Unbeaten middleweight contender Sergio Mora (20-0-1, 5 KOs) 20 (KO 5) stopped veteran fighter Rito Ruvalcaba (32-9, 28 KOs) in the 6th round of a scheduled 10-round bout last night at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. Mora, 27, stunned Ruvalcaba with a big left hook in the 6th round, then followed up with a flurry of shots while Ruvalcaba attempted to cover up on the ropes, prompting referee Ray Corona to suddenly jump in between the two and halt the fight at 1:22 of the 6th round. However, at the time of the stoppage, Ruvalcaba was still fighting back, seeming to have a little more left in the tank.
The problem, though, was that Corona fell down while trying to initially stop the fight – again, much too early – as Mora started with his flurry, causing Corona to miss out on the fact that Ruvalcaba was still competitive at the time. In the big scheme of things, I suppose it hardly mattered, as Ruvalcaba was going to lose anyway, most likely by a knockout in that round. He had nothing to answer back with in terms of fire power all fight long, and was mostly taking punishment from Mora.
That’s not to say that Mora looked good, because he looked bad for a fighter ranked as high as he is, certainly not like a top 15 contender. For most of the fight, Mora looked frightened of Ruvalcaba, as he moved constantly, throwing few punches and constantly clinching after every punch. It seemed odd, because Ruvalcaba had zero handspeed, looking like he was punching under water. What ever power he may have had at one time in his career, Ruvalcaba seemed to have lost it all with his four year layoff from the ring. Mora, however, continued to treat him like he was the next George Foreman until around the 5th round, when Mora finally got a little brave and started throwing left hooks.
Even then, he would throw them in a leaping fashion, immediately grabbing and clinching Ruvalcaba afterwards. It was painfully boring to watch, as it looked nothing like a professional boxer. In watching Mora’s fight last night, along with his last bout, a draw with Elvin Ayala, I can understand why Mora chose not to fight Jermain Taylor and Kassim Ouma. He would have lost big, almost definitely get knocked by either of them. He’s just not in their class from what I’ve seen of him.
In the first round, Mora did absolutely nothing, letting Ruvalcaba dictate the action. Immediately, it was apparent that Ruvalcaba was going to have problems in the fight, due to his lack of handspeed. He looked about the slowest middleweight I’ve ever seen before, yet he easily won the first round, even puffing up Mora’s left eye in the process. Ruvalcaba did show that he has heavy hands, but he was so slow, he rarely landed anything in the round.
In rounds two through four, there was little action to speak of. Ruvalcaba initiated almost every exchange, but he missed badly most of the time with his slow hooks. For his part, Mora looked terrified of Ruvalcaba, moving constantly, and throwing defensive-looking jabs, meant more to keep Ruvalcaba at a distance than to do damage. Mora missed a lot with his left hook, throwing it at Ruvalcaba’s midsection most of the time.
In the fifth round, Mora finally unloaded with a few good left hooks to the head. The punches looked beautiful, thrown with perfect form and looked to be powerful. However, Mora still was not throwing enough punches considering the opponent he was facing. He was far too economical.
Mora finally snapped out of it in the 6th, when he began unloading with left hooks from the beginning of the round. Within moments, Mora hurt Ruvalcaba with a left hook, and then followed it up with a quick flurry of shots, driving Ruvalcaba to the ropes where he attempted to cover up. Almost immediately, the referee jumped in, attempting to stop the fight. However, Corona bounced off of Mora and fell to the canvas. By the time he got up, Ruvalcaba had began to answer back with his own shots and was coming after Mora. Unfortunately, Corona had his mind already made up, and stopped the fight prematurely. It’s hard to say whether Mora would have stopped Ruvalcaba in the round, because at the time it was Ruvalcaba who was throwing punches and coming after Mora. But, like I mentioned earlier, it didn’t matter, because Mora would have stopped him in the next round due to his superior speed, youth and offensive skills. It was only going to be a matter of time.