Round by Round: Ricardo Dominguez vs. Rafael Ortiz.

ByJim Cawkwell
ESPN2’s Tuesday Night Fights show came from Camp Pendleton in California. Tickets were gifted to the attending marines by Sycuan Ringside Promotions in honor of them and the US troops fighting overseas. King of the four rounders Butterbean toyed with no-hoper Rick Zufall for almost three rounds before battering him

to the canvas twice in an opening crowd pleaser. The competitive action began though with an eight round lightweight contest between Ricardo Dominguez and Rafael Ortiz. This is how the action in this fight went down.

Round one: Ortiz comes out jabbing and Dominguez responds in kind. Dominguez cracks home a solid right hand. Dominguez’ left hooks to the head and body look like hurtful shots. Another left to the body from Dominguez scores flush. A right-left from Dominguez sends Ortiz backwards. Ortiz slams an uppercut inside. A hook to the body and a right to the head have Ortiz reeling. Yet another left hook to the head bangs into Ortiz’ skull as the round ends.

Score: Dominguez 10-9.

Round two: Ortiz lands a solid right hand to start this round. A right-left from Dominguez stops Ortiz in his tracks. Dominguez sends Ortiz back again with a right-left. Ortiz is lookign for uppercuts inside. Another hook to the body stuns Ortiz. A huge right hand and left hook/uppercut whacks into Ortiz. Ortiz lands a huge right of his own. Ortiz starts to land good single shots with both hands. They close the round landing hard shots on each other cleanly.

Score: Ortiz 10-9.

Round three: Ortiz gets in with a roundhouse right and Dominguez looks to box and move. Ortiz cracks in another good right hand, it is a looping shot but he is finding Dominguez often enough with it. A right uppercut staggers Ortiz backwards. More great body work with the hook comes in from Dominguez. Ortiz gets back into the thick of it, landing lefts and rights. Dominguez finishes a combination with a head-snapping left uppercut. Ortiz gets to work with his right hand and stuns Dominguez with a right uppercut. The left hook batters Ortiz’ ribs yet again as the round comes to an end.

Score: Dominguez 10-9.

Round four: Dominguez starts teeing off on Ortiz with both hands and gets a lot of power into his hooks and uppercuts. A good right from Dominguez seems to fire up Ortiz who wades in with both hands. Dominguez cracks in some very hard and accurate shots. Ortiz tags Dominguez with a right. They swing freely on each other before Dominguez backs off and picks off a nice combination.

Score: Dominguez 10-9.

Round five: Ortiz comes out charging with purpose and he catches Dominguez crouching with some nice right uppercuts. They stand head to head and trade some heavy shots inside. The action becomes messier here but Dominguez soon turns his attention back to the body and slashes both sides of Ortiz’ ribs with body shots. Hooks and uppercuts fly in from both men. Dominguez has the better lead hand and versatility about his work but seems happy to neglect that in order to trade hard shots.

Score: Dominguez 10-9.

Round six: Ortiz seriously hurts Dominguez with a right-left combinations and suddenly Ortiz cannot miss as he goes on a tear, battering Dominguez for a good twenty seconds. Dominguez tries to push forwards but not to as great of an effect as Ortiz rages back and slams Dominguez wwith right hands inside. Dominguez is hurt as he starts to hold and spoil Ortiz’ offense. Dominguez catches Ortiz with a right going backwards. Another right uppercut for ORtiz lands solidly.

Score: Ortiz 10-9.

Round seven: Ortiz snaps in a right from the outside. Dominguez is on his bike and moving quickly out of the way of Ortiz who is finding his range. Anotehr right stuns Dominguez who is surviving for now. Ortiz slams in yet anotehr right and it’s all his fight at this point. Another right by Ortiz. Dominguez has lost a lot of snap in his punches thansk to the punishment he has absorbed. Dominguez tries to get something going with the left hand upstairs and down. Two more extremely eye-catching right hands from Ortiz take more resolve from Dominguez as the round ends.

Score: Ortiz 10-9.

Round eight: It’s the final round and both men need to come out and make a statement here. Dominguez is on the backfoot but still landing solid shots. A huge left hand digs into Ortiz who answers with a head combination of his own. Great action ensues as both men fire off on each other. Ortiz gets in with anither right hand and starts teeing off on Dominguez who must be desperately tired now. A huge right uppercut from Dominguez rocks Ortiz’ head upwards. Both men finish up landing hard shots openly but it is Dominguez who is driving Ortiz backwards with head shots before a huge climax of both men slamming hard head shots home ends the fight.

Score: 10-9 Ortiz.

Official scores: 77-75 twice and 78-74 all for the winner, Ricardo Dominguez!

SaddoBoxing scored the fight: 76-76 Even.

Contact Jim Cawkwell at jimcawkwell@yahoo.co.uk