By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated Colombian bantamweight prospect Yonnhy Perez (18-0, 13 KOs) was too much for his replacement opponent David Martinez (8-5-1, 3 KOs), stopping him in the 6th round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Friday night at the Buffalo Bill’s Star Arena, in Primm, Nevada. Perez, 29, an amateur standout from Colombia with 230 amateur wins, had far too much fire power for the weaker, but game, Martinez. Perez, the much stronger puncher, savagely beat Martinez in every round until the fight was mercifully stopped by referee Joe Cortez at 2:41 of the 6th round after Perez landed a three punch combination to the head of Martinez, who didn’t even try to block the powerful shots.
Referee Cortez had warned Martinez at the end of the 4th round, telling that he needed to start punching back otherwise the fight would be stopped. In something I’ve rarely seen happen before, Martinez apologized to Cortez. This seemed to pacify him for awhile allowing the fight to continue until the 6th, when it became painfully obvious that the fight needed to be stopped because Martinez was taking a terrible beating by Perez.
Indeed, the fight should have been stopped in the 5th round, even though Martinez responded well to Cortez’s warning and fought his heart out. However, Martinez only succeeded in taking even more punishment that he had in the earlier rounds, because he constantly pressed forward in the 5th, walking into a great many big shots thrown by Perez. Martinez tried, though, landing decent number of shots, but he had no real power to speak of, and it had almost zero effect on Perez. In the meantime, Martinez’s face was red, swollen and looked as if he had taken far too many head shots from the hard-hitting Perez.
Going into this fight, Martinez has lost four out of his last nine bouts, which kind of gave an indication of how the fight would turn out. His boxing skills were good, but his power and hand speed were sadly missing, which is what he needed to be competitive against a fighter with as much power and amateur experience as Perez.
Martinez fought well in the first round, moving side to side, staying at a distance and hitting Perez with a great many jabs. He did well enough job to win the round, as he kept Perez from landing his big shots. Things changed in the second round, as Perez began to tee-off with big left-right combinations over and over again. Martinez made his job easier by coming at Perez, the more powerful puncher. It seemed like a bad strategy given the huge power advantage that Perez had going for him. However, it seemed as if Martinez was trying to tire Perez out by making him work hard. If this was indeed the case, it was a risky move because it meant that Martinez’s head would be used as Perez’s punching bag until he, hopefully, tired out.
In rounds three and four, Martinez’s punch output dropped off badly, and he did little in the rounds other than absorb tremendous punishment. His face and the right side of his eye began to swell from the constant flow of incoming shots at him, and it was apparent that unless he did something to break out of his downward trend, he was going to be stopped. Perez was not only lighting him up with powerful jabs in both of these rounds, which snapped Martinez’s head back repeatedly, he was also getting hit with powerful right hands to the head and body.
The 4th round was especially one-sided, with Perez beating a tired and hurt-looking Martinez like he was a large drum. After the round, as I mentioned, referee Joe Cortez gave Martinez a stern warning that he needed to start fighting back. In the 5th round, Martinez came right at Perez , as if wanting to follow Cortez’s instructions to the letter. It was a futile move on Martinez’s part, because he merely began to take even more punishment than he did before.
By the end of the round, Martinez looked badly beaten, his face red as if he had been stomped on repeatedly by Perez. Martinez did land well in the round, but it came at a huge price, because he took many more head shots than he did in the previous rounds. In the 6th round, Perez opened up with huge shots in the first minute of the round, at one point staggering a beaten looking Martinez along the ropes. The crowd began to make noise, as if they could tell that the fight was about to be stopped.
A short time later, Perez landed a left-right combination to the head, followed by another big left, which caught Martinez cleanly, whiplashing his head from side to side violently. At that point, referee Joe Cortez moved in and halted the fight at 2:41 of the 6th round.