing and circling at the start of the eighth, Lacy was troubled in attempts to get inside the long arms of the taller Mendoza. Halfway through the round, at mid-ring, Mendoza landed a flush left and right that again hurt Lacy and sent him towards the corner. Mendoza followed with more connecting shots, seizing the advantage. Attempting to clinch, it was Lacy who would fall forward into the bouts second tackle and Mendoza’s head would whip along the bottom ring rope. A time-out was taken for Mendoza to clear his head and, when the action resumed, his left hooks and right hand went back to the business of keeping Lacy’s head cloudy. Showing great heart but little defense, Lacy was pasted over and over again in the final minute, willing himself to stay away from the floor. At the end of the round, the referee was forced to separate the men as Lacy walked toward the corner of Mendoza to continue to battle, or at least engage in some trash talk.
Again circling to start the ninth, Lacy was fighting like a man unsure of how to win and avoiding the punches that could spur defeat. A slashing right hand connected for Mendoza inside and Lacy’s swollen eye left doubt as to what if anything he could see coming in from his left side. Another awkward cutting right from Mendoza landed in the middle of the ring, and then another, before Lacy connected with a glancing left heading towards the final minute. In the final thirty seconds, Mendoza would land multiple right uppercuts and Lacy would deliver a three-punch salvo of his own but the chance that the bout was slipping, perhaps already had slipped, away was palpable headed into the finish.
The bell for tenth and final round brought the obligatory touching of gloves and both men went to work on a knockout finish that did not come. A left hook from Lacy landed. A right uppercut from Mendoza landed and hurt. In the final minute, Lacy landed a lefty-right to the body before both exhausted warriors locked into a clinch. Mendoza initiated more clinches throughout the final minute while Lacy continued to punch, landing a left-right from a distance, and then another in close, sucking it up to make a final statement in his favor for the three most important sets of eyes at ringside.
Those eyes saw it with one pair at 95-95 overruled by scores of 96-94 and an absurd 97-93 in favor of Lacy. Lacy was defensive about any notion of controversy. “He had ten rounds to finish me and he didn’t.” To his credit, Lacy acknowledged his tackling of Mendoza as strategic. It turned out to be wise strategy indeed though the win will do little to quiet speculation that Lacy has yet to recover from a 2006 beating at the hands of World Super Middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe.
A pair of promising young prospects filled out the middle of the card, staying undefeated with explosive results. 21-year old Middleweight Danny Jacobs (8-0, 8 KO), 163 ½, used an assortment of fast left jabs and body shots before cracking through with a right hand, another left to the body and a final right hand to former Jr. Welterweight Sergio Rios (18-9, 16 KO), 163 ¾. Rios was unable to go on, the bout called off at 2:46 of the first.
It took 23-year old Featherweight Carlos Velasquez (8-0, 7 KO), 128, of Puerto Rico a minute or so more, but he too kept his undefeated record intact with a second-round stoppage of David Vasquez (17-12-3, 10 KO), 127 ¼. Velasquez scored a knockdown in the first before finishing the deal at 1:12 of the second.
In the televised opener, 27-year old Lightweight Jose Armando Santa Cruz (26-3, 15 KO) of Lincoln heights, California made his first start of 2008 a successful one with a fifth round stoppage of 26-year old journeyman Manuel Munguia (16-13-1, 13 KO) on Mexico. It wasn’t the stiffest of tests, Munguia dropping his fourth straight and eleventh of his last twelve. It was an important trip back into the saddle after the finish of Santa Cruz’s last ring test, a November 10, 2007 loss to World Lightweight champion Joel Casamayor that has been almost universally hailed as one of the worst decisions in recent years.
With his hands in constant motion, Munguia captured the first round with an assortment of body shots and wild hooks upstairs. They weren’t necessarily hurting blows, but they were landing. Patient, Santa Cruz blocked what he could, landing the occasional right hand over the top. Having found that hole to connect through, Santa Cruz turned up the offense in round two, pressuring Munguia and connecting with hard rights and left uppercuts.
Immediately at the bell for the third, Santa Cruz was across the ring and rattling a long right off the temple of Munguia. Using his left jab to keep his man at a distance, Santa Cruz continued to look for openings until a leaping Munguia was able to force him towards the ropes with a pair of body shots. At the minute mark, a lead right uppercut from Santa Cruz was followed with a snapping short right hook. Three pairs of left-right combinations landed as the round came to a close, a salvo stopped only by Munguia wrapping up the left of Santa Cruz and drawing him into a clinch.
Santa Cruz continued to pressure Munguia at the start of round four. Repeatedly in the first minute, Santa Cruz’s jab and right hand would force the action to the ropes in his favor. Seconds later, Munguia would come forward with a lopping right of his own only to be stumbled by a perfectly placed counter right from Santa Cruz.
The right would close the show in round five. A long body shot exploded into the liver of Munguia who dropped as if he’d been shot. Curling into a ball and rolling over on the mat in pain, Munguia made clear that the referee need not bother with a count. The official time of the stoppage would be :42 seconds of the fifth.
Santa Cruz remains rated fifth by Ring Magazine and first by the WBC. Given his performance against Casamayor last year, as long as he keeps winning the ratings don’t matter as much as the reality that the world saw him win the World Lightweight championship in November of 2007 and he deserves an opportunity to correct the stain of his ledger.
The card was televised live on ESPN2 and promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
