Bey Decisions Acevedo

By Boxing News - 02/04/2008 - Comments

By Manuel Perez: Undefeated lightweight prospect Mickey Bey (10-0, 6 KOs) won an unimpressive 8-round unanimous decision over Roberto Acevedo (5-4-3, 1 KOs) on Friday night at the Grand Casino, in Hinckley, Minnesota. The final judges’ scores were 80-72, 79-73 and 77-76, all for Bey. I personally scored the fight 77-76. Bey, 24, a former member of the American 2004 Olympic boxing team, had a tremendous difficulties trying to land his punches against Acevedo, 21. It wasn’t as if Bey wasn’t trying, though, but more of a case of Acevedo having too many defensive skills for Bey to land his shots effectively. The fight started off looking as if it would be a blowout for Bey, when he landed a big left hook in the first round that briefly staggered Acevedo.

However, Acevedo, a five-time amateur champion from Peurto Rico, recovered from the shot. From then on, it Bey trying to land punches and having very little luck, with Acevedo dodging, ducking and showing a wide variety of angles. By looking at Acevedo, who is built kind of stocky, he doesn’t look like a fighter that would be hard to hit. However, his defensive skills were superb, some of the best I’ve seen in quite some time. The problem is, however, that Acevedo had next to no offensive ability, or at least he chose to show none against Bey. When he did choose to punch, though, Acevedo was accurate with his punches and was able to land well, although probably because Bey isn’t particularly hard to hit.

In the second round, Acevedo, a southpaw, opened with a number of hard body shots, hitting Bey from long range. The shots seemed to bother Bey, as he looked like he wasn’t used to being hit by his opponents in general. This it seems is a product of Bey’s almost entirely soft opposition that he’s faced since turning professional in 2005. Though, in fairness to Bey, you wouldn’t expect for him to have to face a tough fighter at this stage in his career.

In the third round, Bey controlled the action, landing right hands to the head of Acevedo. He was much more accurate this round than in the two previous ones with his punches. Again, Acevedo, like in the first round, did little punching, focusing more on his defensive skills.

In rounds fourth and fifth, there was little action in the fight, mainly because Acevedo was showing little interesting in punching back at Bey. At the same time, Bey was finding it hard to land due to Acevedo backing away, dodging and ducking his shots. There was a lot of misses by Bey in these two rounds, and by the end of the fifth, the crowd was beginning to show their displeasure by booking both fighters.

Acevedo came back strong in round six, hitting Bey with clean shots to the head and body, while making him miss his own punches. It was a brief glimpse of how good the 21 year-old Acevedo could be if he chose to let his hands go.

In the 7th round, there was little action once again by both fighters, as Acevedo went back to not punching again. Bey continued to stalk him, missing mostly with his shots. It looked bad, like an amateur fighter. The crowd naturally hated it and booed like mad.

In the 8th round, Acevedo turned up the gas finally, throwing caution to the wind as he landed a number of good combinations to the head and body of Bey. Though Bey tried to trade shots with him, Acevedo appeared to easily take the round. During the round, Bey was cut under his right eye.

Overall, despite losing the fight, I got the general impression that Acevedo was the bette prospect of the two fighters. If only he would work on his offensive skills, he might end up being a good fighter, perhaps even a champion. As for Bey, he looked awful. I can’t see him winning a championship ever. He might end up being a good B class fighter, but certainly not a champion.