By Manuel Perez: In another fight involving a fighter with some talent but also with some deep, deep flaws, undefeated light welterweight prospect Mike Alvarado (24-0, 17 KOs) stopped top lightweight contender Miguel Angel Huerta (27-10-1, 18 KOs) in the 4th round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Friday night at National Western Complex Arena, in Denver, Colorado. Alvarado, 28, hurt Huerta with an uppercut in the 4th round and then landed nine unanswered punches as Huerta tried to cover up on the ropes, leading to referee Stephen Blea halting the fight at 2:22 of the 4th round.
Alvarado, who came into the fight highly hyped, took Huerta apart with power punches, yet at the same time, he showed little hand speed, terrible defense and a lack of a killer instinct. The fight probably could have been finished two to three rounds earlier if Alvarado had given a hard surge of punches against Huerta, but instead Alvarado seemed to play it safe, picking him off from the outside and loading up on occasional body and head shot.
Alvarado dominated the first round with hard jabs, snapping them into the face of Huerta and keeping him on the outside. However, Huerta was not to be denied, and kept coming forward, throwing hooks to the body and head of Alvarado. In the last minute of the round, Huerta punished Alvarado with hard body shots which had the effect of temporarily shutting down Alvarado’s offense.
It seemed as if that was the magic answer to stopping Alvarado from attacking. Unfortunately, Huerta didn’t seem to pick up Alvarado’s tendency to stop punching when he was being attacked, because Huerta didn’t try hard enough in the round to take advantage of it earlier.
Alvarado spent most of the 2nd round punishing forward, hitting left-right combinations and uppercuts to the head. Huerta looked good in the opening minute of the round, firing off hard body shots that Alvarado seemed helpless to stop. However, Huerta soon stopped punching, which allowed Alvarado take control over the rest of the round and pound Huerta with blistering shots to the head and body.
Alvarado’s jab was especially good, perhaps his best punch, as his left and right hand power shots don’t really compare with the better fighters in the light welterweight division like Ricky Hatton and Ricardo Torres, to name just a couple. Huerta allowed himself to be backed to the ropes a couple of times in the round and fought poorly each time, unable to escape from the heard punches that Alvarado was hitting him with. A big body puncher, Huerta needed more room to get his body shots off, and when he was backed up against the ropes, he was nearly helpless like a fly without wings.
The third round was very close, as Huerta punished Alvarado for most of the round with hard body shots and hooks to the head. Though Alvarado tried to match him punch for punch, he wasn’t really as talented as Huerta when it came to attacking the body, and because of that, he seemed to get outgunned in the round. Alvarado made a late surge in the last 10 seconds with a brief flurry, but it wasn’t nearly enough to make up for all the punches he had been tagged with in the round by Huerta.
In the 4th round, Alvarado caught Huerta with hard combinations late in the round, hurting him and sending him retreating backwards to the ropes. Once he had him on the ropes, Alvarado unleashed a flurry of shots that badly hurt Huerta leading to the fight being stopped by referee Stephen Blea.
I got to say I wasn’t very impressed with Alvarado. His defense is too poor, and his offense is lacking in comparisons to other top fighters in the division. He would get destroyed by Timothy Bradley, Junior Witter, Hatton, Torres, Kendal Holt and Andreas Kotelnik. I think Alvarado would be better served if he dropped down a couple of weight classes to the super featherweight division where he would match up better against the smaller fighters. I think that’s his best chance he has if he wants to win a title someday.