By Chet Mills: Unbeaten welterweight prospect Mike Jones (13-0, 12 KOs) had to struggle to defeat veteran Germain Sanders (27-6, 17 KOs) by a 8-round unanimous decision on Friday night ESPN fights at the Seneca Allegheny Casino & Hotel, in Salamanca, New York. The final judges’ scores were 78-74, 78-74 and 78-74. I personally had the fight scored a draw. Jones, a knockout puncher and considered one of the top prospects in the welterweight division, seemed out of his element when Sanders didn’t fold in the early rounds of the fight.
Jones had previously been accustomed to most of his bouts ending early, and seemed at a loss when Sanders was still standing after the sixth round. Though he eventually pulled out the decision in the last couple of rounds of the fight, it was a close call, with the bout really more of a draw than an actual clear cut win.
Sanders, who had just turned 38, controlled the first round using his jab and movement to confound the more stationary Jones. Used to having his opponents stand directly in front of him, Jones was ill-equipped with dealing with movement and seemed to freeze whenever Sanders was moving around the ring, which was often in this round. In the second round, Sanders stood more in front of Jones, allowing him to land a number of power shots in the round.
I could see that Jones was used to his fights ending early, in that he would often stand and admire his work after throwing a punch, as if expecting Sanders to topple over. This had an effect of decreasing any chances of follow-up punches from Jones, because he was thinking that he’d end it with one big shot. Sanders, a clever veteran, would open up with jabs each time that Jones would stop punching and tag him with snapping jabs to the head.
In the third round, Jones landed a good chopping right hand. However, Sanders wasn’t the least bit hurt by the power shot and immediately answered back with two big lefts of his own. Jones ended the round on a good note by landing a three-punch combination. In rounds four and five, Sanders continued to give Jones trouble with his jabs and left hooks to the head. Though Jones was still landing the harder shots, he was getting out-punched by a significant margin by Sanders, and he hardly looked like the better fighter despite what the positive press that he’d been getting going into the fight.
By the 5th round, Jones had developed swelling under his right eye, courtesy of the many jabs that Sanders was landing. He was still trying to knock Sanders out with one shot, and missing often as a result of his urgency to impress. In the sixth round, Jones landed a powerful right hand that had the crowd applauding. However, Sanders immediately fired back with a left hook that hurt Jones, driving him to the ropes. Sanders followed with another left hand as the round ended. Lucky for Jones that the round ended just when it did, for he might not have made it out of the round in one piece if it had gone on a little longer.
Sanders continued with his domination of Jones in the 7th round, hitting him with frequent jabs in the face as Jones plodded forward attempting to engage. There were very few connects for Jones in the round, mostly because he wasn’t trying to throw that much, looking as if he was tiring out.
In the 8th round, Jones landed a high number of right hands, taking advantage of Sander’s lack of offense in the round. I can’t figure out why Sanders all of a sudden stopped punching other than to think that he might have assumed that he had the fight in the bag. I had him up by one round going into the 8th, and he needed to end on a positive note to get the decision. However, the judges saw the fight differently, having Jones up by a wide margin. Not sure which fight they were watching because Jones did poorly, and looked nothing like a good prospect from my vantage point.