By “Big” Nate Anderson: Junior welterweight Jeffrey Resto (21-2, 13 KOs) defeated Humberto Tapia (12-6-1, 6 KOs) by a hard fought eight-round split decision last night at the The Castle, in Boston, Massachusetts. Resto, 30, fought well most of the fight while in the center of the ring, however, he often made the mistake of going to the ropes, allowing the younger, 22 year-old Tapia to punish him with shots and non-stop pressure. The final judges’ scores were 77-75, 75-77 and 77-75.
Resto, from the Bronx, New York, started off well in the first round, hitting Tapia with scorching right hands to the head. However, Tapia landed effectively with his own shots, hitting Resto with some excellent body shots in the round. However, it was Resto who appeared to do the better work, as he landed some spearing jabs and right hands when he had the chunky Tapia in the center of the ring.
In the 2nd round, Resto made the foolish mistake of going to the ropes, putting his back against them, and trying to fight Tapia at close quarters. It was immediately clear that it was a style that better suited the slower, chunkier Tapia, who landed well with Resto trapped on the ropes. Resto, though, seemed to think he was doing well, for he often smiled as he launched wild shots, mostly uppercuts, that badly missed his mark for the most part. He did land a fair share of them, but he was no match for the constant hail of punches being thrown against the plodding Tapia.
Resto once against went to the ropes in the 3rd round, trying to fight Tapia at his own game. Resto appeared to fare slightly better in this round than the last, as he was able to land some big right hands to the side of the head of Tapia, spinning his head around of the impact. However, it was Tapia who constantly landed the better shots, pretty much never letting up for an instant with his big punches.
In the 4th and 5th rounds, Resto finally made some adjustments to his game, staying off the ropes, and keeping the fight in the center of the ring where he was able to dominate Tapia with right hands. It wasn’t even competitive when Resto would stay off the ropes, as he was both quicker and the more fluid fighter than Tapia, and was able to punish him again and again with big right hands. From here, I figured that Resto had Tapia figured out and would win the remaining rounds of the right.
Tapia came back in the 6th round, pressuring Resto back to the ropes, and landing a huge amount of combinations to the head and body of Resto. Tapia’s shots, however, appeared to have less sting on them in the earlier rounds. At the same time, Resto was able to avoid many more of the punches than he had in the earlier rounds of the right when he was getting nailed on the ropes repeatedly. Unfortunately, given that most of the punches were being thrown by Tapia, I had him winning the round, even though he missed a lot of shots in the round.
Perhaps sensing that the fight was getting away from him, Resto took the fight back to the center of the ring for the 7th and 8th rounds. Once again, Resto came on looking like a completely different fighter, hitting Tapia at will with right hands and left hooks to the head. In the 8th round, Resto landed two powerful right hands, one of which appeared to briefly stagger Tapia for a second. However, he continued fighting, but much less effectively due to Resto’s powerful right hands that kept him busy for most of the round. Though Tapia continued trying to land his own shots, he was no match for Resto’s hard shots, and skillful ring movement.