By Chris Thomas: In an uneven performance, undefeated light welterweight prospect Mike Alvarado (20-0, 13 KOs) defeated Jesus Rodriguez (17-3, 5 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Cicero Stadium, in Cicero, Illinois. Alvarado, 27, considered to be one of the better up and coming prospects in the light welterweight division, struggled early on against Rodriguez, but then took control of the fight in the fourth round to dominate the rest of the fight. Both fighters, however, appeared badly fatigued by the 6th round, causing the fans to boo almost continuously for the remaining four rounds. The final judges’ scores were 100-90, 98-92 and 97-93, for Alvarado.
In the first two rounds, the shorter 5’7″ Rodriguez was able to land a high percentage of right hands, and combinations. Alvarado mostly focused on landing jabs and stalking Rodriguez. When he would attempt to land, Alvarado’s right hand often missed wildly. Though he was only two inches taller than Rodriguez, the 5’9″ Alvarado looked much bigger in size, looking to outweigh the smaller Rodriguez by at least 10 lbs. However, the size advantage didn’t equate to power for Alvarado, as Rodriguez appeared to be the better puncher of the two. Due to his busy style, Rodriguez looked to have won both rounds.
In the third and fourth rounds, Rodriguez’s punch output dropped to almost zero, which let Alvarado take over the fight almost by default. Alvarado began to land 1-2 shots to the head, although he looked really mechanical in doing so. Wasn’t fighting with any real athleticism compared to Rodriguez. Unfortunately for Rodriguez, he looked dead tired and wasn’t in the position to take advantage of Alvarado’s lack of skills – or power.
Alvarado landed well with double left hooks and right hands in rounds five and six. By this time, Rodriguez was only rarely throwing a token shot, mostly in the first part of the rounds. For his part, Alvarado looked to be gassed himself by the sixth, and spent a lot of time clinching Rodriguez. The crowd, of course, hated it and booed the action. Nothing changed, though, as both fighters seemed beyond caring about what the crowd felt about the sloppy fight.
In founds seven through ten, the fight continued to be marred by lack of action on both fighters part, though Alvarado was at least trying to throw back. Alvarado appeared to get a little strength back in the 9th, landing a couple of good right hands. The effort at throwing the punches seemed to take what little energy that he had left in the tank, because he fought only sparingly for the remainder of the round. Rodriguez took advantage of this by finally opening up with a few shots of his own. Mostly dull action, however. Both fighters traded shots in the 10th round, and it hard to say who won that round. Alvarado continued with his jabbing, but Rodriguez hit him with a couple of good right hands to the head. I called it an even round.
Not a particularly impressive performance by Alvarado, and it left me thinking that he’d have little chance against the top fighters in the light welterweight division. Still, Alvarado looked good as a potential gatekeeper type fighter, but nothing much beyond that.