Acosta Stops Vasquez In 1st round KO!

By Boxing News - 02/03/2008 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: former two-time World Boxing Association light middleweight champion Julio Cesar Vasquez (68-12, 43 KOs) was stopped in the 1st round last night by Ruben Eduardo Acosta (18-3-5, 5 KOs) in an unsuccessful attempt at capturing the South American super middleweight title at the Polideportivo Islas Malvinas, Mar del Plata, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Vasquez, now 41, was dropped late in the 1st round by a left hook to the midsection. Vasquez rolled around on the canvas in obvious pain, unable to get up.

The referee Jorge Basile, initially waited, perhaps giving Vasquez more time than usual due to his former championship credentials, but after seeing that he wasn’t going to be able to make it up, the fight was stopped. Vasquez has now lost nine out of his last 14 bouts dating back to December 2001.

In the first two minutes of the round, the southpaw Vasquez looked good, landing left hooks to the body and head, while Acosta stayed on the outside looking afraid. Acosta, 29, looked really green, as if he didn’t belong in the same ring with Vasquez. On the rare occasions that he did attempt a punch, he would badly miss as if he were uncoordinated. However, late in the round, Vasquez attempted to land a long left hand, which Acosta stepped back and dodged, firing back a right to the head, and a left to the side of Vasquez.

Neither punch seemed that hard, to be honest. Yet, the left hand landed in a perfect spot – the liver – causing Vasquez to fall immediately to the canvas in pain. As his wife looked on from the audience, Vasquez was counted out by the referee. Vasquez doesn’t look good as a super middleweight, for he appears kind of soft as if he needs to lose some weight. If he’s serious about wanting to continue with his boxing career, he needs to consider strongly moving back down to the junior middleweight division.

Almost all of his nine losses in recent bouts have come about since his move to the middleweight and super middleweight divisions. In my view, he doesn’t appear to be big enough or strong enough to compete with these fighters, even the average ones like Acosta.