By Aaron Klein: Showing as much promise as he did flaws, once-beaten lightweight prospect Vicente Escobedo (18-1, 11 KOs) defeated 10-year veteran Cristian Favela (15-16-4, 9 KOs) by an eight-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Arco Arena, in Sacramento, California. The final judges’ scores were 78-74, 80-72 and 80-72. Escobedo, a former amateur boxer on the 2004 United States Olympic Team, used his superior hand speed, work rate and movement to control much of the fight without too much trouble. However, Escobedo’s defense left a lot to be desired as he was periodically tagged with some really big shots from Favela.
Favela, 28, a fighter that had been in previous bouts against a lot of top lightweights such as David Diaz, Czar Amonsot, Efren Hinojosa, Steven Luevano and Ramon Martinez, to name just a few, did very little in the opening round except for follow Escobedo around the ring and absorb shots from him. For his part, Esobedo, who is signed on with Golden Boy Promotions, fought very similar to Oscar De La Hoya, only that his power and speed was much less than a young De La Hoya previously possessed. Escobedo took turns coming forward jabbing and moving away from Favela and jabbing while moving backwards.
Occasionally, Escobedo would eat a huge right or left from Favela, who would catch Escobedo between punches of his own. It seemed as if Escobedo was too focused with landing his own shots, so much so that he often left his guard down and was tagged with big punches. Luckily for Escobedo he was fighting a much lesser fighter, because if Favela was any better than he was, I could see Escobedo getting knocked out with a few round.
In the 3rd and 4th rounds, Favela continued to plod after Escobedo, sometimes hitting him with slow shots but more often than not, missing badly and hitting only air. Escobedo continued pouring in massive amounts of jabs and combinations to the head and body of Favela. Escobedo showed little in the way of power, however, which is something, along with his poor defense that will likely haunt him when/if he moves up against B-level fighters in the future.
In the 4th round, Favela caught Esobedo with a huge right hand just as he was attempting to throw a punch of his own, which snapped Escobedo’s head back badly and staggered him. When Favela attempted to add to it, he missed badly with a big right hook and fell to the canvas. By the time he got up off the canvas and had his gloves wiped off, this allowed Escobedo all the time he needed to recover from the huge shot. From that point on, Escobedo began playing it safe, using mostly his jab to keep at a safe distance and pile on points to defeat Favela.
In rounds five through eight, that’s just what Escobedo did, jabbing frequently and keeping constantly on the move to prevent the heavy-handed Favela from landing another big shot. In the 8th round, with around 30 seconds to go in the round, Favela unloaded with a brief flurry of big shots, some of which caught Escobedo in the head but most of them missed as Escobedo slid away to safety on the outside.
It was a decent fight for Escobedo who showed some fair skills. However, due to his lack of power and defense, I can’t see him more than a top 20 fighter in the future. He might break the top 15, but that would be more of meaningless gesture as far as I’m concerned, because as soon as he fights one of the top fighters in the division, they’ll most likely beat him badly. I do think he might make a good B-level fighter some day, but not yet. He needs to learn a lot more about protecting himself and also needs to figure out some way to develop a little more power on his weak punches.
In other action, featherweight Gregorio Torres (5-1-1, 4 KOs) fought to a 4-round majority draw with Christopher Martin (10-2-1, KOs). The final judges’ scores were 37-39 for Martin, 38-38 and 38-38. The scoring seemed way off as Torres, 25, appeared to easily win the fight from what I saw of the action. Torres was both the taller and busier fighter, and he constantly landed jabs to the head of Martin in all four rounds of the fight. Torres would occasionally land a combination, but it was clear that he almost no power to speak of.
For that matter neither did Martin, who when he would land a punch – on rare occasions – it would be soft right or left hand that would do little. He came close to winning none of the rounds, as far as I could tell. I’m being kind here, but he looked positively awful for virtually all the fight. Not sure why, but he rarely let his hands go much and seemed content to land one shot for ever ten or so of Torres. He looked good, though, when he wasn’t doing anything. I mean, he looked like a fighter, but as far as landing punches and all that, he was not good.
In the 4th round, Martin finally let his hands go a little and landed a handful of shots, but certainly not nearly enough to win the round. Like in the other rounds, Torres out-landed him by a wide amount. I thought Torres looked pretty good, showing good boxing ability and with decent speed and movement. His lack of power, however, will be a problem for him in the future once he starts moving up the ranks.