Arce KOs Rojas

By Boxing News - 09/17/2007 - Comments

arce75.jpgFormer light flyweight and flyweight boxing champion Jorge Arce (47-4-1, 36 KOs) , fighting for the first time at bantamweight, looked positively dreadful as he rallied to defeat unheralded Tomas Rojas (26-11 18 KOs) in a sixth round TKO on Sunday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arce, who is coming off a title losing bout to Cristian Mijares on April 14, 2007, fought like he still hadn’t recovered from that bout, as he was utterly dominated by Rojas for five of the six rounds of the fight until he launched a left hook to the body in the sixth round that knocked Rojas down. Arce ended things shortly after Rojas dragged himself off the canvas by greeting him with a nice flurry of punches.

However, the KO didn’t erase the image of how poorly Arce fought against Rojas, because he truly looked as if he didn’t belong in the same ring with the B-level bantamweight fighter. Granted, it’s one thing to say that Arce was making his first appearance as a bantamweight, and perhaps should be given a break; However, it’s not a good indication of how things will be for him in the near future if he can’t beat someone at the level.

The bantamweight division, by the way, is only three pounds more than (118 vs 115 lbs) than the super flyweight class, the division that Arce is moving up from, so excuses such as Arce was at a disadvantage because he was facing a bigger fight don’t make it for me. Just so you know, Arce wins the WBC Latino bantamweight title. It’s a far cry from his title, I know, but I guess at this point, Arce is willing to take anything he can get.

For the first couple of rounds, Rojas was much more active in the ring as he blasted away at Arce with hooks, mostly, keeping him constantly on the defensive much in the same way that Arce’s last opponent Mijares had done against him. When Arce would land something – very rarely – Rojas would answer back with a mess of punches, jolting his head back. Arce’s nose was badly swollen and bleeding early in the bout, and it had to have contributed to his breathing problems because he fought with his mouth open at times and looked tired. None of the first couple of rounds were close, as Rojas easily won them because of his constant workrate.

In rounds three to five, Arce attempted to make the fight closer by taking the fight to Rojas. It didn’t work, however, because Rojas would let his hands go, overwhelming the smaller Arce with punches and knocking him backwards. It wasn’t just that Arce was too small, he was also slower than Rojas and less active, like older person. Rojas is only 27, a year younger than Arce, but he might as well have been 10 years younger because Arce fought iike an old man. Okay, so Arce lost those rounds as bad as he lost the first round, except that he was now paying more and more of a price because his face was red from the beating he’d received from Rojas.

In the sixth round, Rojas continued beating the stuffing out of Arce and making him looking like a sparring partner for most of the round. Unfortunately for Rojas, he let his concentration slip for a second, allowing Arce to slink up to him and land a left hook to his midsection, hurting him badly and sending him to the canvas. Rojas got up, but probably wished he’d stayed down, for Arce three several shots which led to the referee moving in and stopping the bout to prevent any more serious harm coming to Rojas.