By Dan Ambrose: Once beaten light welterweight prospect Jesus Pabon (12-1, 8 KOs) won an easy 8-round unanimous decision over Daniel Garcia (9-7-1, 7 KOs) on Friday night at the Paragon Casino & Resort, in Marksville, Louisiana. The fight had mismatch written all over it from the get go, as Pabon, 27, overwhelmed the limited Garcia, 29, with punches in every round of the fight while boring many of the fans. Aside from point deductions against Pabon for low blows in the 7th and 8th rounds, Garcia wasn’t close to winning any rounds. The final judges’ scores were 78-72, 78-72 and 78-72, for Pabon.
In August 2007, Pabon was blasted out in two rounds by lightweight Luis Hernandez. Since then, it appears that Pabon is being matched carefully to avoid a similar circumstance from happening any time soon. This would explain why he was put in against Garcia, who really didn’t belong in the same ring with a fighter of Pabon’s class. Of course, that’s not saying that Pabon is any kind of future or anything close to it. Rather, it means that Garcia, a C-class a fighter at best, wasn’t even close to the advanced level of Pabon is, and the outcome could have likely been guessed at before both of them entered the ring.
Playing it conservatively, Pabon, a southpaw, mostly jabbed in the first round. This was a complete opposite of how he had fought in his battle against Hernandez, a fight in which he attacked Hernandez immediately. Obviously, Pabon’s handlers want to slow him down, and make him more cautious so that he doesn’t get knocked out again while trying to slug it out early. FOr his part, Garcia only attempted to throw several punches in the round. He mostly seemed afraid, not sure when to pull the trigger.
Pabon began opening up with combinations in the 3rd round, perhaps after seeing that Garcia wasn’t about to start throwing anything back at him. At the bell to end the round, Pabon threw a hard left hand to the bead of Garcia. Garcia didn’t like it, but he wasn’t about to do anything about it in the following rounds.
In rounds four through six, Pabon began more active, throwing straight left hand leads and pounding Garcia with combinations, mostly to the head. Not much of a puncher, Pabon’s shots had little effect on Garcia, who took them standing perfectly still like a statue, and not retaliating in the slightest. Incredibly boring to watch, and also frustrating, for I began to feel sorry for Garcia after while. When he did decide to throw a right hand, he would land well, but then he wouldn’t throw another puncher for ages. Pabon was warned for a low blow in the sixth round.
In the seventh and eighth rounds, Pabon continued firing away at Garcia with shots, hitting him pretty much at will. In both rounds, however, Pabon threw punches that strayed low, prompting for the referee to penalize him. It didn’t change the over all result, because Garcia still did nothing to take advantage of it and try to win the round. In the end, Pabon was just too good for Garcia to deal with. Hopefully, Pabon decides to begin fighting better fighters, at least a little better, in the near future. I don’t see this win as helping him improve as a fighter.