NEW YORK CITY ? He didn?t get a storybook stoppage, but it hardly mattered for Felix Verdejo who, despite an injured left hand, pinpointed his way to a 10-round unanimous decision over tenacious Ivan Najera at The Theater in Madison Square Garden. Final scores were 100-88, 99-89, and 100-88.
It wasn?t quite a coronation either ? though that?s certainly in the future ? but if the pyretic cries of Boricua were any indication, Saturday night at least marked the arrival of Verdejo, who improves to 18-0 (13). Maybe the jeers that showered the subsequent Nicolas Walters-Miguel Marriaga bout were, in retrospect, a tad harsh (or not). But you couldn?t blame a largely Puerto Rican contingent for feeling disappointed. Verdejo, 133, got them off their seats and made the night a worthy prelude to the Puerto Rican Day Parade.
What?s the takeaway? For starters, we now know that ?El Diamante? can dictate a fight off of his back foot, and still manage to outpunch and flummox his opponent. Poised and well-balanced, Verdejo seldom, if at all, looked rattled against Najera, 16-1 (8), who was aggressive throughout and had some success early working the body. These moments, however, were few and far in between, and even when Najera connected with a few combinations, Verdejo was more than willing to withstand them in order to unleash one of his hooks. Moreover, in his relaxed, mobile stance, Verdejo has few tells to his game, to the extent that you never really know whether a punch will be a left hook or an uppercut until it actually lands, a devastating proposition for opponents who can?t match Verdejo?s speed.
While Najera?s gumption was impressive, visions of making it a dogfight on the inside never materialized as Verdejo consistently knocked Najera?s head back with jabs and hooks. But what?s most promising from the fight is that the twenty-two-year-old Verdejo, with an entire island ready to ride on his coattails, clearly gets it. It should go without saying that entertaining a paying crowd should be a principle that all prizefighters abide by, but lest they have other more grandiose commitments in mind, it bears reminding that for boxing to own up to its heritage as a spectacle, its combatants are the ones responsible for providing it.
Verdejo, from the looks of it, doesn?t need such reminder. Though he showcased his footwork by covering every square inch of the ring to pick his shots, Verdejo never hesitated to mix it up. Whenever he shook Najera, 131.4, Verdejo leaped in and threw punches from seemingly every conceivable angle, drawing howls from the audience. Verdejo may boast boxing?s most lucrative smile to go along with his baby face but as he showed this night, he?s more than eager to pulverize. It?s a seductive contradiction.
From the start, both fighters were quick to establish their respective strengths: Verdejo pirouetted about and tested his jab; Najera barreled forward, trying, and sometimes succeeding, in getting several shots off to the body. In the fourth round, Verdejo found his range and stunned Najera with straight rights. Verdejo was getting loose.
Boisterous chants of ?Verdejo, Verdejo? started off the fifth. Verdejo rewarded the enthusiasm with the first knockdown of the fight. Circling on the outside, Verdejo dove in with a prying one-two when Najera was least expecting it and finished with a vicious left uppercut right on the chin. After the eight-count, Verdejo went in for the kill, trapping Najera along the ropes and unleashing a barrage of hooks. Most missed their target, but it didn?t matter for the 3,000 in attendance. Their fighter was putting on a show and they would be damned if they weren?t going to turn the respectable architecture of the theater into a cauldron of Dionysiac energy. And yet, not to be completely outdone, Najera would not only survive the round but would also win the sixth, as Verdejo took a breather.
