A fourth straight knockout would have looked good on his resume, but Jonathan Vazquez needed a route-going win more than he needed another knockout last Friday night at Foxwoods Casino.
“He finished strong,” said trainer Libby Medeiros of Vazquez’s unanimous decision win over Andrew Jones of Buffalo, N.Y. “He had plenty of wind left. So we know now what pace he’s on. He can go four hard rounds. He could go six, but I want to give him a couple more four-rounders before we move him up to six.”
There was never any real doubt that the New Bedford junior welterweight couldn’t go four fast rounds, but after three straight first round knockouts followed by a six-month layoff due to a combination of cancellations and postponements, he wasn’t getting much actual work in the ring.
But he showed little rust in his return to the ring and the power was still there as evidenced by the several clean shots Vazquez landed in the third round that had Jones, who has never been stopped, hanging on against the ropes.
“Johnny was going for the knockout there, but the ref got between them,” said Medeiros. “I thought (the referee) could have given him a standing eight count, but they don’t do that there.
“That kid must have been hurting the next day,” added Medeiros, “because Johnny landed some real good shots, to the body as well as the head. But it was a good fight. The fans liked it.”
Jones (0-6-1) is still looking for his first win, but he is a good example of the old boxing adage that you can’t judge a fighter by records. There was no quit in Jones, who I suspect is going to surprise some fighter expecting an easy win in the not too distant future.
Both fighters weighed in at 146, but don’t expect Vazquez to continue at that weight. He only put on the extra pounds because Jones was a welterweight.
“I want to get him back down to junior welterweight (140),” said Medeiros, who is targeting two upcoming cards in June and July for Vazquez’s next fight.
Vladine Biosse of Providence didn’t fare as well as Vazquez in the Foxwoods main event as the previously undefeated Biosse (11-1) was knocked down three times by Denis Garachev (10-0-1) en route to a fifth-round TKO loss to the Russian, a former kickboxing champion.
In other bouts, Elvin Ayala (23-5) of New Haven (23-5) scored a four-round TKO over George Armenta of Maryland (13-7) in the middleweight co-feature, while former Cincinnati Bengal lineman Jevon Langford of Denver (6-1) lost a four-round decision to Tobias Rice of Macon, Ga. (3-3). It was Langford’s first fight in six years.
MOSLEY A BELIEVER
Add Shane Mosley to the list of believers in Manny Pacquiao.
“You can’t blame age,” said the 39-year-old Mosley after his one-sided loss to Pacquiao Saturday night. “Manny is an exceptional fighter. He truly is the pound-for-pound king. He has speed and power that I have never felt before. He surprised me with that power with that knockdown (in the third round from a straight left by Pacquiao). That’s the most legitimate knockdown on me in a long time.”
Mosley fought a mostly defensive fight after the knockdown, hoping to lure Pacquiao into a counterpunch trap, which never happened.
The best fight on the card was provided by junior featherweights Jorge Arce (57-6-2, 44 KOs) and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (20-1-1), who staged an all-out war with Arce coming back from a fourth round knockdown to stop Vazquez in the 12th round and win the WBO junior featherweight title, his fourth world title.
In another bout of interest on the card, former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik returned to the ring with a 10-round majority decision over previously undefeated Algonso Lopez (21-1). The scoring was 98-92 and 99-91 for Pavlik and a strange 95-95 by the third judge.
GODFREY TAKES ON THE HOUSE
Matt Godfrey of Providence will make his first ring appearance since his TKO loss to WBO cruiserweight champ Marco Huck last August when he meets unbeaten contender (16-0, 14 KOs) at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, Ca.
The Nigerian-born Kayode is trained by Freddie Roach and will be making his fifth appearance at the Chumash Resort.
RING SHORTS
Juan Manuel Lopez, who lost his WBO featherweight title to Orlando Salido April 16, will get another shot at Salido in a rematch Aug. 20 at a site to be determined … Daniel Geale of Australia (25-1, 15 KOs) won the IBF middleweight title by dethroning Sebastian Sylvester (34-4-1) with a close split decision in Neubrandenburg, Germany … Freddie Roach has agreed to join the U.S. Olympic Boxing team for the 2012 Games in London as a consultant and chief adviser. … Andre Berto, who just lost his WBC welterweight title to Victor Ortiz four weeks ago, is already eying Jan Zaveck’s IBF welterweight belt. Discussions are underway for a Zaveck-Berto title bout in July or August. And if that doesn’t work out, there’s always the WBA and WBO belts.
Bob Hanna covers boxing for The Standard-Times. Contact him at [email protected]
