By Eric Thomas: Making his first appearance as a light middleweight, undefeated contender Joe Greene (20-0, 14 KOs) struggled badly with the hard-punching Jose Miguel Torres (20-4, 18 KOs), defeating him by a harder than expected 12-round unanimous decision to win the vacant NABA light middleweight title on Wednesday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida. The final judges’ scores were 118-107, 118-107 and 119-106. The lopsided scores, however, didn’t give a true indication of how badly Greene looked in the fight, for he fought poorly, pawing with his jab, showing little power, a poor work rate and getting hit with some really big shots from Torres, brother of former WBO light welterweight champion Ricardo Torres.

Green knocked Torres down with a left hand in the 5th round, but it was a case of Torres being off balance rather than him actually being hurt. That didn’t stop Greene, though, from futilely attempting to score a knockout immediately after the knockdown, but it was a hopeless case as it merely gave Torres, a fighter with crude boxing skills but big power like his brother, a chance to land his huge punches.

A short time later, Torres shoved Greene to the canvas and tagged him while he was down with a weak right hand. The referee then stopped the action and deducted two points from Torres for the punch. It seemed a little excessive, in hindsight, because the punch was a weak one, and both fighters were freely fouling one another repeatedly in almost every round of the fight, making the referee’s job a virtual nightmare. Having the much better boxing skills and overall talent, Greene controlled the action in the early going, jabbing frequently with his poor jab and having it blocked most of the time by Torres.

However, Torres did little in the first round and gave the round away by inaction. He did land a couple of big punches, though, and missed a few others, but it was Greene who pushed most of the fight during the opening round. In the second round, Greene did a lot of poising, holding his right hand out way in front of him and looking like he was waiting for someone to snap a picture of him.

The crowd started booing the action, naturally, but it hardly got Greene to do much more than to throw an occasional combination. Torres wasn’t doing much, either, although he could be more excused because of his lesser talent. He did try at least, throwing some huge bombs that mostly missed by a mile. The crowd continued booing until the end of the round.

Greene threw a lot of jabs in the 3rd round, most of the still being blocked by Torres. It was made easier because Greene’s jab lacked any real snap to it, which allowed Torres to pick it off without any trouble. Both fighters went toe-to-toe at the start of the round with the harder punching Torres getting the better of the action. Greene came back late in the round and landed some good shots of his own, but it was Torres who landed the much better shots in the round.

As previously mentioned, Greene knocked Torres down with a left hand early in the 5th round, and then later Torres was penalized two points for hitting Greene after he slipped to the canvas.

Greene dominated rounds six through eight, but looked far from impressive in doing so. Fighting on his back foot at all times, he still was getting hit with some big punches from Torres during these rounds, and letting himself get drawn into a war as he would immediately attempt to get revenge after being hit.

In the 9th round, Greene stunned Torres with a right hand after Torres rushed in and landed a right hand to the midsection of Greene, leaving Torres off balance and vulnerable to a right hand counter shot from Greene. Like earlier, Greene unloaded with a flurry of punches trying to score a knockout, but just like before, Greene was unsuccessful with his effort, missing most of his slow punches. While pressuring Torres up against the ropes, Greene got a thumb in the eye, and immediately backed off and started nursing his hurt eye. After the action resumed, Greene went back to doing a lot of poising and just standing around with his lead right hand held far in front of him. He looked silly, and far from impressive.

In rounds 10 through 12, both fighters traded shots and the action went back and forth for the most part. Greene got the better of it, but only because Torres was almost completely inept except for an occasional big shot. In the end, Greene just had too much skill for the limited Torres to deal with.

I can’t say I was very impressed with Greene. He looked poor, especially in contrast with Joel Julio, a top light middleweight that also fought on the same card. In comparison to Julio, Greene looked much slower and weaker and not nearly as ready for top level opposition. Based on this performance, I wouldn’t advise for Greene to go much further than a fighter of Torres’ caliber because he’s not in the class of the current light middleweight champions nor is he at the level of top contenders Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland.

In other action on the same card, undefeated light welterweight prospect Kenny Galarza (7-0, 7 KOs) stopped Devarise Crayton (5-5, 1 KOs) with a big left hook to the head at the end of the 2nd round. The fight was stopped by referee Telis Assimenios at 2:57 of the 2nd round. Galarza, 22, from Puerto Rico, looked impressive in the fight, throwing very hard shots in the two rounds of the fight. He mixed up his punches well in the first, throwing heavy shots to the head and body and causing Crayton to get on his bicycle to try and prevent getting hit with shots.

Galarza, however, showed himself to be skilled at cutting off the ring on Crayton and deadly accurate with his punches. Crayton moved a lot of the second, firing off shots as he went and not looking bad at all for a fighter with four losses out of nine fights. However, near the end of the round, Crayton attempted to throw a big left hand which left him open for a left hook by Galarza, which knocked Crayton backwards causing him to hop about trying to keep his balance before falling to the canvas. Referee Telis Assimenios quickly moved in and advised for Crayton to stay down as he looked too hurt to get up immediately from the knockdown.