BOXING is making up for the dearth in activity during the first quarter with stellar match-ups in consecutive weekends.
Today, Saul Alvarez faces the biggest test of his young career in a unification bout with Austin Trout.
Alvarez (41-0,30 KOs) if you recall, was one of the breakthrough fighters in 2012, beating both Shane Mosely and Josesito Lopez and successfully retaining his WBC junior middleweight diadem.
Lopez was expected to be competitive against Alvarez after breaking Victor Ortiz?s jaw and winning via TKO in the ninth round, but Alvarez dominated him, knocking him down in Rounds 2, 3 and 4 and earning a stoppage in the fifth.
WBA junior middleweight counterpart Trout came under the fistic radar when he upset the accomplished Miguel Cotto last year via unanimous decision.
MY TAKE. Trout?s southpaw tricky style could pose match-up problems to the aggressive Alvarez. The latter isn?t exactly known for his defense and he can very well lag behind on the scorecards early if he doesn?t figure out Trout.
Cotto started off well against Trout but the latter scored some clean, eye-catching shots, and took over the fight in the middle rounds. His punch activity also won over the judges.
I expect the same scenario to be replayed today. However, younger, feral Alvarez should gain some momentum in the middle rounds and eventually dominate via unanimous decision.
An interesting side story is that Saul might be intent on getting revenge over Trout?s victory over his brother Rigoberto back in 2011.
LATIGO. When he?s not busy composing and performing, local rap artist Latigo, (Louie Rusiana) likes to wear the boxing pundit?s hat.
He?s pretty good at it too and has seen several of his fine disquisitions printed here in Sun.Star Cebu.
On Nonito Donaire?s recent loss, Latigo pointed out that Donaire?s punch output against Rigondeaux paled in comparison to his prolific workrate against previous opponents.
Against Wilfredo Vasquez Jr, he threw a total of 556. Against Omar Narvaez, that number hit a high of 666 while against Jeffrey Mathebula it was at 515.
Against Rigo last Sunday, that figure dwindled to 352. Louie also wants my take on whether or not the departure of nutritionist Victor Conte and world class sprinter Victor Korchemny who had been vital cogs in the training camp had affected his performance.
Thanks for the e-mail, Latigo. The departure of Conte and Korchemny probably affected his preparations somewhat, but in that fight, I don?t think the issue was conditioning.
It was a style issue and unfortunately, Nonito could not adjust to the difficult defensive quagmire posed by the Cuban southpaw.
Unlike his previous opponents where he was free to tee off as much as he wanted, Rigo was an elusive target which clearly led to Donaire?s unexplained truancy.
Moreover, Donaire clearly wanted the knockout so bad, he wanted to catch and nail Rigo with the big one. He didn?t box him enough. The difficulty in hitting a moving target clearly had Donaire besotted.
A tactical error he made was his over-reliance on power punching. Remember that a boxer?s punches are more powerful when he plants his feet and the same thing happened to Donaire. He didn?t want to move around as much because he wanted to catch Rigo with the big fight-ending punch.
Of course, there?s no denying his one-punch knockout prowess, but in choosing to neglect his entire offensive arsenal, he looked one dimensional at times.
Plus, Rigo hits hard enough to make Nonito cautious, which could also explain his paltry punch output. Thanks for your thoughts and keen insights!
LAST ROUND. It?s on my mom, Elena Mayol Quijano, who celebrates her birthday this week. We love you Mom, cheers!
