Sebastian Juarez experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly all in one round on October 18.
Juarez picked up a first-round technical knockout over Demarcus Layton at the Convention Center in South Padre Island, Texas.
The result doesn’t depict the whole story. Juarez, who improved to 10-0 (8 KOs), was dropped in the first minute of the fight. Referee Lawrence Cole also deducted two points from him for holding. Juarez found himself in a deep hole before dropping Layton three times, with the last knockdown leading to the stoppage.
It was a tough situation to navigate heading into the fight as it was a swing bout, a term that means a bout that could take place either on the undercard of a televised card or after the main event. That means the fighter has to warm-up without being sure just when the fight will take place.
“You talk about getting hit cold,” Bob Santos, Juarez’s trainer, told BoxingScene. “We all know the first round is the most dangerous round in boxing.”
Juarez, who is from Brownsville, Texas, entered the bout with youthful enthusiasm, eager to please his hometown fans, many of whom drove about one hour to see him. Instead of something to celebrate, Layton nearly knocked the fan favorite out.
“That was a wild round, one of those moments that turns you into a better fighter,” Juarez told BoxingScene. “I made a mistake. I paid for it, and then I did what I had to do to make it right. The whole time, I just kept thinking: this is where champions are made.”
Santos explained that some of the work they did in camp helped with this scenario.
“Believe it or not, we had worked on tying up. Not that we thought we’d be in that kind of position this early in his career, but we had worked on that for at least a month in the camp,” Santos said. “It is all about winning and getting to the next level; surviving and moving on.”
Santos explained that the fighter’s mother noticed that he looked the same throughout the whole fight. After the fight, Santos recalled telling her that it isn’t his job to panic, but to believe in her son. Santos recalled what he was going through in the round. Santos admits he didn’t think Juarez would turn the tide in the same round.
“I don’t think anybody could,” Santos said when asked if he recalled a round in boxing as wild as this one. “You can count on one hand the coaches that have been in a situation like that one.”
Santos shared that Juarez was flirting with a disqualification, and if the fight went on, Juarez was well behind on the judge’s scorecards.
“Some of the promoters and TV executives came up to me and said, they had never seen a round like that in their lives. That was wild,” Santos said.
Juarez, who is an under-the-radar prospect, has now become noticed after such a strange and entertaining round.
“The stoppage just proves what I’ve always believed: my power carries through every round. Hurt or not, I’m dangerous until the final bell. I already knew that, now the world does too,” said Juarez.
