By Manuel Perez: Former 2008 Olympian Luis Yanez (1-0) defeated Julio Valdez (3-3) by an unimpressive four round majority decision on Saturday night at the American Airlines Center, in Dallas, Texas in a bantamweight bout. The final judges’ scores were 40-36, 39-37 and 38-38. I personally scored the fight a draw. For a fighter as hyped as much as Yanez was, he looked remarkably unimpressive.
Valdez, 20, easily nullified Yanez’s offensive skills by rushing him continuously throughout the fight and landing shots. When in close, Valdez frequently clinched Yanez and was able to keep him from getting his shots off. It was in close where Valdez landed well, delivering short right hands to the head. In rounds one and two, Valdez kept the head on Yanez and was able to land well with hard right hands when backing Yanez up against the ropes.
Yanez showed little power with either hand and had trouble keeping Valdez off of him. Yanez moved around the ring in rounds two through four, throwing only one punch at a time. Yanez had his chances to throw more punches but seemed unable to land more than one at a time even when Valdez was standing directly in front of him and begging to be hit.
I kept waiting for something impressive from him but he seemed incapable of throwing punches with power or in combination form. What he did do well was move around and pot shot. His style is perfect for amateur fighting where you get points scored by hitting with the whites of the gloves but not for the pros. In that, Yanez looked average and nothing like a future champion or even a contender. Based on this fight, I can’t see Yanez making it beyond the B-level.
I wish I was wrong because this guy has been hyped a bunch while fighting as an amateur but he just doesn’t appear to have the pro style or the power needed to be a successful fighter in the pro ranks. He’d be much better off scraping his idea as a professional fighter and going back down and fighting as an amateur. Who knows? Maybe he might be able to win an Olympic Gold medal and cashing in on it.