Erickson Lubin vs. Ivan Montero results

By Boxing News - 07/16/2016 - Comments

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(Photo Credit: Ryan Hafey/Jordan Hardy/Premier Boxing Champions) By Allan Fox: Undefeated #6 WBC junior middleweight contender Erickson Lubin (16-0, 11 KOs) defeated Mexico’s Ivan Montero (20-2, 8 KOs) by an 8 round unanimous decision on Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) On Fox from the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. The final scores were 90-82, 9-82 and 90-82.

The 20-year-old Lubin landed the harder shots throughout the fight. However, the taller Montero was able to use his octopus-type of fighting style to land a lot of shots that kept Lubin from being able to really go after him. Montero showed a great chin in taking the heavy punches that Lubin did land.

In the last 20 seconds of the 7th, Lubin attempted to go for a knockout, but most of his power shots missed the mark. Montero was able to catch Lubin with a nice right hand. It was probably not a good idea for Lubin to waste energy attempting a knockout because wasn’t going to be knocked out tonight.

Montero did a good job of smothering Lubin’s game by staying close to him and not letting him get the kind of leverage that he needed on his shots to hurt him. When Lubin did get his shots off from the outside, he wasn’t able to come up with the kind of power needed for him to hurt Montero.

This has to be the toughest fight of Lubin’s three-year pro career. Montero was able to give the kind of resistance that was missing from Lubin’s previous 15 fights. However, Montero also exposed Lubin by showing that he’s not as fast, powerful or as skilled defensively that he needs to be for him to beat the better fighters in the division like the Charlo brothers, Demetrius Andrade, Erislandy Lara or Liam Smith. Those guys appear to be a cut above Lubin right now. The good news is that Lubin is only 20-years-old, and will likely improve as he gets older.

The 26-year-old Charlo brothers are six years older than him, Andrade is eight years older, the 33-year-old Erislandy Lara 13-years older and the 27-year-old Liam Smith is 7-years older. By the time Lubin gets their age, those fighters will be either over-the-hill, fighting in another division or retired.

Lubin got away with repeated low blows in the 4th round despite the referee having warned him to stop throwing low blows. Lubin had such a big lead in the fight that it wouldn’t have mattered even if he did lose a point or two for hitting low over and over again. It was kind of worrisome that Lubin couldn’t keep his punches up [ because he’s going to need to be able to keep his shots up when he fights the better fighters in the junior middleweight division.
Lubin did show good punching power, but he didn’t have the kind of power that had Montero hurt at any time in the fight. It would have helped if Lubin had mixed his punches up a little more and used his jab. He was focusing too much on throwing to the head and not using his jab enough.

Montero looks like a fighter that could have a good future with the right trainer. If he had the people guiding him that Lubin has had, he could be a very good fighter. He’s got a lot of raw talent that needs developing still.