By Scott Gilfoid: Super featherweight contender Monty Meza Clay (28-1, 19 KOs) stopped Fernando Omar Lizarraga (16-5-1, 12 KOs) in the 1st round on Friday night in a scheduled 10-round bout at the Expo Mart, in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. Meza Clay, 27, started slowly in the first round, throwing few punches and circling around the ring with a big smile on his face. After taking a handful of shots from Lizzarraga, Clay moved inside and landed a single left hand body shot, which dropped Lizarraga to the canvas. He stayed down for awhile, then got up and appeared to beat the count, but referee Rick Steigerwald waived off the fight at 1:31 of the 1st round.
This understandably upset Lizarraga a great deal, who protested to the referee that he had made it up before the count. The crowd seemed to feel that way as well, as they booed loudly the stoppage for a long time after. Even Meza Clay, didn’t appear happy that the fight was stopped so soon, looking a little embarrassed and disappointed, probably because he hadn’t been able to show more of his excellent skills against Lizarraga.
Before the knockdown, it was Lizarraga who looked briefly like the better fighter as he landed some nice right hands and left hooks to the body of Meza Clay. Instead of fighting back, Clay circled, looking for an opening it seemed. Finally, he began to land some short right hands, but not really putting a lot of power on the shots. Lizarraga seemed to get a little overconfident at this stage, as he waded in and landed a combination to the head. Then, while attempting to throw a right hand, Lizarraga was nailed with a beautiful left hook to the midsection by Meza Clay, sending Lizarraga down in agony.
It was a miracle that he made it up, because he looked badly hurt as he got to his feet at the count of 9. The referee, perhaps not liking what he saw, decided that he hadn’t beat the count and promptly stopped the fight. Lizarraga was better off having the fight stopped at this stage, because I seriously doubt he would have made it out of the round. Clay was just too good, too powerful and too quick for the likes of Lizarraga.
Since moving down from the lightweight to the super featherweight division, Meza Clay, a short 5’2″ fighter, has looked 100% better than before. He’s no longer badly out-sized in this division like he was in the higher weight class, where he looked significantly smaller than the vast majority of his opponents. In his fight with Edner Cherry, in May 2006, Clay’s lack of size was never more apparent in his 11th round TKO loss. Thankfully for Clay, he wised up and moved down and didn’t waste time trying to compete against the much larger lightweights. He would do well, however, if he trimmed off a little more weight and moved down to the featherweight division where he’d have an even better chance at winning a title. At 5’2″, he might even be too short even for the super featherweights.