Mexican Juan Carlos Burgos (30-1-1, 20) will feel incredibly hard done by to not be the WBO Super Featherweight champion as he scored a hugely controversial draw with Roman "Rocky" Martinez (26-1-2, 16) in a hugely impressive performance that will have won him a number of new fans even if he didn't manage to claim the title0
Despite being seen as the boxer going in to the bout Burgos proved that he could do both box or brawl as he thoroughly dominated his Puerto Rican rival with accurate hurtful body shots, a sharp accurate jab and just an overall superior skill set.
The opening round was action from the off with both men landing bombs from the off, those bombs saw Martinez's face reddening as he seemed to have ridiculous success from the off. The following round saw Burgos continuing to establish his dominance by simply out working the former champion who was attempting to make the first defense of his second reign as champion.
It wasn't until round 3 that Martinez had his first notable success as he seemed to gradually grow in to the fight. Martinez continued to grow through many of the middle rounds making rounds 4 and 5 very close whilst arguably taking the 6th. The middle rounds were incredibly close as both men gave it their all, sadly for Martinez he was being ground away with hurtful body shots that seemed to finish every Burgos combination.
Although Martinez was having real success in cutting the distance and forcing Burgos on to the ropes this was oddly not suiting Martinez as Burgos continually caught him with left hooks to the rib cage that seemed to really take their toll on Martinez late. Though the middle rounds there was enough close rounds to give Martinez 4 rounds or at a push 5 (including rounds 8 and 9 which were very clear Martinez rounds).
Despite Burgos looking like a spent force in rounds 8 and 9, the two rounds he clearly lost, he came back hard in the following 3 rounds and seemed to clearly swept them with his aggression, work rate and effectiveness. This was where the body work of Burgos really seemed to have taken it's toll on Martinez who was looking like a fighter staying in their on heart alone.
Amazingly the scorecards, all from inexperienced judges at world championship level, were all over the place. The first card (111-117-Burgos) seemed pretty accurate, at least it had the right guy winning, the second card was the frankly ridiculous 116-112 for Martinez, a card that simply beggars belief whilst the third card was 114-114, a card that seemed to give Martinez too much credit for merely being competitive in a number of rounds.
Sadly the commentary for the bout was awful with them really swinging on Burgos' sack, and whilst the Mexican did deserve the decision, the commentary made it sound like a shut out, when really it wasn't. Burgos did clearly win on my cards but Martinez, except in the first 2 and final 3 was competitive enough to put up a few rounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment