Latest Boxing News: Decarie Stops Munoz

By Boxing News - 10/06/2008 - Comments

decaire4532456.jpgBy Chris Williams: WBO NABO welterweight champion Antonin Decarie (20-0, 6 KOs) won an impressive 12th round TKO victory over the tough Hector Munoz (18-2-1, 11 KOs) on Saturday night at the Montreal Casino, Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. Decarie, 25, ranked #6 in the WBO, knocked a stubborn Munoz down twice in the bout, once in the 9th and another time in the 11th, before putting him away with a flurry of shots late in the 12th round. Referee Gerry Bolen moved in and halted the bout at 2:42 of the 12th with Munoz badly hurt and absorbing punishment along the ropes. The fight should have been stopped much earlier, however, perhaps as early as the 8th or 9th rounds, because Munoz, 30, had little chance of winning the fight and was trailing by a large margin.

Without a real big knockout punch working for him, Munoz had little chance of making up the ground by the 9th unless he was somehow able to catch Decarie with a big shot. Given the fact that it was Decarie who was landing all the big shots at this point in the fight, including all the other rounds as well, the fight should have ended much earlier with either the referee or Munoz’s corner stopping the fight.

Decarie, 5’9″, used his superior boxing skills to outclass Munoz through the early rounds, moving often, jabbing, ducking shots and landing hard right hands. Though Decarie isn’t much of a puncher, he hit with some decent power when he loads up on his shots, and when he’s throwing flurries, he’s more than a handful for most fighters. However, his lack of big power unfortunately kept Munoz in the fight much longer than he should have given how often he was hitting him. Indeed, Decarie hit Munoz often in the first round rounds, usually with a series of jabs followed by a big right hand close behind them.

Munoz, however, wasn’t to be deterred, and kept coming forward regardless of how many times he was nailed by Decarie. This is in effect formed Decarie to work much harder and at a quicker pace than he probably would have liked to have fought at given a preference. Munoz was throwing shots all the time, making a loud grunting noise each time he’d throw a shots, no matter whether it be a power shot or a jab.

This constant forward motion led him into trouble on more than a few occasions because he would often walk into big shots from Decarie, and get hit with some really well timed punches. Decarie fought well in the 3rd round, landing some big right hands during the round and hitting Munoz with a big flurry of punches in the last 30 seconds of the round. In the 5th round, Decarie began hitting Munoz with big sweeping hooks to the head, the kind that looked like a huge windmill shot.

If Munoz had been a little quicker with his hands or skillful enough to time him, he could have nailed Decarie on many occasions when he was winding up with these big shots. Munoz began to show some swelling under his right eye by the 6th, and his face looked to be swelling up as well from all the big punches he was eating from Decarie. However, Munoz refused to take a backwards step, and continued coming forward and throwing shots.

A lot of the time his punches, usually jabs, were blocked by Decarie. But, Munoz was throwing so many shots at such a constant rate, many of them leaked through Decarie’s defense and hit him in the face. And, Decarie, with only a one inch height advantage over the 5’8″ Munoz, was forced to fight within punching range of Munoz’s own shots. In the 7th round, the fight started to become really one-sided as Munoz began to take serious punishment in the way of hooks to the head.

Near the end of the round, Decarie unloaded with a flurry of shots, hurting Munoz and causing him to clinch to stop Decarie from punching. The 8th round was all Decarie, as be pounded Munoz around the ring like an oversized punching dummy. As the round was ending, both fighters stood toe-to-toe and slugged it out at close range with each of them getting hit with big head shots. In the 9th round, Decarie landed a lead right hand, dropping Munoz to the canvas.

After he got up, Decarie met him with a flurry of shots and bombarded him until the end of the round. Incredibly, Munoz kept coming forward trying to force the action in the 10th round, urging Decarie to engage with him even though it meant that Munoz was going to sustain even more punishment. In the 11th round, Decarie began to throw more sweeping right hooks and was able to catch Munoz almost every time he threw them. In the final seconds of the round, Decarie hit Munoz with another big sweeping right hand, dropping him. Munoz got up, his nose bleeding badly, and was able to survive the round which ended almost immediately.

If there had been more time on the clock, I doubt seriously that Munoz could have escaped the round in one piece. In the 12th round, Decarie stepped up the pace of his offense and drove Munoz around the ring with big shots. With only a little time left in the round, Decarie hit Munoz with a series of hard combinations, sending him backwards to the ropes where the referee then stepped in and halted the fight. At the time of the stoppage, Munoz was taking one big shot after another, his head snapping back, yet he still was able to stay on his feet through countless head shots.