Notwithstanding his knockout of shopworn Kevin Kelley earlier this year, or last year?s entirely bogus points victory over Carlos Hernandez, it is hard to believe that Bobby Pacquiao would receive as many chances to appear on pay-per-view cards, or headline cards of his own, were it not for his last name. Certainly, Thursday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was not an especially uplifting evening for the younger boxing brother in the Pacquiao family.
Pacquiao had already become the latest member of the ?Who Needs to Make Weight?? club, when he weighed in at 133 lbs for the super featherweight bout the day before, and he looked huge and muscled next to opponent Hector Velazquez when the bout began. Velazquez entered the ring with a record of 45-11-2 (32), not an especially intimidating ledger, and indeed Pacquiao began the contest by showing little to no respect for his foe, eschewing defense and looking to rip in to Velazquez? body from close range. But the opening couple of rounds were nonetheless surprisingly cautious and untidy affairs, with flurries and clinches on both sides, and few clear shots landed.
The first really big shot that did land, however, came from Pacquiao in the third, when a mighty uppercut felled Velazquez against the ropes. However, that moment proved to be Pacquiao?s peak. In an attempt to follow up and finish his man, he completely abandoned any pretense of form and style and just threw punches in wild abandon, at whatever part of the Velazquez anatomy happened to be close to hand.
Having already been warned by referee Kenny Bayless for low blows, he was now deducted a point, diminishing the points advantage of the knockdown. But the deduction did not serve to clean up the Filipino?s act.
Instead, the contest grew increasingly ugly, brief flurries followed by clinches, with heads frequently clashing and Pacquiao straying low on numerous occasions, most of them on the blind side of Bayless, but enough within his vision for the referee to take notice.
Meanwhile, Velazquez was the one who was beginning to demonstrate the better of what little was being shown in terms of actual boxing skill, and when he won the fifth and was felled for a couple of minutes by a mighty Pacquiao shot to the groin, the two-point round more than compensated for the third frame knockdown.
The fight took an increasingly sloppy turn until finally, at the end of the eleventh, Velazquez, perhaps playing it up for more than it was worth, dropped as if shot when struck by another Pacquiao low blow, and Bayless disqualified the Manila fighter at 2:56 of the round.
Pacquiao now drops to 27-12-3 (12).
The shame of it all was that the main event foul-fest detracted from a rousing example of a real, tough, in the trenches, give-no-quarter professional prizefight in the chief supporting bout.
Both Jose Luis Cruz (34-2-2, 28 KOs) and fellow super welterweight Archak Ter-Meliksetian (16-5, 13 KOs) entered the bout having suffered high-profile defeats recently and needing to return to the positive side of the ledger, and for the first four of eight scheduled rounds, it appeared the more squat and powerful Cruz would be the one to do so. He mauled and brawled at close range, hammering his opponent?s body and, over the course of the bout, rearranging his nose so that likely only his own mother would recognize him this morning.
Ter-Meliksetian met him bravely head-on, but although he hung tough, it was not the best tactical choice for a man with a longer reach and arguably better boxing skills, and by the end of the fourth, he wore the countenance of a beaten man. But whatever his corner said to him between rounds served to inspire him as he stepped it up a notch and went on the attack himself in the fifth.
In the sixth, the sheer effort of having thrown so many punches, and then seeing his opponent weather the storm to come back, appeared to have finished Cruz, who looked desperately weary and out on his feet, ready for the taking, until he, too, somewhere found the inner resolve that separates professional boxers from the rest of us and rocked Archak with massive punches to keep himself in the contest.
Finally, in the eighth, it was Cruz who had the greater reserves and finished more strongly, winning a battle that was testament to the bravery and brutality of boxing by scores of 86-82 (twice) and 85-83.
Tremendous, tremendous effort by both men, and worthily applauded by the appreciative crowd.
In non-televised undercard action:
Toshiaki Nishioka, 28-4-3 (16) stopped fellow super bantamweight Jose Alonso, 29-13-2 (14) with a body shot at 2:59 of round four.
Featherweight Alejandro Lopez remained unbeaten, moving his ledger to 7-0 (2) with a unanimous points victory over Miguel Reza (3-2, 0 KOs).
Promising young lightweight John John Molina pummeled Odilon Rivera into the ropes and kept pounding, earning a rebuke and a one-point deduction from referee Toby Gibson, who felt Rivera was down and Molina should have stopped punching; and then went out and blasted him into a corner and dropped him again, earning a referee?s stoppage, all inside one round. The time was 2:11. Molina climbs to 5-0, 4KOs; Rivera drops to 5-9-3, 3 KOs.
Last-minute replacement Robert Da Luz won a featherweight contest, flattening Juan Carlos Santiago in the first to climb to 9-5 (8). Santiago falls to 8-9-4 (2).
Cruiserweight Dewey Cooper, who ludicrously has built a rabid local following by feasting on no-hopers, took four rounds to stop blubbery Salah Zabian, who was out of shape, out of breath and running around the ring as fast as his legs could carry his chubby body. At least by hanging in there, Zabian earned his money and the appreciation of the crowd. Cooper, bafflingly, remains unbeaten, at 15-0-2 (10). Zabian falls to 6-7 (4).
