By Manuel Perez: Light welterweight Terrance Cauthen (33-4, 9 KOs) defeated formerly unbeaten Alexis Camacho (16-1, 15 KOs) in a eight-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Municipal Auditorium, in San Antonio, Texas. Cauthen, 32, a former Bronze Medalist in the 1996 Olympics, easily dominated his slower, limited opponent Camacho, befuddling him with constant movement, jabs and slick moves during most of the fight.
Camacho, fighting disparately and trying to score a knockout in the 8th round, briefly hurt Cauthen after connecting with a wild right hand that caused Cauthen to stagger slightly. However, Cauthen immediately wrapped Camacho up in a clinch, and worked out of the situation by moving and jabbing for the remainder of the round. The final judges’ scores were 78-74, 77-75 and 77-75.
Camacho’s formerly unbeaten record was more than a little misleading as most of his opponents had poor records and weren’t the type that would ever find themselves ranked in the top tier of leading boxers. In the 1st round, Camacho did little to distinguish himself as he mostly plodded around the ring trying to get in punching distance with Cauthen. However, he missed every punch he threw, coming up short against the constantly moving Cauthen. For his part, Cauthen did little power, only landing one punch in the round, a jab.
Cauthen, 32, was very defensive in the 2nd round as he constantly clinched and moved about, trying to keep Camacho from landing his big punches. It wasn’t that hard for Cauthen, because Camacho had terrible hand speed, and even worse foot work. He appeared to not know how to cut off the ring on Cauthen, constantly coming at him in a straight line and not being able to catch him. There was no lateral movement, which surprised me because you’d think with a record as impressive as Camacho’s, he’d know how to move laterally to try and corner his opponents.
Perhaps most of his opponents that he’s faced thus far have been the type that stand directly in front of him, making it easy for him to land his big shots. For some reason, Camacho never seemed to throw any jabs whatsoever. It was as if they weren’t needed. Instead, he’d throw noting but big winging shots with either his right or left, making it easy for a defensive artist like Cauthen to dodge or block. Frequently in the 4th round, Cauthen would nail the plodding Camacho as he would come lunging in, trying to land right hands.
Most of Camacho’s punches were badly telegraphed from a long ways away, a factor which made it even easier for Cauthen to get out of the way of the punches. Camacho’s lack of boxing skills put him in a distinct disadvantage in the fight, for he didn’t have good hand speed to bail him out. With neither the boxing ability or the speed going for him, Camacho’s only hope was to somehow, someway score a knockout. It was obvious that was his intent, as he wildly threw punches with terrible form in the 4th round.
Both fighters clashed heads in the 5th round, with Cauthen suffering a cut over his left eye and Camacho experiencing a cut in his scalp line. The action was stopped early in the round for the ringside doctor to examine the cuts, but the action resumed almost immediately, as neither of them were deemed serious enough to stop the fight. Cauthen began to move more following the clash of heads, and began to find more success at picking off the plodding Camacho with shots.
Camacho began throwing sweeping hooks in the 6th round, putting everything he had on the shots. Without a jab to set up the shots, it was rather primitive looking against a fighter with as much boxing skills and ability as Cauthen, who continued to pick Camacho off as he would come forward trying to land these wild shots. Cauthen would continue landing well in the 7th round, mixing in uppercuts and right hooks as Camacho would attempt to land.
In the 8th round, Camacho came out on fire, looking totally disparate, badly in need of a knockout to win the fight. Cauthen should have been more alert to this, as almost immediately, Camacho tagged him with a big right hook to the head, staggering him. Cauthen immediately grabbed Camacho in a clinch and held on long enough for his head to clear somewhat. Afterwards, Cauthen spent the remainder of the round expertly picking off the slower Camacho as he would come forward looking for one big shot to land.
In other action on the card, undefeated bantamweight prospect Julio Valadez (2-0) defeated Eric Morin (1-2) by a four-round unanimous decision. Neither fighter believed in throwing jabs from the looks of it, as they threw nothing but huge hooks for most of the 4-round bout. Morin, 23, had problems dealing with the speed and ferocious attack of Valadez, who kept him under a constant withering fire for most of the bout.
If not for his total lack of boxing ability, I think Valadez, 19, might someday be a decent fighter, but he looks very raw and has a monumental amount of work cut out for him if he intends on sticking it out in boxing. None of the rounds were particularly close, as Morin was just too offensively inept to get much going and because of that, and his lack of defense, he mostly stood around taking shots to the head from Valadez. All in all, a terrible fight.