By Chris Williams: In a rematch of their controversial fight from six months ago, Humberto Soto (46-7-2, 29 KOs) easily defeated Francisco Lorenzo (33-5, 14 KOs) on Saturday night to win the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) super featherweight title at the Parque Andrés Quintana Roo, Cozumel, in Quintana Roo, Mexico. The final judges’ scores were 118-108, 117-109 and 117-109. Lorenzo, 37, fought in a wild and reckless manner for most of the fight, attacking hard in each round and throwing wild-looking punches without much form.
Lorenzo’s aggressive style of fighting, however, made him much more effective than in the last fight, but not nearly effective enough to get the decision. Additionally, Lorenzo’s wild attacks caused him to be penalized twice in the fight, once in the 7th for a low blow and another time in the 8th for pulling Soto’s head down. In the end, it probably didn’t matter how often Lorenzo was penalized, because he had little chance of beating Soto by a decision even under the of circumstances.
Soto, 28, a classic boxer/puncher, fought in a controlled manner, choosing not to brawl with Lorenzo for the most part and taking advantage of his wild attacks by picking him off with precision punches. In the later rounds of the fight, the two fought toe-to-toe much of the time, wrestling and shoving one another at close range. It was far from pretty, but Soto had to deal with Lorenzo the only way possible – by fighting his fight at times.
Lorenzo came storming out for the first round, looking as if he wanted to ensure that he wasn’t knocked down multiple times like last time out against Soto in June. Throwing wide, sweeping punches, Lorenzo was able to land often against Soto in the round. Soto seemed to get control over the round in the second minute, picking Lorenzo off as he would charge wildly forward. However, In the last 30 seconds of the round, Lorenzo landed some big lopping right hands that enabled him to take the round.
In the second round, Lorenzo continued charging forward and landing huge hooks with both hands. Soto seemed uncomfortable with Lorenzo’s unorthodox style of fighting and spent much of the time backing up, covering up and looking for openings. In the last part of the round, Soto began picking off Lorenzo, timing his charges at hitting him hard on the way in. On a couple of occasions, Soto knocked Lorenzo off balance with hard right hands as he would come forward. Lorenzo seemed off balance much of the time, and showed poor footwork.
Lorenzo came out looking completely desperate in the 3rd round, flailing madly with his punches and looking like an amateur fighter from a Tough Man contest. A minute into the round, Lorenzo landed a hard left hand low that caused Soto to drop to the canvas in pain. After a brief period in which Soto was able to recover from the low blow, the fight was continued with Lorenzo being warned by referee Jay Nady to keep his punches up. Soto fought well afterwards, landing clean right hands as Lorenzo would come rushing forward.
The fourth round was very close, as Lorenzo fought well, landing a lot of hard, sweeping right hands in the round and fighting well in the second half of the round. Both fighters wrestled a lot in the 5th round, which proved to be another close round due to Lorenzo’s high energy attacks. Soto fought much better in the 6th round, landing jabs and right hand and timing Lorenzo for his attacks.
Early in the 7th round, Lorenzo landed a right hand low, which immediately led to referee Jay Nady penalizing him one point. Though Lorenzo tried to please his case, it fell on deaf ears. Soto continued doing well, landing right hands as he pinned Lorenzo up against the ropes at one point in the round. Soto’s left eye was showing swelling underneath, no doubt a product of Lorenzo’s hard right hands.
In the 8th, Lorenzo was again penalized, this time for pulling Soto’s head down while trying to punch. This time, Lorenzo was angered as he was being led around the ring by Jay Nady, twice ripping his hand from Nady’s. Both fighters went at it toe-to-toe in the 9th round, fighting at close range and throwing short punches in between a lot of wrestling action.
No one was landing cleanly, or with much power due to the close range, but Soto was still getting the better of the action with uppercuts. The 10th and 11th saw a lot of missing by both fighters, as the fight seemed to degenerate into a wild, sloppy infighting.
In the 12th, Soto landed well with right hands, coming after Lorenzo and trying to take him out. Both fighters slipped to the canvas due to the wet flooring. Lorenzo continued throwing looping shots, but he had little energy by this time and wasn’t able to hurt Soto.