Jorge Arce Pounds "Unwilling" Ler in Decision Win

 
Arce's show coming down to the ring was far better than the show inside the ring. He entered the ring with his black cowboy hat, sucking a lollipop and riding a dancing horse while thousands of Mexican fans cheered on the pre-fight performance. The fight with Ler was another story.
 
Ler attempted a strategy that did not pay off in the end and made for a very bad fight. From the start of the first round, Ler would lay against the ropes and let Arce throw punches to the head and body as he tried to block as many as he could. He wanted Arce to punch himself out so he could score a late knockout.
 
The strategy went on for entire twelve rounds of the fight. Arce never punched himself out, and Ler never landed a counter that mattered.
 
There was plenty of taunting and showboating by both fighters, which woke up the fans during most of the lackluster rounds. The poor excuse for a fight was not the fault of Arce, but the opponent in front of him that made no effort whatsoever to win.
 
The most exciting part of the fight came in the eleventh round when Arce caught Ler with a counter lefthook that put him in trouble. Unfortunately for Arce and his legion of fans, Ler was able to save himself by claiming that he was hit with a low blow when Arce was trying to finish him off against the ropes. The referee gave Ler time to recover, saving him from a possible stoppage in the process. The final round saw Ler survive towards the final bell.
 
The scores were 117-109, 117-110 and 117-110.
 
If Top Rank wants Arce to become one of their flagship fighters, they must test his abilities against a tougher level of opposition. In his last few bouts that were nationally televised by HBO, Arce blew away his overmatched opponents.
 
The ring entrances are reminiscent of a young Prince Naseem Hamed. The lights, the music, the charisma and his warrior's mentality. A boxing pundit could easily see why Arce is quickly becoming a favorite among boxing fans all over the world.
 
There are numerous big-money opportunities out there for Arce, but his promotional allegiance may cost him some paydays. The biggest fight as his weight limit would be against WBO champ Fernando Montiel. Montiel is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, and Arce is under the Top Rank banner. The bitter rivalry between the two promotional companies has made talks for potential bouts between fighters within their stables almost next to impossible.
 
Arce would run into the same promotional problem by moving up to bantamweight level in order to make a fight with WBO champ Jhonny Gonzalez, also promoted by Golden Boy.
 
There has been some talk of possibly fighting Martin Castillo next, but the fight lost some steam when Castillo was stopped in his last fight with Nobuo Nashiro, who only had a record of 7-0.
 
A very interesting fight would be against the power punching IBF flyweight champ Vic Darchinian. Darchinian is only 3-pounds below Arce, and there are no promotional beefs that would stop the fight from taking place.
 
The styles make for a very salivating bout between two aggressive fighters who love to throw hard punches.
 
On the undercard:
 
In a battle of wills and power punches, Kelly Pavlik (30-0, 27 KOs) from Youngstown, Ohio almost knocked the head of Mexico's Jose Luis Zertuche (19-4-2, 14 KOs) into the second row.
 
After a very competitive war in the early rounds, Pavlik began to batter Zertuche with heavy punches in sixth round. A right hand sent Zertuche down to the mat at the end of the sixth, but he was able to make it to his feet a few seconds before the bell rang to end the round.
 
In the eight, a right hand shot drilled Zertuche hard enough that he was out cold on his feet. A second right sent Zertuche down hard as the ref rushed in to stop the fight. As a precautionary measure, Zertuche was taken to a local hospital after the bout.
 
Undefeated Vanes Martirosyan (11-0, 7 KOs) stopped Tarzone Washington (9-6, 5 KOs) in the second round.
 
Johnny Molina (6-0, 5 KOs) stopped Rudy Paz (2-4-1, 2 KOs) in the firs round after knocking Paz down three times.
 
Bantamweight Francisco Arce (24-3-1, 13 KOs), brother of Jorge, won by way of TKO over Luis Doria (20-16-1, 13 KOs), when Doria was unable to come out for the fourth round. Doria was knocked down twice in the third round.
 
Super middleweight Victor Oganov (26-0, 26 KOs) keeps the knockout streak going as he stops veteran Richard Grant (18-15-1, 4 KOs) in the second round.