By Aaron Klein: Hard-hitting undefeated bantamweight prospect Alex Mercado (5-0, 4 kOs) continued his unbeaten streak with a 4-round unanimous over the tough but game Joseph Rios (3-2, 1 KOs) last night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Rios, 26, was down late in the 2nd round after walking into a short right hand from Mercado. Luckily for Rios, the knockdown occurred late in the round, enabling him to escape without being knocked down again, though he did take a several more big shots from Mercado before the round ended. The final judges’ scores were 40-36, 39-36 and 39-36, for Mercado.
Mercado, 25, considered one of the best young prospects in the bantamweight division, came out slugging in the 1st round, hitting Rios with doubt hooks to the body and head. Mercado seemed to throw everything with knockout intentions, forgoing completely throwing jabs as he went all out in the first round, loading up with his shots.
At 5’7″, Mercado had a three inch height advantage over the shorter 5’4″ Rios, who looked like he was in a entirely different weight class due to the size disparity. Rios, however, didn’t back down an inch, firing back with single shots to the head and body during the round. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have a target, for Mercado showed little in the way of defense as he stood perfectly straight up with his guard low and mostly thinking offense only. Rios’s bravery, though, got him in trouble late in the round when Mercado charged after him and hit him with a right hand followed by a left that staggered Rios at the bell.
Mercado attempted to continue where he left off at the start of the 2nd round, as he immediately jumped all over Rios, hitting him with tremendous shots tot he head and midsection. There was no letting off the power in his shots, as Mercado continued hitting Rios with the same amount of intensity for the entire round.
This paid off as the round was nearing the close, when Mercado caught Rios with a right hand to the head just after Rios had thrown one of his own shots, resulting in Rios being knocked to the canvas. After getting up. Rios was greeted with several big right hands from Mercado, who badly wanted to end the fight. However, most of Mercado’s shots were wild as he was a little too eager to score the knockout and wasn’t composed enough to accurately aim his shots.
In the third round, Mercado totally dominated the round as Rios mostly stayed away on the outside trying to clear his head and prevent getting knocked down again. Mercado missed a lot of shots in the round in trying to produce another knockdown, though he did land a number of hard body shots. By the end of the round, Rios nose was bleeding badly and he had a cut on the side of his left eye.
Trailing badly in the fight, Rios came out looking like a different fighter in the fourth and final round, as he uncharacteristically attacked Mercado with vengeance, hitting him excellent hooks to the head and body. Mercado looked shocked, as if he wasn’t ready for such an attack on Rios’ part, and didn’t seem to respond well to the fight suddenly changing on him. He did land several good shots, but mostly he was getting hit a lot and looking confused.
In the end, Mercado got the decision for his superior work in the first three rounds of the fight. However, he has a lot of work ahead of him if he plans on ever being a serious contender, for he doesn’t seem to ever throw a jab, something that he will need to be able to do against the better fighters in the bantamweight division. He will also need to stand less straight up, and start working his nonexistent defense, because he can be hit much to easy for a serious contender.