By Eric Thomas: Number #1 ranked WBC middleweight contender Marco Antonio Rubio (52-5-1, 45 KO’s) made easy work of little known Mohammed Akrong (13-4, 10 KO’s) on Saturday night, stopping him in the 5th round at the Centreo De Convenciones, San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

Rubio, 31, finished Akrong with a left to the body that sent a hurt Akrong down in the corner. Although Akrong made it quickly back to his feet, the referee Jerry Venzor wisely halted the fight.

It was never really all that competitive. Rubio, who looked like he had a slight spare tire around his midsection, fought very slowly, and economically for much of the fight. He threw a lot of body shots that seemed to hurt Akrong every time they would land. Akrong fought back hard, and seemed to trouble the out of shape looking Rubio, but he was never able to put it on him consistently to hurt him.

Rubio stepped up the pace in the 4th, throwing more hard body punches and some nice right hands to the head that had Akrong backing up. Rubio likely could have finished Akrong in the 4th if he had fought a little harder instead of at a pedestrian pace. But Rubio was more concerned with not tiring out, and looking at the flab his midsection, I can see why.

It looks like Rubio didn’t train hard for this fight and he looked unable to fight hard because of that. In the 5th, Rubio went after Akrong, landing hard body and head shots for much of the round until landing a weak looking left to the midsection that sent Akrong down. I don’t think Akrong was really hurt by the shot, but the referee seemed to halt the fight more because it was becoming so one-sided by that point.

With this win, Rubio remains at the top of the WBC in the rankings and is waiting on WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to finally fight him. Rubio may have to take two or three more stay busy fights like this one before he gets a shot at the WBC champion. However, by the time Rubio does fight the champion, it likely won’t be Chavez Jr. because he’ll have been beaten by someone else.