By Cliff Rold
Winning his fourth straight, and second in a row over an undefeated opponent, 30-year old Jr. Lightweight Martin Honorio (28-4-1, 14 KO) of Mexico used superior technique and a pair of knockdowns in round six to hand Dominican-born 26-year old Wilton Hilario (12-1-1, 9 KO) his first defeat on Friday night at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California.
Both men came in below the division’s 130 lb. limit, Honorio at 129 and Hilario at 128 ½.
Honorio controlled the bulk of round one, jabbing and slinging lefts at an aggressive Hilario. Hilario began to close the gap in round two, a looping blow catching the face of Honorio in the first minute. Both men struggled to land consistently, Honorio again finding success with double left hooks to the body. A pair of rights landed around Hilario’s guard in the final minute, Hilario just missing with a right uppercut in the closing seconds.
Abandoning any pretense of a jab, Hilario’s efforts at leading power blows were largely fruitless as Honorio continued to work from range with his jab until Hilario got close. In the trenches, it was short hooks and uppercuts landing for Honorio. Forced to the ropes, Honorio stifled Hilario before he could go to work and moved the action back to his preference of circling the perimeter.
Rounds four and five took on the look of a clinic, Hilario peppered with streams of blows from Honorio when the Mexican chose to open up. A rifling right uppercut landed for Hilario in the opening seconds of the latter frame, and he supplied some evilly intended body shots, but it was offset and Honorio appeared to stagger his man just before the bell, possibly with a short left hook.
The mounting damage got to be too much in round six. With both eyes showing signs of swelling, and Honorio easily muscling him backwards when clinching, an exhausted Hilario came forward with his hands up and head down, eating two right hands to stand him up, a partially blocked left, and a third right to the temple which sent him to his knee.
Hilario rose right away and walked to the neutral corner while referee James Jen-Kin followed with the mandatory eight count. Hilario turned to face and signaled he could go on, finding Honorio lightly jogging forward to attempt to finish. An immediate right and left sent Hilario to the floor again; again Hilario beat the count. Covering up, Hilario survived the remainder of the round with almost a minute to go, absorbing a Honorio right with seconds to go to maintain his balance.
He kept that balance in the seventh as well, Hilario even landing a big right amidst a contained by still winning choice of offensive bursts from Honorio. In round eight, Honorio whipped Hilario’s head back and forth in the closing seconds with his man trapped on the ropes but found no luck in sending him to the floor again.
Honorio was firing from a distance at the start of round nine but quickly let Hilario close and turned him towards the ropes for further battering. A clumsy clinch from both men saw a quick tumble to the mat and Hilario was still throwing, even landing once in a while, hard rights but no turn in fortunes emerged.
In round ten, it was worth wondering if perhaps the fight should be stopped, Hilario seemingly eating three and four shots for every one he was throwing (and not always landing). That changed just slightly in the eleventh with Honorio bothered by some hard head clashes.
Round twelve was back to form, Honorio landing a short left to wobble Hilario and establish control right away. He kept it, as he had for most of the night, avoiding desperation bombs from Hilario down the stretch and cruising to a lopsided unanimous decision win by scores of 120-106 and 119-107 twice.
Promising 22-year old Jr. Featherweight prospect Rico Ramos (15-0, 9 KO), 123 ½, of Los Angeles, California picked up an impressive victory in the televised opener, stopping 31-year old former title challenger Cecilio Santos (24-14-3, 14 KO),122 ¼, of Mexico in round four with a single body shot.
Ramos began the fight circling to his left, jabbing as Ramos looked for space to charge. It didn’t take long for Ramos to use that to his advantage, a left hook slamming into the face of a leaning Santos and driving the veteran backwards. Santos recovered and stayed close, landing in an exchange of body blows halfway through the first. Measuring with his jab in the final minute, Ramos landed largely at will with single hard shots to the head and ribs.
Santos wouldn’t be hurt again in rounds two or three and while he struggled to get ahead of his younger foe, the veteran wasn’t dissuaded from pursuit. Ramos’s offense increasingly was muffled by Santos’s guard and Santos even managed a nice right hand towards the end of the third.
Santos, calm and stalking, stayed close to Ramos as the fourth began, digging to the body and trading. It wasn’t an effective strategy for long. Ramos landed a right hand high on the head of Santos and, when the guard went up, Ramos stepped in with a whipping left hook to the side of Santos. Taking a step away, pain etched in his brow, Santos slicked backwards towards the corner and collapsed to his knees, referee David Mendoza counting ten at 1:19 of the fourth.
The loss was Santos’s sixth in his last nine outings.
In other televised action, 23-year old Jr. Welterweight Mike Dallas Jr. (12-0-1, 3 KO), 144, of Bakersfield, California, scored what has been a rare stop for him, sending 32-year old Mexican Fabian Luque (21-10-4, 12 KO), 144, home at 2:58 of the first round. The referee was James Jen-Kin.
The broadcast was carried in the U.S. on basic cable outlet ESPN2 as part of its Friday Night Fights series, promoted by Goosen-Tutor 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