By Aaron Klein: Making his first appearance in the United States, undefeated Colombian lightweight knockout artist Breidis Prescott (19-0, 17 KOs) defeated former Cuban amateur star Richard Abril (10-1-1, 5 KOs) by a 10-round split decision on Friday night at the War Memorial Auditorium, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The final judges’ scores were 95-94, 97-92 for Prescott and 94-95 for Abril. I have no problems with the score whatsoever, because it looked as if Prescott, 25, narrowly pulled out the decision by at least a round. Despite his impressive knockout record, Prescott was unable to drop Abril, having to chase him for most of the fight as Abril seemed more content with trying to stay alive in the later rounds of the fight.
The first two rounds were fairly close, as both fighters landed almost equally. What wasn’t equal, however, was the power that they were putting on their shots, because Prescott was loading up constantly with shots to the body and head, winging big body shots and trying to take Abril out with every shot. Abril, not wanting to stand and trade with Prescott, stayed constantly on the move, flicking a jab in the face of Prescott and giving him problems with the movement.
For the most part, Prescott looked like a relative novice in trying to cut off the ring, seeming in part to be seeing a fighter with good boxing skills like Abril for the first time in his career. One look at Prescott’s boxing record tells the whole story, however, for in almost every case, the fighters have losing records which would account for why Prescott has had it so easy with scoring knockouts. Abril, however, wasn’t a one of those type fighters, having fought over a 100 bouts as an amateur in Cuban and he was much like a seasoned professional, albeit a tall slender one with little power.
Abril finally started fighting effectively in the 3rd and 4th rounds, tagging the slower Prescott with powerful right hands to the head, and jabs to the body. Prescott looked a step slow in seeing the punches, and never came close to blocking any of them. It was worrisome, because he was getting hit cleanly by them, and if Abril had a little more power on his shots, he might have been able to take Prescott out with something. Like his fellow countryman Edison Miranda, Prescott had poor defense and good power, and also a record full of relative stiffs.
Prescott pressured Abril constantly in rounds five through seven, tagging him with big shots and keeping him backing up almost continuously. Abril’s punch output dropped off considerably during this time, as he thought more of survival than on throwing any of his own shots. It’s unfortunate for him, because he essentially gave these rounds away and put himself into a position where he had to win the last three rounds of the fight or else risk losing to Prescott.
Abril did little in the next round, appearing to be on his way to losing it when Prescott landed a left hook low. The referee immediately stopped the action and deducted a point from Prescott, who would have won the round easily if not for that. As it was, the deduction made the round and even one.
Abril came back in the 9th and 10th rounds, moving well and tagging the slow-footed Prescott from the outside. Abril made it look so easy when he wanted to, it made me wonder why he had let up and given away the middle rounds of the fight, because he was simply a much better skilled fighter with far superior boxing skills than Prescott, who looked almost amateurish in comparison, when he wanted to.
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