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Medina earns 6TH IBF Title Shot!
Guilty Boxing and Golden Boy Promotions teamed up to provide the local boxing fanatics with an action-packed Friday night of boxing at The Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The main event was an IBF Super Featherweight Title Eliminator between Tijuana native Manuel Medina and Argentinean tough guy Javier Alvarez. Medina’s world class experience, boxing skills, and work rate proved far too much in a lopsided 118-110 (twice), 119-109 unanimous decision over Alvarez.
Alvarez seemed a little too relaxed and didn’t engage nearly enough in the early rounds as Medina employed his boxing lesson. Medina rarely neglected his effective jab and worked smooth combinations up and down on Alvarez, quickly getting out of harms way before Alvarez could fire back.
The stronger-looking Alvarez was surprisingly content to let Medina come forward, dictate the pace, and basically let Medina outwork him throughout the fight. Alvarez’s shining moment was in the 5th round when he landed a hard overhand right that momentarily buckled the former IBF titleholder’s knees, but Medina was able to work off the back foot as Alvarez failed to press his brief advantage.
With Alvarez often appearing winded in the mid to late rounds, Medina was able to showcase his boxing skills, occasionally switching to southpaw and never in any danger to improve his record to an eye opening 66-14 (31KO’s) while Alvarez falls to 33-5-1 (16KO’s). The victory also assured Medina of a spot as mandatory challenger to the IBF Super Featherweight Title, currently held by Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera.
There undercard fights made for some good action as 6’9” behemoth Tye Fields continued to add to his record with a 4th round TKO of Ed Mahone. This was Fields third consecutive fight at The Orleans and just his freakish size alone makes for an interesting watch. Mahone of St. Louis was once a promising contender, working his way up to a WBO Heavyweight Title match in 1999 (3rd Round TKO loss to Vitali Klitschko). Things appear to have gone downhill since, this only being Mahone’s 7th fight and 5th loss since the loss to Klitschko. At least he did more than Fields last opponent, former WBA Champ Bruce Seldon, who basically showed up for a pay check and took a knee while the ref counted him out.
Things didn’t appear that way in the 1st round though, as Mahone looked lost in space just walking away from Fields and refusing to engage, almost with his back turned. Perhaps southpaw Fields 270 pound frame and powerful left hand is just too intimidating for some of his opponents. Mahone literally threw one, maybe 2 punches in the first round with referee Richard Steele asking him to fight and the crowd in disbelief. Mahone decided to engage in round 2, and the first overhand right he threw startled The Orleans intimate venue of onlookers, with a loud thud as the punch landed flush on the face of Fields. The combatants threw some heavy punches to finish out round 2 and the fight amongst giants was on. Standing next to Fields, one tends to forget that Mahone is a big guy at 6”3”, 235 pounds.
There were more fireworks in Round 3 as Fields pawed with a jab and unloaded heavy lefts, some connecting to the body and head of Mahone. Although Fields has been under the tutelage of well known trainer/motivator Jesse Reid, it was evident that some technical skills were lacking and Fields appeared wide open to any right hands Mahone threw, no matter how telegraphed the punches were. So of the few rights that Mahone threw, most of them landed, one opening a cut next to Fields left eye. To his credit, Fields fired back under pressure, landed flush and put Mahone down twice before the end of round 3. Mahone went back into his shell in round 4, allowing Fields to pin him against the ropes and overwhelm him with 4-5 unanswered punches before Steele steeped in and stopped the bout at 1:10 of round 4.
Mexican lightweights Humberto Tapia and Juan Alfonso Figueroa provided fight fans with a very entertaining scrap that resulted in a draw in what was the first 8 round fight for both combatants. Figueroa seemed to have a good fight plan , slamming power punches to the body of his noticeably taller opponent, and coming over the top with a looping overhand right that seemed to land more than it should have throughout the fight. Tapia showed and excellent chin. But if Figueroa had more pop in his punch, Tapia could have been in trouble. Tapia boxed well at times, taking advantage of his reach with a nice jab and effective uppercuts on the inside. Neither fighter would give an inch which led to some furious, crowd pleasing exchanges in their close match. The deserved draw brought Tapia’s record to 8-1-1(5KO’s), while Figueroa goes to 5-3-1(3KO’s)
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Contact Mark DeSisto: bostonsmarkd@yahoo.com
