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ISRAEL VASQUEZ’S RETURN WAS MAGNIFICENT BUT... By Ed de la Vega, DDS PhilBoxing.com Sun, 11 Oct 2009  Los Angeles, CA:- Israel Vasquez, the young man from Mexico City they call “Magnifico” returned to the ring last night as the headliner of Golden Boy Promotions’ Fight Night at the Nokia Theatre-LA Live. The event was shown live on HBO Plus in Latin America. Vasquez fought Angel Priolo, a Columbian fighter better known to Filipino fight fans as a former victim of Brian Viloria back in December of 2004. Priolo incidentally lost all his five succeeding fights since losing to Viloria and was hoping to score his first big win against the come-backing former two-time Junior Featherweight champion. And, he almost did! Vasquez in the end, KO’d Priolo in the 9th round after dropping him three times. Early in the fight, Priolo gave Vasquez a real scare slugging with him toe to toe and in many instances even got the better of Vasquez. As early as the third round he had Vasquez’ face pock-marked and later he cut Vasquez on the left eye area. The cut was so big and I have no doubt, if that was not Vasquez fighting and in a main event at that, the fight could have been easily stopped by the fight doctor during round seven. The doctor checked the large cut on Vasquez once at the request of the referee but he allowed the fight to continue. Priolo, who had a losing streak of 5 fights was not supposed to give Vasquez a hard time. In fact, he may have been hand-picked to give Vasquez a relatively safe fight. But Priolo had nothing of that. He gave it all and fought Vasquez as if the fight was for a world title and not merely a come-back for Vasquez. Until the fateful 9th round, Priolo continually gave a good account of himself as evidenced by the score cards revealed later. The scores read as 76-76, 76-76. The third score was a 78-74 for Vasquez. Indeed, Priolo gave Vasquez a good run for his money. The selection of Priolo as Vasquez’ opponent for his return to the ring is perfectly understandable. His promoters and handlers were overly cautious as Vasquez has been away from combat for 19 months. Obviously, they want him to have a fight that would allow him to shake off “ring rust” and regain his confidence on the ring. His fight with Priolo did exactly that! Vasquez was so rusty and so far from the Vasquez I saw fight Rafael Marquez twice. His timing was oftentimes off and his defense was sometimes not even there. As a result, Priolo was able to score and as previously mentioned, even cut Vasquez. Vasquez’ win could have been magnificent. But in fairness, in certain instances, particularly during the 9th round, he showed flashes of his old self that created nightmares for guys like Rafael Marquez, Jhonny Gonzales and Oscar Larios. Had they selected a better man than Priolo for Vasquez’ return, the result of the fight could have given luster to his return. Not that I was not impressed by his performance tonight but Priolo is not exactly a superb opponent for him either. In any event, if Vasquez will keep his word and proceed for his next fight with his challenge against Nonito Donaire Jr., he may end up with a surprise in his life. In his present condition, Vasquez may not be able to manage what he wished for if Donaire Jr accepts the challenge. Donaire is in the peak of his career and Vasquez, with his victory tonight notwithstanding, is a long way to be in top form to fight the Filipino Flash. And his long lay-off and the nasty battles with Rafael Marquez will not make things easier for him either. Vasquez clearly needs to have two more fights to really shake off the rust and regain his old form before he can start calling out the likes of Donaire Jr., or even Juan Ma. Lopez. With the win, Vasquez upped his record to 44-4-0, 32 KO while Priolo dropped to 30-8-0, 20KO The results from the rest of the fight on the evening’s cards are as follows: In the curtain raiser, featherweight Oscar Venegas of El Monte, CA scored a TKO over Misael Martinez of Los Angeles. Venegas was making his pro debut. Martinez fell to 0-5-0. In a fight junior middle weight fight that followed, Ricky Duenas of El Monte, CA scored a TKO over Jose Cardenas of Santa Ana, CA .The referee stopped the fight at 2:09 of the 3rd round. Duenas thus is now 4-1-0 (2KO) and Cardenas, 1-3-0 (1KO) In the third fight of the night, junior featherweight Khabir Suleymanov of Los Angeles survived two KD’s, one in the 2nd and another in the third to outlast Hugo Ramos of Palm Springs. The referee stopped the fight at 2:39 of round 4 due to a deep cut on the right eye of Ramos. In the first co-main event of the night, junior middleweight Luis Grajeda of Chihuahua, Mexico KD Juan Carlos Diaz of Mexico City twice, one in the first and another in the 2nd.round. The referee stopped the fight after the 2nd KD at 2:28 of the 2nd round. Grajeda is now 7-0-0 (6K0) and Diaz, 3-1-0 (2KO) In the second co-main event, featherweight Ronny Rios of Santa Ana TKO’d John Wampash of Miami, Florida. Wampash was bleeding profusely through the mouth and nose.The referee stopped the fight at the request of Wampash’ corner at 1:53 of round 6th. Rios thus stayed undefeated with an 8-0-0 (4KO) record while Wampash dropped to 1-3-1, (1KO). What was interesting for this writer to note was that Wampash dropped his mouthpiece twice during the fight, a sure sign of a poorly made mouthpiece. A closer look at the photos taken later revealed that Wampash was using a poorly fabricated “boil and bite mouthguard”. In the last fight of the night, Jose Armando Santa Cruz of Lincoln Heights, TKO’d Sergio Macias of Zacatecas , Mexico. Santa Cruz is now 27-4-0-(15KO) and Macias, 14-18-1 (6KO). Top photo: Israel Vazquez (R) sends Angel Priolo to the canvas during their fight Saturday night at Nokia Theatre Live in Los Angeles. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.  |
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