By Eric Thomas: In something of an upset, welterweight prospect Carlos Molina (15-4-1, 5 KOs) defeated knockout artist Alexis Camacho (17-2, 16 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Roseland Ballroom, in New York, New York. The final judges’ scores were 97-93, 98-92 and 100-90. Camacho, 27, who has accumulated an impressive knockout record against lower level opposition, found himself overmatched against the tough Mexican Molina, and was effectively outworked by the shorter Molina through 10 rounds.
Molina, known for his draw and loss against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in 2005 and 2006, both fights which he appeared to win, was perhaps too big of a step up for the 27-year-old Camacho.
Camacho’s power was never a factor, because he missed most of many of his power shot attempts in the fight and looked sloppy for the most part. The more the fight progressed, the clearer it became that Camacho’s so-called power was really vastly overrated based on his easy wins over lower quality opposition.
There were no knockdowns in the fight, but Molina rocked Camacho with some big left hooks in both the 9th and 10th rounds. In the 1st round, Molina outworked the tall 5’11” Camacho, coming in on him and landing well with left-right combinations and jabs. Camacho fought back landing some decent left hands but he wasn’t nearly busy enough to win the round, and his power looked mediocre at best.
In the 2nd round, Camacho was again outworked by Molina, who bored in on him and landed nice left hooks and short right hands to the head of Camacho to take both rounds. Camacho looked to be all arms, throwing wide looping shots and missing badly. Another easy round for Molina.
Camacho came back looking energized in the 3rd round, taking the fight to Molina, backing him up and landing often with wide hooks. Most of the time, Camacho missed badly with his wild shots but for the fact that he threw so many of them, he landed more often than Molina.
In round four and five, Molina took the fight to Camacho, landing the more precise punches and giving him all kinds of problems with short left hooks on the inside. Camacho lunged or fell forward much of the time, missing two to three punches at a time before falling into a clinch. He was getting nailed a lot and looking very poor.
Camacho fought much better in the 6th round, landing some nice hooks to the head and body, staying busy during the entire round.
He looked to be tiring, though, and it didn’t seem likely that he could continue to fight like this for much longer in the fight without exhausting himself. As it was, he was losing most of the rounds and was only capable of fighting really hard every three rounds or so.
In rounds seven through nine, Molina easily outworked Camacho, coming in low and hitting him with hard left hands. Molina would often attempt to land combinations but had poor luck in landing his right hand shots. Camacho’s right eye by this time was swelling up badly, no doubt a product of Molina’s powerful left hooks to the head.
In the 9th, Molina landed a back left hook while he was backed up to the ropes, snapping Camacho’s head back hard. Molina followed with another left hook not quite as powerful as the previous one but strong enough to jolt Camacho’s head back violently. Camacho took the shots and came back with his usual wild shots, missing both of them. Camacho landed a few shots in the round but missed an awful lot of the time and looked like a wet noodle in appearance, exhausted and tired.
In the 10th, Camacho came out fast firing shots in every direction and mostly hitting nothing. He landed a handful of shots, though, and kept Molina from getting his own offense untracked for the opening minute of the round.
However, after that Molina began to surge forward, putting pressure on Camacho and hitting him with hard left hands to the head. In the last minute of the round, it was all Molina as he landed frequently with left hooks to the head, while Camacho continued missing horribly as usual.