SAN ANTONIO – By the 10th round, Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was marching forward, legs wide, feet crossing over, left shoulder lowered and ready to fire a hook. He no longer respected John Duddy’s ability to hurt him at all. That says more about Chavez’s conditioning, chin and heart than it says about Duddy.
Saturday night in the main event of “Latin Fury 15,” before 8,172 Texans at Alamodome, Chavez (41-0-1, 30 KOs) went toe-to-toe with Duddy (29-2, 18 KOs), a throwback Irishman if there ever was one, handled him roughly and won a unanimous decision by scores of 120-108, 116-112 and 117-111, in the first 12-round fight of Chavez’s career. The 15rounds.com scorecard concurred, 117-112.
After two rather even opening rounds that might even have favored the Irishman, Chavez began to employ a jab that trainer Freddie Roach had implored him to learn in training camp. It worked, backing Duddy up and successfully keeping him off. Throughout the night, Chavez’s surprising speed, power and ability to relax while under fire proved the difference.
Duddy got the fight his people hoped for; much of the night Chavez stood in the center of the ring and traded with him. It was of no use, though, as Chavez was simply too young, too fit and too good for Duddy to figure him out.
“I fought a very strong fighter tonight,” Chavez said of Duddy. “A real warrior.”
Accompanied by his famous father to ringside, Chavez comported himself in every way as a main-event attraction on Saturday.
“There’s a new star in boxing!” said an elated Bob Arum after the match.
Duddy, a consummate sportsman, also offered praise to Junior.
“I thought it was a good fight,” he said in the ring after the cards were read. “I take my hat off to Julio Cesar Chavez.”
LEGENDS FIND A WAY
Although his name was only the second-most-famous in the ring Saturday night, Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera was easily its greatest fighter.
Facing Brazil’s Adailton de Jesus (26-5, 21 KOs) after a long layoff, Barrera (66-7, 43 KOs) found a way to neutralize the younger man and cruise to a decision victory by unanimous scores of 100-90, 98-92 and 99-91.
After a somewhat uneventful opening round, Barrera began the second with a commitment to the left hand – hook, uppercut, hook – that made his longtime fans smile. It also made De Jesus wince, as a Barrera left to the body quickly lowered the Brazilian’s right elbow and sent him spinning leftwards and away.
By the end of round 4, though, Barrera’s age and softness began to tell. Despite maintaining his placid expression from bell to bell, Barrera found himself clipped by left hooks that he would never have been hit with in his prime. He also forced his first clinch of the fight, validating the concerns of those who noticed his less-taut midsection at the Friday weigh-in.
But any veteran of 72 prizefights knows a few tricks, and Barrera – arguably the smartest fighter of his era – knows more than most. Without increasing the match’s pace, Barrera began to control it. He jabbed De Jesus on the way in, hooked him hard on the way back and rested in the moments between. Despite bloodying Barrera’s nose in the eighth, De Jesus, whose trunks rose practically to his sternum, often found himself reduced to complaining about low blows.
The match’s final two rounds brought no new action, and the fighters embraced afterward, both knowing whose performance had won the day.
In the co-main event of “Latin Fury 15,” Barrera proved himself an intelligent competitor who still resents the hell out of anyone who tries to hit him. And he can still easily beat b-level opponents. But as the old master approaches his 37th birthday, one wonders if he’ll not soon run out of reasons to fight on.
MARTINEZ WINS BATTLE OF SAN ANTONIO
Raul Martinez and Gabriel Elizondo may have come of age in the same amateur program, but they were in two different professional classes Saturday night.
Martinez (27-1, 16 KOs) came out scowling at Elizondo (22-4-1, 10 KOs), his friend and fellow resident of the Alamo City, and never relented throughout, winning every round, dropping Elizondo four times and eventually forcing referee Rafael Ramos to stop the match at 2:00 of Round 7.
After a competitive start to the fight, in the opening moments of round 3 Martinez saw Elizondo start a jab, took a step back and blasted him with a right-hand lead that buckled the veteran. Elizondo’s conditioning and pride kept him upright, though, and the next five minutes made a fairly even affair that nevertheless favored Martinez.
But early in the fifth round, an accidental collision of heads put Elizondo in an uncertain place. Ninety seconds later, both men started right hands, Martinez’s got there first, and Elizondo dropped to the canvas for a second time.
Round 6 began with a fight in the crowd, which brought Alamodome spectators to their feet, and ended with Elizondo being felled once more, this time by a Martinez left hook at 2:59. Elizondo rose again, though, and withstood Martinez’s onslaught for the first two minutes of the seventh.
But a last right cross from Martinez ended Elizondo’s night. Referee Ramos did not so much as begin his count, choosing instead, and wisely, to wave his hands over his head and declare Martinez the Texas junior bantamweight champion.
TORTOISE BEATS HAIR
Salvador Sanchez II came to Texas for the second time in 2010 and waged a battle of patronymic importance against a second Mexican named Villa, Saturday. Unluckily for Sanchez, Tomas proved twice the hombre Jaime was.
Texan Tomas Villa (23-7-4, 14 KOs) battered Tianguistenco’s Sanchez (19-4-2, 9 KOs) – the nephew of famous Mexican champion Salvador Sanchez – and chased him around the ring before ultimately decisioning him by unanimous scores of 77-75, 79-73 and 78-74.
Sanchez proved to have inherited little more than hair and charisma from his uncle Salvador, never establishing pop enough in his punches to keep Villa off him. But for a flurry every two or three rounds, Sanchez’s gloves slapped and his power wanted, and despite Villa’s plodding manner and predictable attack, Sanchez was unable to win a single round on all three judges’ cards.
Too bad. Sanchez had charmed San Antonio’s fight aficionados all week. His class as a person will be missed, even if his class as a fighter won’t be.
LEDEZMA KEEPS SAN ANTONIO UNDEFEATED
The last match on Saturday’s untelevised undercard saw a third battle of Texas, as San Antonio middleweight Emanuel Ledezma (9-1-1, 2 KOs) squared off with Houstonian Nelson Ramos (4-1, 2 KOs). As it turned out, Ramos’ 0 had to go, and Ledezma won a unanimous decision by scores of 39-37, 39-37 and 40-36.
SON OF PHOENIX SHINES
Top Rank matchmakers are very excited about young Phoenix super lightweight prospect Jose Benavidez (7-0, 7 KOs), and Saturday, Texans got a chance to see why. Wasting little time without seeming to be in a hurry, Benavidez made quick work of Rhode Island’s Josh Beeman (4-7-2, 2 KOs), stopping him at 1:20 of round 1.
Benavidez, who is extremely tall for a fighter weighing only 138 1/2, kept Beeman at the end of a long jab before wading in with two hooks to Beeman’s body. The first shot, a right hook, did little more than tilt Beeman leftwards and open him for a second shot. And that was a left hook to the button, Beeman’s liver, that brought a decisively early end to the match and kept Benavidez’s perfect knockout record intact.
OH! HENRY
Houston’s Omar Henry (10-0, 8 KOs) began Saturday’s third fight by tearing out his corner and assaulting Idaho middleweight Hilario Lopez (12-10, 8 KOs), throwing a dozen unanswered punches in 30 seconds and showing why Texans are so excited about “O. Henry.” But as much as Henry committed to his punches, winging them with the baddest of intentions, he was unable to chop down Lopez.
Henry finally cracked the light-hitting Lopez’s granitic chin in round 4, dropping him with two minutes to go in the bout. Lopez would not be stopped, though, finishing the fight on his feet, despite bleeding from above his right eye. Still, the match was not close, and Henry won decisively, 40-34, on all three official scorecards.
LONE STAR SCRAPPERS
The evening’s second undercard match featured a theme similar to its first – two Texans swinging freely – as San Antonio super lightweight James Cantu (6-0, 3 KOs) matched up with Laredo’s Antonio Gamez 3-3-1, 1 KO) for four entertaining rounds. Ultimately, Cantu prevailed via unanimous decision scores of 39-36, 39-36 and 40-35, after dropping Gamez in round 3 and winning enough of each the match’s other three stanzas.
Saturday’s action began with a six-round Texas welterweight battle between San Antonio’s Jose Juan Fuentes (6-1, 3 KOs) and Fort Worth’s Rogelio Barron (12-7, 4 KOs). Fuentes started the match in every way the classier fighter but then found himself assaulted by right hands and hit the canvas in both rounds 1 and 3.
In the end, though, Barron’s conditioning betrayed him, and Fuentes dusted himself off to win by TKO at 1:12 of round 5, when a succession of unanswered right hands forced the referee’s hand.
As scheduled, Saturday’s first bell rang at 6:25 P.M. local time.