Paredes Crushes Vega

By Boxing News - 01/20/2008 - Comments

Hard-hitting welterweight prospect Ed Paredes (18-2, 11 KOs) destroyed a badly overmatched but game Cesar Vega in the 5th round of a scheduled six-round bout on Friday night at the Mallory Square, in Key West, Florida. Paredes, 22, an exciting fighter regularly shown on ESPN, cornered Vega, 30, against the ropes in the fifth round and blasted him out with a flurry of punches, ending with a big right hand that snapped Vega’s head back, prompting the referee to move in and put a stop to the bout at 2:50 of the 5th round.

Up until then, the fight had been interesting to watch as the light-punching southpaw Vega showed a lot of heart by continouly coming at Peredes, throwing a massive amount of shots, most of them without any power. The punches had little effect on the stiff and robotic-looking Paredes, who walked threw them, periodically unloading with huge powerful right hands.

Peredes showed world class power, but also displayed why he’s been beaten twice, as he has a poor defense and was wide open for almost every shot that Vega threw. Unfortunately for Vega, he didn’t have enough power to worry Paredes, and found himself at a big disadvantage.

In rounds one through three, Vega was all over Paredes, wind-milling constant punches and hitting him often. In the first round alone, Vega threw over 90+, and it continued to be high in rounds two and three. Paredes did the best he could to cover up and block some of the shots, but due to the sheer volume of punches, it was almost an impossible task to accomplish. When Vega would take a second to stop punching, Paredes would land a scorching right hand that would land flush to Vega’s head, knocking him off balance.

In round four, Vega began showing signs of wearing down under the tremendous punishment he was enduring at the hands of Paredes. Vega continued coming forward and pressing Paredes, but the shots he was getting hit by was taking a lot of energy out of him. Vega seemed to be fighting on heart alone, for he was getting tagged by some monstrous right hands, the type of punches that would have knocked out a fighter with lesser heart and chin. It was getting ugly though, and by the end of the round, it seemed like Vega wouldn’t be able to take much more punishment without either getting knocked out or the fight stopped by the referee.

In the fifth round, Paredes greeted Vega with a huge right hand in the opening seconds of the round. Vega took it, but it almost decapitated him. Paredes followed up with a series of jabs, looking to set up his big right hand. He finally opened up with several big rights that drove Vega to the ropes. Once he had him on the ropes, Paredes worked him over with some brutal 1-2 combinations, hurting Vega and sending him sliding along the ropes towards his corner. Paredes calmly followed after him and fired off 10 consecutive power shots, ending with a big right hand that snapped Vega’s head back, and causing the referee to put a stop to the bout.

Though Paredes isn’t ranked in the top 10 in the welterweight division, his power is top notch, perhaps approaching the power of Kermit Cintron. However, as I mentioned previously, Paredes needs to work on defense, and become a little less rigid. Just a little too robotic for his own good if he wants to become a future champion.



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