By William MacKay: Former WBC light flyweight champion Jorge Arce (49-4-1, 37 KOs) won a close 12-round majority decision on Saturday night against Devid Lookmahanak (18-2, 9 KOs) to win the WBC super flyweight eliminator at the Plaza Monumental, Aguascalientes, in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Arce, 28, was staggered in the 4th round by a powerful left hand by Lookmahanak. However, Arce, 28, came back and dropped Lookmahanak in the 7th round with a left uppercut.
The knockdown, however, appeared to be aided by the wet canvas, which caused Lookmahanak to slip just as the punch was being thrown. Both fighters had previously been having problems with the canvas, which was covered with water from previous bouts on the card, causing both Arce and Lookmahanak to slip many times in the fight before and after the knockdown. Arce, known for his power and his aggressive style of fighting, appeared oddly subdued against Lookmahanak, but that appeared more out of necessity than by accidental cause, because Lookmahanak was the much harder puncher and would punish Arce when he came in wildly.
Arce was the far busier fighter in most of the rounds, out-landing Lookmahanak by a wide margin. However, Lookmahanak’s shots, though fewer, were considerably harder and appeared to move Arce when he would land, often snapping Arce’s head back. Arce appeared to do enough to win rounds one through three with his superior work in the rounds, jabbing constantly and landing single right and left hands. For some reason, perhaps out of fear, Arce threw few combinations as he picked his shots carefully, throwing them like a surgeon to avoid being countered. He also used much less power than in his previous bouts, looking to just try and make contact with Lookmahanak.
In the 4th round, Lookmahanak stepped up his work rate all of a sudden, and began to tag Arce with some powerful punches. Near the end of the round, Lookmahanak nailed Arce with a big left hand that caused Arce to stagger briefly. Unfortunately for Lookmahanak, the round ended before he could add to the damage. However, he had Arce hurt and if he had a landed a few more shots he would have had an excellent chance at stopping Arce.
Ace fought carefully in the 5th round, avoiding coming too close to the powerful Lookmahanak, who continued to nail him whenever he got within punching distance of him. Lookmahanak tagged Arce with two particularly hard left hooks near the end of the round which got Ace’s attention and caused him to back off even more.
There wasn’t much from Lookmahanak in the 6th round, as he almost completely stopped punching. Arce did little in the round either, other than jabbing and trying to keep his distance. It was a very dull round.
Lookmahanak continued throwing few punches in the 7th, and I was beginning to think that maybe he had punches himself out with his minor exertion in the 4th and 5th. However, just when he started to take the fight to Arce, he was nailed by a left uppercut and dropped. As I mentioned previously, Lookmahanak appeared to slip on the canvas but the referee Vic Drakulich missed the slip and scored it as a knockdown. Lookmahanak got to his feet and promptly went right after Arce, beating him with big shots and landing more often than usual because of Arce’s sudden aggressive style. It didn’t take long for it to register with Arce that Lookmahanak wasn’t hurt but once he did, he went back to his cautious style of fighting.
In rounds eight through twelve, Lookmahanak took the fight to Arce, landing huge shots and backing him up constantly. It was a completely different fight from the first half of the fight, with Lookmahanak clearly winning the last five rounds as Arce looked both tired and scared.
To me, the fight looked to be a draw but I’m comfortable with either fighter winning. The win for Arce, however, may be more of a curse than a blessing, because it means that he’ll have to fight Christian Mijares once again. In their previous fight in April 2007, Arce lost by a 12-round lopsided decision, losing his WBC super flyweight title and losing almost every round in the process. It’s difficult to imagine a different outcome next time out, because Mijares appears to be a class above Arce in terms of skills. I see another one-sided loss for Arce, only this time even worse.