By Eric Thomas: Unbeaten WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (20-0-1, 17 KO’s) will be making his 3rd defense of his World Boxing Organization bout on May 7th against former IBF light flyweight champion and current #1 WBO contender Jorge Arce (56-6-2, 43 KO’s) on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This fight figures to be a huge mismatch of epic proportions. Arce may have been a good fighter seven years ago, but he has no business fighting a young, talented fighter like Vazquez at super bantamweight.

Arce is going to be in trouble in this fight. I don’t think he’s going to get knocked out because Arce has a way of slowing the action down and doing little tricks to keep from getting stopped, but I see him getting beaten up in this fight and losing a one-sided 12 round decision, if the fight isn’t stopped on cuts that Arce might suffer around the eyes. He has a lot scar tissue around his eyes and with the huge amount of shots that Vazquez is going to be landing in this fight, I don’t suspect that Arce’s skin will stay intact for long.

Vazquez captured the WBO title with a 4th round stoppage of the once hyped Marvin Sonsona last year in February in a one-sided blowout. Vazquez then defended the title against the tough Zsolt Bedak, taking him out in the 10th round in May of last year, and then Vazquez stopped Ivan Hernandez in the 11th round in October 2010.

Compared to his last two title defences, Arce should be a much easier fight for Vazquez. But it’s a fight that will give Vazquez much more recognition among boxing fans because Arce is well known and the fight will get a lot of visibility given that it will be shown on the Pacquiao-Mosley undercard on May 7th.
A victory for Vazquez will open up the possibilities of fights against guys like Nonito Donaire, Fernando Montiel, Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa. I have my doubts that Vazquez can beat any of those guys, but at least he could get a big payday in losing. But as far as Arce goes, this is going to be an easy fight for Vazquez.

Arce fought to a 10 round draw with Lorenzo Parra last year in September. In 2009, Arce was beaten by Vic Darchinyan and Simphiwe Nongqayi.