Ringside Boxing Report: Guzman vs Soto
Click for larger image © Jim Everett / Saddo Boxing
Golden Boy Promotions in association with Sycuan Ringside Promotions put on a highly anticipated match-up on Saturday night at the Borgata in Atlantic City, NJ as Joan Guzman defended his WBO Junior Lightweight Title against hard-hitting contender Humberto Soto.
Although Guzman had not been in the ring since last December, he showed no signs of any ring rust as he was able to use his superior speed to outclass his challenger. Soto did a good job of getting Guzman on the ropes throughout the fight, but was unable to take advantage as most of his punches were either blocked or smothered by the champion.
The fight opened with Soto moving forward, trying to put pressure on Guzman as he backed him into the corner on a couple of occasions but was unable to land anything clean. Guzman moved well and seemed comfortable taking shots from Soto.
Both fighters came out in the second round trading hard, wild shots. Guzman with his back to the ropes was able to counter well and landed a good head-body combination.
The third round was full of activity with a clash of heads early that seemed to bother Soto more than Guzman. Soto tried three and four jabs that only met air as Guzman backed away from them. Soto landed a solid right that knocked Guzman off balance, as the champion was trying to throw a left hook. Guzman had his back to the ropes again, seemingly comfortable to block punches, counter and trade with his own shots. Late in the round Guzman landed a hard low blow that brought down Soto and was issued a warning by the referee.
Soto abandoned his jab in the fourth round and continually tried to work the body of Guzman to try and slow down the slick champion. Guzman was on the ropes again, nearly sitting on the bottom rope as he dodged shots from Soto. The challenger was able to land some combinations to Guzman’s body but was forced to stop the action by the referee to warn Soto to raise his punches that were on the belt line, which frustrated the challenger.
Although not overly effective, Soto’s momentum was again stopped in the fifth round while landing combinations to Guzmanʼs body, which the referee felt were too low as he warned him to raise his punches for a second time. Guzman was again with his back to the ropes multiple times and even landed a triple left hook to Soto while countering his punches.
For the next few rounds, a frustrated Soto began trying to chase Guzman around, unable to effectively cut off the ring.
During the ninth round, both fighters hit the canvas at different times due to their feet getting tripped up, which were both ruled slips by the referee.
Throughout the tenth round, both fighters were in the center of the ring with Soto now unable to catch Guzman to put him on the ropes as often as he did earlier in the fight. Soto was throwing mostly one punch at a time with an occasional one-two combination, but did manage to get Guzman to the ropes once, landing a few shots before the confident champion slipped out and walked around the ring showboating and shuffling his feet.
Guzman and Soto met in the center of the ring to touch gloves and hugged each other before the start of the final round. As the round began, they again touched gloves but this time Soto followed it up with a quick left hook and looked at Guzman, smiling and shrugging his shoulders. Unfortunately for Soto, it was not enough to change the momentum of the fight which favored Guzman by a unanimous decision of 118-110 and 117-111 twice, by the judges scorecards.
After the fight Guzman, 28-0 (17), expressed interest in taking on Manny Pacquiao next year and the possibility of moving up to lightweight to become a three-division champion.
Soto, 43-6-2 (27), may now have a difficult future to face. He has been considered to be one of the top junior lightweight fighters in the world and has been avoided by many in the division as too risky an opponent. A win over Guzman would have provided him with a title and perhaps a ticket to other big name fights, but for now his loss to Guzman will provide other fighters just another reason to avoid him.
UNDERCARDS
In the co-feature bout Abner Mares, 15-0 (9), remained undefeated winning a unanimous decision over Damian Marchiano, 14-3-1 (5), defending his NABO Bantamweight Title with scores of 117-109 and 118-109 twice.
Mares used his jab well early in the fight and a strong right hand that landed countless times to the head of Marchiano. In the middle rounds, Mares began adding left hooks and uppercuts to his combinations and sent Marchiano to the canvas with a low blow which angered him as he responded with a four punch combination, driving Mares back to the ropes.
The seventh round was the only round that Marchiano won on two of the three judges scorecards by coming in with combinations that landed at will and bloodied the nose of his Mexican opponent. Although he would land well throughout the fight, Marchiano was no match for Mares, who was able to out gun him with combinations and a vicious body attack.
In the junior welterweight division, Demetrius Hopkins, 28-0-1 (11), used his speed to win a unanimous decision over Enrique Colin, 23-4-3 (19). Hopkins was the aggressor throughout the fight, landing sharp, crisp punches which had him winning all the rounds on two judge’s score cards at 100-90 and 99-91 on the final score card.
In another junior welterweight bout, 2004 Olympian Rock Allen, 12-0 (7), looked sharp in his unanimous decision win against Braulio Lopez, 6-6-1 (2), with scores of 80-72 on all three judge’s score cards. Allen landed solid combinations throughout the fight as he avoided the wide looping shots of his opponent.
Also in junior welterweight action, Danny Garcia, 1-0 (1), made an impressive professional debut against Michael Denby, 0-1-1, stopping him at 1:08 of the first round. Garcia knocked down Denby with a short right just seconds into the fight. Another right put Denby down again and the novice appeared to be on rubber legs when he was met with a one-two combination that put Denby to the canvas for the third and final time.
Long Island heavyweight Darrel Madison, 7-1 (3), outboxed Ryan Thompson, 3-2 (3), to a unanimous decision victory with scores of 40-36 on all three judge’s score cards. The southpaw Madison used his jab to keep Thompson off balance and moved well, landing punches from all angles putting on an excellent show.