Ringside Boxing Report: Figueroa v Rodriguez
© Jim Everett / Saddo Boxing
ESPNʼs Spanish-language multimedia brand, ESPN Deportes, hosted their Upfront ʽ08 presentation to the advertising community to announce new programming initiatives and a multiplatform approach to the fall season.
Boxing took center stage at the event held at New York Cityʼs Gotham Hall, where the guests watched an onsite production of ESPNʼs Wednesday Night Fights to mark the return of the sport to ESPN Deportes.
The new programming initiatives include, Miercoles y Viernes de Combate which will begin to air twice a week starting in February 2009, anchored by a new studio show that will broadcast boxing matches from the preceding weekly telecasts.
In September of 2008 during the celebration of Hispanic Heritage month, boxing fans will be treated to the documentary premiere of one of the greatest sports icons of Mexico , Julio Cesar Chavez.
Entitled “Chavez”, the documentary was created by award winning director Diego Luna and premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival to critical acclaim.
The main event of the Wednesday Night Fights broadcast featured a dominating performance by Francisco Figueroa over twelve rounds to retain his NABF Light Welterweight Title against the game but overmatched Luis Rodriguez.
Figueroa, 19-2 (13), came out strong and wobbled Rodriguez, 22-2 (13), in the first round landing several heavy blows and cutting the challenger over the eye from an accidental clash of heads.
Rodriguez recovered well and retaliated in the second round by working the body of Figueroa, who adjusted well and easily took back control of the fight. Figueroa backed Rodriguez up through the next few rounds, landing a variety of power punches.
Although Figueroa dominated the fight, Rodriguez was not easy prey as he would be able to win a few rounds on the judgesʼ scorecards by using his height advantage and box on the outside with occasional success.
Figueroa would not allow Rodriguez the advantage for too long as he continually found a way to work his way inside to and make it his fight landing two and three punch combinations.
All three judges awarded the fight to Figueroa by scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112. The final Compubox stats indicated Figueroa landed 318 of 933 (34%) total punches while Rodriguez landed 202 of 713 (28%) total punches.
In a four-round attraction, Joseltio Collado from Queens, NY put an impressive performance against Jose Ortiz of Jersey City, NJ .
Collado, 3-0 (1), dominated all four rounds winning by scores of 40-36 on all three judges scorecards. Ortiz, 1-2 (1), seemed outclassed from the beginning of the fight and showed poor defensive skills by getting hit with several left hooks from keeping his hands too low during the entire bout.
Desperate in the fourth and final round, Ortiz tried to press the action, swinging with wild punches but Collado kept his cool and continued to out-box him as he had through-out the fight.
In the opening bout, undefeated Puerto Rican, Joel Torres, and Chris Fernandez of Salt Lake City, UT went the eight round distance in their junior welterweight bout to fight to a draw.
Torres, 9-0-1 (5), seemed to do enough to win the fight but the judges scored the bout 77-75, 74-78 and 76-76, declaring the draw. From ringside it appeared that Torres was more aggressive and landed the more accurate shots against Fernandez, 15-4-1 (8).
The final Compubox stats would later show both fighters landing 28% of their total punches with Torres landing 149 of 528 and Fernandez landing 121 of 439.