Chavez Jr. decisions Reyes; Imam destroys Angulo; Arroyo beats Villanueva

By Boxing News - 07/18/2015 - Comments

Amir Imam vs Fernando Angulo

By Jim Dower: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (49-2-1, 32 KOs) defeated Marcos Reyes (33-3, 24 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas. The final judges’ scores were 97-92, 98-91 and 96-93.

Chavez Jr. showed no improvement from his last fight against Andrzej Fonfara. He looked like a light heavyweight in size. Showtime said that Chavez Jr. opted not to be weighed in before the fight. But he clearly looked to be over 175lbs, possibly in the mid-180s.

Reyes was penalized for an accidental head-butt in the 9th round despite not being warned by the referee ahead of time. It looked an accidental head-butt, and it’s hard to understand why the referee took a point off.

“I thought I won the fight. I was fighting a light heavyweight,” Reyes said after the fight.

Chavez Jr. gassed out in the last three rounds of the fight from the 8th to the 10th. However, the point deduction that was taken from Reyes in the 9th for the head clash obviously helped Chavez Jr.

Chavez Jr. said “All respect to Marcos Reyes, but I would have knocked him out if I didn’t hurt my left hand.”

Reyes landed 169 of 690 punches with a connect percentage of 24, according to Showtime’s punch stats. Chavez Jr. landed 149 of 344 punches for a connect percentage of 44 percent.

With the way Chavez Jr. looked tonight, I don’t think he’s going to do well at all in the super middleweight division. He’s too slow for the division, and he won’t have the huge size and weight advantage that he had tonight against guys in this weight class.

It’s not known why Chavez Jr. decided to fight a middleweight tonight instead of a super middleweight. He missed weight by coming in at 170, and he looked to be close to 190 when he stepped inside the ring tonight.

***

In a controversial decision, unbeaten McJoe Arroyo (17-0, 8 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Arthur Villanueva (27-1, 14 KOs) by a 10 round technical decision to win the vacant IBF World super flyweight title.

The scores were very wide considering how close the fight was. The judges scored it 97-92, 98-91, and 98-91. I scored it for Villanueva, who was the more active guy and the fighter that landed more.

The referee took a point off from Villanueva in the 6th round for an accidental head clash. It looked like a really bad call by the referee Rafael Ramos, but then again the scoring for the fight was really poor as well. The boxing fans booed the decision for a long time afterwards. The fans appeared to see it as a robbery.

Villanueva was cut over his right eye in the 6th round from a clash of heads.
Villanueva landed more shots and was the much busier fighter of the two. Arroyo was clinching constantly each time Villanueva.

***

#3 WBA, #3 WBC light welterweight contender Amir Imam (18-0, 15 KOs) destroyed 34-year-old journeyman Fernando Angulo (29-10, 16 KOs) in the 4th round.

Imam nailed Angulo with a chopping right hand that knocked him down flat on his face on the canvas. The referee then halted the fight at 0:56 of the round after Angulo failed to get back to his feet.

Imam mostly jabbed and pot shotted in the fight in the first three rounds. In the 4th round, the shorter Angulo attempted to land a shot but came up short. Imam then nailed him with a nice right hand to the head that immediately flattened him.

After the fight, Imam’s promoter Don King said “We’re ready for Mayweather. Mayweather, I’m coming to see you.”

Imam said that he’ll be looking to fight the winner of the Lucas Matthysse vs. Viktor Postol fight for the WBC light welterweight title that was recently stripped from Danny Garcia.

YouTube video

Other boxing action:

Miguel Flores UD 8 Juan Ruiz
Min Wook Kim TKO 1 Luis Pelayo



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