By Manuel Perez: For what it’s worth, highly ranked welterweight contender Jesus Soto Karass (22-3-3, 16 KOs) stopped a terribly over-matched Hicklet Lau (20-18-2, 9 KOs) in the 2nd round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Friday night at the Santa Ana Star Center, in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Karass, 26, dropped Lau with a short right hand, and then finished him off with a flurry of shots as Lau staggered back to the ropes. Referee Russell Mora halted the slaughter at 1:59 of the 2nd round.
Karass, ranked #3 in the World Boxing Council, #5 in the WBO, #11 in the IBF and #12th in the WBA, had little trouble with the Cuban Lau, who came into the fight having lost 11 of his last 14 fights. For that reason alone, it seems troubling that a fighter ranked as highly as Karass would be matched so softly at this point in his career.
Instead of 3rd tier fighters like Lau, Karass needs to be matched against a top tier fighter, someone like Luis Collazo, Zab Judah, Selcuk Aydin or Mike Jones, at least then we could see whether or not Karass has any real ability. As it is, this was a wasted fight for him, nothing more than a victory to pad his won-lost record, proving little.
Karass, 5’10”, trained by Javier Capetillo, the same trainer of Antonio Margarito, started slowly in the first round, eating a lot of jabs thrown by Lau in the early portion of the round. However, around midpoint of the round, Karass unleashed a flurry of punches, mostly hooks to the body and uppercuts, which drove a startled Lau to the ropes.
Once he had him on the ropes, Karass pelted him with a storm of punches. Lau quickly got off the ropes, but only after getting hit with 11 unanswered shots. However, once again Karass cornered him against the ropes, and unloaded on him with another flurry of shots.
For the remainder of the round, Karass stalked Lau around the ring, every once in awhile catching up to him and hitting him with double hooks to the body and head. Lau, a fighter with little power, looked overwhelmed and more than a little uncomfortable with Karass’s constant pressure and seemed to have no clue what to do to avoid his furious attacks.
In the 2nd round, Karass resumed stalking Laue around the ring and hitting him with hooks. Lau, however, fought surprisingly well in the opening moments of the round, moving well and throwing jabs to keep Karass on the outside.
However, when Lau came forward to land a shot, Karass met him with a short right hand, knocking him down. After Lau got up, Karass went after him, hitting him with a series of right hands to the head, backing a stumbling Lau to the ropes where the fight was almost immediately stopped by referee Russell Mora.
The win answers few questions about whether Karass has the ability to be a future welterweight champion or not. At this point, I wouldn’t give Karass the slightest chance of beating Andre Berto, the WBC champion, nor IBF title holder Joshua Clotty, and of course, Karass would stand no chance against Paul Williams and Antonio Margarito.
However, I do like his fighting style, especially his tendency to throw a lot of punches per round, which reminds me a lot of Margarito and Alfredo Angulo, both of whom are known for their high volume work rates.
But I think Karass isn’t near their level and should highly consider moving down in weight seven pounds to the light welterweight division. I think with his height, reach and high volume offense, he could excel in that division and quite easily win a title or two, if he could make the weight. I doubt that he’ll do it, and that’s too bad, because I don’t see him ever winning a major title as a welterweight.