It was an ending that surprised many and even the fighters themselves. “Sugar” Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora went the distance in their twelve round fight this Saturday night at the Staples Center. When the dust settled and the judges handed over their score to ring announcer Michael Buffer, a collective moan came over the crowd.
The scores were 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114 for a majority draw. It was a lackluster main event in a night where the under card came up big with two huge knockouts. For the majority of the night it was Mosley as the aggressor chasing Mora around the ring but in rare form missing a vast number of shots, including the right hand that stunned Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their May affair earlier in the year.
After three seemingly calm rounds where not much action came from both competitors, Sergio Mora landed a straight right that caught the attention of the thirty eight year old Mosley. Mosley immediately went on the offensive, charging in and working in the pocket which eventually led to a gash on Mora’s right eye due to an accidental head butt.
“The cut did affect me a little bit, but Shane’s such a nice guy that he apologized during the fight about the head butt, it caught me off guard,” said Mora backstage. Mosley would continue to be the aggressor but his activeness may have also hurt him, as by the eighth round he was uncharacteristically swinging wildly and at times with his hands almost completely down.
For all he could Mora could not capitalize on this opportunity as in my opinion, someone with a more aggressive style could of put a major beating on Mosley tonight. Mora played it safe, slipping and dodging, landing shots here and there but also allowing Mosley to out work him with the volume of punches thrown.
Mora did finally decide to do something with the tiring Mosley and closed out the final two rounds of the fight convincingly. He would continue to work on the inside for much of round eleven, scoring inside upper cuts and hooks that made Mosley’s head wobble.
The final round saw both fighters go all out on the inside once more, with Mora gaining the advantage in the first half and Shane closing out the later half with a flurry of powerful punches. With the bell sounding, all those ringside thought there was a clear winner but were all proved wrong once again as the judges clearly disagreed once more with the collective opinion of the press.
If the world didn’t take notice of Canelo-mania, they did now as twenty year Saul Alvarez the rising Mexican star blew the roof off The Staples Center to a rabid pro-Mexican crowd. “Canelo,” as he is affectionately known to his legions of Mexican fans did almost the impossible; knocking out the iron chinned Carlos Baldomir. The stoppage came at 2:53 of the sixth round via a Canelo hook that sent Baldomir flat on his face. It was the first time the veteran Argentine fighter had been stopped in his fifty-eight pro fights and certainly an impressive finish to a ho-hum fight between the two.
Displaying speed comparable to a turtle, Baldomir had no chance landing anything on his busier and much younger counterpart. Round four seemed to be the crux of the fight as Alvarez opened up and appeared much looser than the previous three rounds. Baldomir’s chin would be tested from there on out as he ate a straight right flush to his chin and continued to eat jabs all during round five.
The Stone chin of Baldomir would soon crack as late in the round Alvarez landed blow after blow that finally began to take their toll on the thirty nine year old warrior. With legs wobbly, Baldomir was prepared to go out on his shield, tucking his chin down and going blow for blow with Alvarez in a firestorm of punches.
A left hook connected on the part of Alvarez as Baldomir immediately hit the canvas to what could put an end to a lengthy career on Baldomir’s part. It proved to be Alvarez’s finest moment up to this point in his career as the Mexican fans in attendance went bananas as their new boxing icon celebrating on the ropes.
Victor Ortiz sent a clear message to the boxing world as he hammered and disposed of Vivian Harris via KO in the third round (0:45) to keep the title of “Vicious.” He certainly lived up to his moniker as the young fighter put on an exciting and dominating performance.
Ortiz was busy from the get go, as he used jabs and his trade mark in and out movement to land flush punches to the dome of Harris. The second round would spell doomsday for Harris as a straight right floored the fighter. He would say hello to the canvas twice more as Ortiz would follow up his well placed left with a looping hook to score the second knock down of the night. Harris did all he could to give himself more time to get his composure but in the process ate another looping Ortiz hook to once again hit the floor.
Harris would hang on to close out the round, but you could smell the end was near. Harris took it upon himself to come out strong in the third and displayed testicular fortitude coming on as aggressive as he did. He pressed the action and eventually found himself in the clinch with the younger Ortiz.
Bad news for Harris, as Ortiz exploded with a right overhand hook to the temple that sent him down. Ortiz followed up with an uppercut that put that extra umph to a much needed and impressive win. Ortiz is now awaiting a rubber match with Marcos Maidana who is scheduled to fight Amir Kahn later in the year.
Full Card Results:
Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora go to a draw (115-113, 116-112, 114-114)
Saul Alvarez def Carlos Baldomir via KO in R6 (2:53)
Victor Ortiz def Vivian Harris via KO in R3 (0:45)
Ponce de Leon def Antonio Escalante via KO in R3 (2:40)
Frankie Gomez def Ricardo Calzada via KO in R1 (1:06)
Kaliesha West def Angel Gladney via KO in R7 (0:59)
Keith Thurman def Quandary Robertson via KO in R3 (2:40)
Sharif Bogere def Julian Rodriguez via TKO in R2 (1:43)
Eric Areola def Missael Nunez via unanimous decision (40,36, 40-36, 38-38)
