By Chet Mills: Light middleweight Richard Gutierrez (24-2-1, 14 KOs) fought to an eight-round majority draw the Jerome Ellis (11-8-2, 10 KOs) on Friday night at the Buffalo Bill’s Star Arena, in Primm, Nevada. The bout was another bit of disappointing news for Gutierrez, 30, a one-time top 10 ranked fighter in the welterweight division. He was coming off a 5th round TKO loss to hot light welterweight prospect Alfredo Angulo in May, and was doing himself no favors by fighting so soon and in only an eight-round bout, which would greatly benefit Ellis more than him. I personally had Gutierrez winning easily, seven rounds to one due to the much bigger shots he was landing in every round of the fight, even if he was hit slightly more often by the light-hitting Ellis.
Gutierrez fought well in the 1st round, throwing good combinations to the head and body of Ellis. Although he didn’t have nearly the same blazing hand speed as Ellis, his punches landed with much more force. Ellis, 29, who had previously lost his last four fights coming into Friday’s bout with Gutierrez, fought reasonably well when he was in the center of the ring, which allowed him to take advantage of his faster hands and better movement. However, he often would do something dumb like move to the ropes and cover up, allowing Gutierrez to land big shots to his midsection and around the sides of his guard to score points. I could see then why he Ellis had lost his last fights, and probably should have lost this one as well.
In the 2nd round, Gutierrez landed some blistering left and right hands to the head and body of Ellis throughout the round. It was some extraordinary punching by Gutierrez, who looked then as good as he had earlier in his career before he had been beaten by Joshua Clottey in July 2006, before he began showing signs of fading late in some of his recent bouts. Ellis, however, was able to land fast flurries, not thrown very hard, but the type that sometimes impress judges due to quickness of the shots. The round wasn’t close, however, because Gutierrez landing a high number of punishing shots during the round.
Gutierrez was briefly hurt by a powerful left hook from Ellis at the start of the 3rd round, but he quickly shook off the effects of the punch, and continued battering Ellis unceasingly during the round with devastating combinations to the head and body.
In the 4th round, Ellis started off well by landing some fast hooks to the head, but then messed things up for himself by retreating to the ropes and covering up for extended periods of time. This allowed the slower Gutierrez to tee-off on him with shots around his guard to the side of his head. The last minute of the round was all Gutierrez as he pounded Ellis without stop. So far up to this point, I had come close to giving Ellis none of the rounds, which makes the scoring of two the judges seem somewhat confusing to me. Ellis looked awful, to be honest, and I couldn’t see him winning any rounds unless perhaps you one were focusing entirely on him and not looking at what he was getting hit with, which a lot of big shots.
In rounds five though eight, Gutierrez continued to apply pressure and hit Ellis with tremendous shots. Ellis took some big shots in the 5th, knocking him into the ropes like a rubber ball. He then tried bouncing on his toes and moving around the ring like Muhammed Ali. Gutierrez, however, immediately got on his toes in a mocking manner, and resumed tagging Ellis with good combinations. In the 7th round, Ellis finally appeared to do enough to win a round, as he hit Gutierrez with a lot of right hands in the start of the round and then held off a late round surge from Gutierrez by staying on the constant move.
If Ellis had stopped for any length of time, he’d have lost this round, too, because he couldn’t stand in front of Gutierrez and trade with him effectively because of his lack of power. Ellis got tagged with some big shots in the 8th round, as he made the mistake of trying to slug with Gutierrez for a brief period of time. All in all, it was a terrible decision by the judges. Gutierrez wasn’t all that great, don’t get me wrong, but he was much better than Ellis, and good enough to beat him by a sizable margin.