By Cliff Rold
In a certain knockout of the year candidate, 27-year old former IBF Jr. Welterweight titlist Juan Urango (20-1, 16 KO), a Colombian fighting out of Miami, Florida, devastated 31-year old veteran Carlos Vilches (53-8-2, 31 KO) of Argentina with a crushing fourth round right hook in the main event Wednesday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. It was Urango’s third straight knockout win since a January 2007 decision loss to World Jr. Welterweight champion Ricky Hatton. Both men weighed in below the division limit of 140 lbs. with Urango at 139 ½ and Vilches at 139 ¼.
The intentions of each combatant were on display from the opening bell. Vilches moved largely to his left against the southpaw power puncher, doubling and tripling his jab, looking for spots to stop and slip in a quick right hand. Urango stalked with lead lefts and right hooks, drawing first blood with a right hook to the body followed by a cuffing left forearm and short right hook that shot Vilches towards the ropes. Vilche’s glove scraped the canvas to give Urango the official knockdown.
Urango continued to punish the veteran in the second. Dispensing almost entirely with any pretense of a jab or defense, the Colombian banger let loose a torrent of hooks from both hands to the head and body, rocketing the head of Vilches up and around on numerous occasions.
Vilches would have more success in a closer third. Doing a better job of timing the younger man’s offensive rushes, Vilches controlled the bulk of the frame with movement and his right hand, absorbing less frequent but still hard hooks and slipping away from the bulk of Urango’s right hand attempts.
Finding the head of Vilches less available, Urango wisely changed his strategy at the outset of the fourth. He began with a hard right to the body and, moments later, a left-right body hook combination. Vilches moved backwards towards the ropes, eating another left to the body before Urango leapt forward with a grazing right to the head.
Vilches scurried away with Urango in pursuit, both men dancing from one set of ropes to another. Along the new but equally dangerous ropes, Vilches released a left hook that missed as ducking Urango would simultaneously land a downward arcing left hand to the chest. As Vilches prepared a left hook, he dropped his right and Urango followed his body shot with a perfectly timed, flush right hook.
Vilches never saw it coming.
Even the folks in the cheap seats could see and hear the explosive affect as Vilches was immersed into the canvas, dropping first to his left knee and then turning over backwards, his head striking the mat with a frightening echo. Without making a count, the referee stepped in over the prone Argentinean at 1:45 of the round.
Urango’s victory, in the form of an IBF elimnator, takes him a step closer to a shot at regaining a belt now held by New York’s Paulie Malignaggi.
It was a battle of southpaw prospects in the televised opener. 22-year old Jr. Middleweight “Mean” Joe Greene (19-0, 14 KO) of Jamaica, New York scored the seventh stoppage in his last nine bouts, stopping the game but outgunned Joshua Okine (18-4-1, 12 KO), a 28-year old Ghanaian fighting out of Baltimore, Maryland.
The leather flew throughout the first but didn’t notably begin to land until the last twenty seconds when the upstart Okine landed a right jab-left hook combination that was met with a just missed left hand from Greene. The New Yorker came out for the second looking to potshot but the steady pressure of Okine forced consistent infighting as the round neared the halfway point. A left handed low blow from Greene halted the action momentarily, and another some half a minute of ring time later would bring a point deduction from the referee. It appeared a costly error in a round where Okine landed the best of the left hand trading.
Round three, an intense if tactical three minutes, again appeared to favor the shorter punching Okine whose left hand consistently found a mark the wider punching Greene’s didn’t. Greene adjusted in the fourth, using his jab to limit Okine’s offense and slowed the pace to a controllable level.
Now wisely using his superior legs and lateral movement, Greene circled to his right throughout the fifth, pumping his jab to keep Okine at distance and jumping in with the occasional overhand left or long right hook. That pattern would hold through the sixth and seventh, Okine occasionally landing but not enough to change the momentum.
Things finally heated up again in the ninth. Sensing that he had his man tiring, Greene began to open up with both hands, inviting Okine to let his own hands go and create room for the incoming. During a wide-open exchange, a looping left hand would send Okine awkwardly to his knees. Okine rose around the count of five and awaited the end of the referee’s mandatory eight. Moments later, Greene would drop him again with a right hook that sent Okine careening towards the floor on his right side. Bravely, Okine rose again only to be fought to the ropes where a Greene flurry would force a stoppage at 2:00 of the round.
Both men came in slightly over the division limit of 154 lbs. with Greene weighing in at 156 ¾ and Okine at 154 ½.
The card was carried live on ESPN2’s Wednesday Night Fights series and was promoted by Seminole Warriors Boxing.
Other Televised Results
Heavyweights: Wilmer Vasquez (6-0, 4 KO) W TKO3 Rodney Wallace (4-1, 4 KO)
Welterweights: David Estrada (22-4, 13 KO) W KO2 Alexander Quiroz (14-6-1, 12 KO)
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
