Gallant Jimrex Jaca battled classy WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez often engaging the champion in furious exchange before a predominantly pro-Mexican crowd but in the end Marquez proved too good and scored a ninth round knockout at the Dodge Arena in Hidalgo, Texas, yesterday.
The southpaw Jaca fought Marquez on even terms through the first four rounds both on the scorecards of HBO and the respected website boxingscene.com but after Marquez suffered a nasty cut and figured the fight may be stopped because it was
bleeding badly he picked up the tempo using a vicious right hand and terrific combinations to carry the fight to Jaca.
The fierceness of the title fight was evident from the opening round when both men exchanged punches at the bell following a left and a right by Jaca and some big shots by Marquez who trapped Jaca in a corner. Marquez and Jaca exchanged bombs at
the start of round two according to Boxing Scene which carried a round-by-round coverage of the fight and as Marquez who was off balance almost fell after they traded shots and Jaca caught him with an uppercut, HBO scored the round for the Filipino.
Another solid uppercut by the Philippine junior lightweight champion earned him the third round on the unofficial scorecard of HBO even though he missed some big power shots.
The crowd rose to its feet in the fourth round after both men exchanged big punches but from then on Marquez, clearly the more skilful fighter who had come back from three knockdowns against Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao to salvage a draw with a superb exhibition of counter punching in 2004, began to dominate. Another furious exchange at the bell prompted boxing scene to remark ?the fight is much better than anyone could have expected.?
The face of Jaca began to swell in round seven from the incessant pounding from Marquez even though the champion was once again bleeding badly from the cut. Jaca complained about a low blow but was ignored by referee Laurence Cole. Cole is the
same referee who called a slip by Pacquiao in his fight against Barrera a knockdown and ruled that a clear knockdown scored by Pacquiao later in the fight was a slip.
The ring doctor took another look at Marquez who was also cut on the left side in the eighth round but let it go on with Jaca landing a combination at the end of the round. Disaster struck for the game Filipino at 2:48 of the ninth round when
Marquez nailed Jaca with a thundering left hook to end what boxing scene described as ?a fight that turned into a surprising war? in a huge win for Marquez. Marquez improves to 46-3-1 with 36 KO's while Jaca dropped to 27-3-1 with 12 KO's.
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