Montes Beats Ibarra In Total Mexican War

Less than two months into 2012, we probably already have the fight of the year locked down after fellow Mexicans Juan Jose Montes and Oscar Ibara traded non-stop bombs Saturday night in Guadalajara in their fight for the vacant World Boxing Federation Super Flyweight title.

Ibara got off to the better start and landed some huge right hands in the first round, but “Goofy” Montes took back control in the second by driving his opponent to the ropes and firing relentlessly with both hands. Ibara didn’t just receive, but landed some shots of his own and the capacity crowd was on its feet watching what was turning out to be an outright war.

This trend continued throughout, Montes on the offensive but Ibara always active and dangerous with his right hand. In the fourth he cut Montes over the right eye, and in the tenth over the left, and with a bloody nose to boot it was evident that Ibara had his share of success. But Montes continued to charge relentlessly, and showed extraordinary courage and determination from start to finish.

After twelve pulsating rounds of boxing, the crowd had hardly used their chairs and gave the two warriors a two-minute standing ovation while waiting for the decision. Judges Jose Garduno, Sergio Sotelo and Alan Santana scored the bout 118-109, 116-111 and 114-113, all for Montes, but both fighters deserves big credit for putting on one of the best WBF world title fights in recent memory.

New World Boxing Federation World Super Flyweight Champion Juan Jose Montes improved his professional record to 22-2 (14), while Oscar Ibarra fell to 27-6 (18). The fight was promoted by Hector Garcia and HG Boxing, and televised live in Mexico by Televisa. Supervisor was WBF President Howard Goldberg.

On the previous night, Friday February 24 in Saint Quentin, France, local hero Thierry Karl captured the vacant WBF International Cruiserweight title with a unanimous decision over Georgian Sandro Sirposhvili at the Palais des Sports. Karl fought a clever fight, and seemed to be one step ahead of his opponent from the first bell, although Siproshvili never stopped trying.

At the conclusion, scores were 97-93 (Jean Marcel Nartz, Germany), 99-93, (Alfred Asaro, France) and 100-90 (Robert Verwijs, Netherlands). Referee was Alexsander Kalinkin from Russia. The fight was promoted by Boxing Club des Saint Quentin. Thierry Karl, who won his first title at Cruiserweight, is now 30-5 (19) in the professionals. Siproshvili drops to
25-11 (12).