By Manuel Perez: Unbeaten welterweight prospect Rock Allen (13-0, 7 KOs) defeated Gilbert Vera (9-3-1, 4 KOs) by an unimpressive eight-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Quick Trip Ballpark, in Grand Prairie, Texas. The final judges’ scores were 80-72, 80-72 and 79-73. Allen, 27, used a high volume work rate to win most of the rounds, outworking the much taller Vera on the inside with weak shots. Throwing lots of punches in every round, Allen worked hard and filled every second of the fight with action. Vera, 22, perhaps a C-class fighter at best, rarely landed cleanly with his shots, missing often, yet he still fought hard and made the shorter Allen work hard for the victory.
Using short combinations, Allen threw nonstop punches in the 1st round. He looked as if he was trying to score a knockout, but because of his nonexistent power, Vera wasn’t about to fall over on him. Vera did little in the round until the final minute when he landed a few harmless right hands. Of the fighters, Vera was the harder puncher, despite not having nearly the same credentials that Allen had going into the fight. Instead of using his five inch height advantage to fight the much shorter Allen from the outside, Vera chose to stand in close to him and trade shots.
It was a lucky thing for Allen, because with his short arms this fight would have been much harder than it turned out. As it was, Allen labored most of the time against the bigger fighter and looked mediocre most of the time.
Both fighters stood toe-to-toe in the 2nd round, trading shots. Allen already began to look tired, no doubt a product of all the punches he was throwing and coupled with all the mass that he was carrying on his short frame. In his urgency to look impressive and perhaps score a knockout, Allen was getting nailed every once in awhile by the harder punching Vera. Both fighters wrestled a lot in the 3rd round. Allen wasn’t showing that he was much better than Vera as a prospect. In rounds four through eight, both fighters wrestled continuously on the inside, with Allen periodically throwing fast flurries with little power. He showed fast hands, but it was like he was shooting blanks, because the power was totally absent on any of his shots. He tried bouncing on the outside in the 7th, moving around laterally, I suppose, because he was tiring out so badly. Even at that, he looked sluggish and much too heavy for his own good. Vera came on strong in the 8th round, and landed well with uppercuts to take the round. Allen pushed him up against the ropes, keeping him pinned there with his huge upper body, but getting nailed repeatedly by uppercuts from the taller, harder punching Vera.
Allen, a former unsuccessful member of the 2004 Olympic team, 2002 United States Amateur Light Welterweight Champion and National Golden Gloves Light Welterweight Champion, like I said, looked far too short and way over-muscled for the welterweight division. At 5’6″, Allen looked even short for light welterweight standard. His over-muscled physique appeared to serve him no purpose other than slow him down against Vera, as he had very little power to speak of and seemed weaker than many light welterweight that I’ve seen.
By looking at Allen, you’d think that he could punch like a mule kicks, but when he would throw anything, it was as if he was the weakest fighter you’d ever seen fight. Just no power to speak of, and with all the useless muscle he was carrying around, his high volume work rate appeared to tire him out, leaving him open to getting hit by Vera. Personally, I think Allen is fighting two weight classes above where he should be fighting.
At a small 5’6″, I don’t see him going anywhere as a welterweight, nor as light welterweight. He needs to strip off about twenty pounds of useless muscle on his overly inflated upper body and move down to super featherweight where he stands a better chance of beating quality fighters. He doesn’t punch hard enough to be a good welterweight or light welterweight, and with his small size, he’ll get destroyed by the first good welterweight or light welterweight he faces. He may have been a good amateur fighter at one time, but this is the professional level and he won’t impress anyone with those credentials if he can’t deliver in the ring.