By Manuel Perez: 2004 U.S. Olympian light welterweight Vicente Escobedo (20-1, 12 KOs) defeated veteran Carlos Hernandez (43-8-1, 24 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision tonight at the Frank Erwin Center, in Austin, Texas. The final judges’ scores were 96-91, 94-93 and 95-91. I personally scored the fight a draw. Escobedo, 26, knocked Hernandez down in the 1st round with a big right hand, and also dropped in the 2nd round as well.
Hernandez, 38, a former International Boxing Federation junior lightweight champion, had his way with Escobedo, hurting him with a nice left to the head. Escobedo, who has little in the way of power, in a moment of panic, fired off shots in every direction to keep from being finished off by Hernandez.
It worked, but it showed that Escobedo probably doesn’t have the beard or talent to be a champion in the light welterweight division.
Hernandez continued to give Escobedo big problems in rounds four through seven, pounding him with hard right hands and succeeding in dropping Escobedo in the 6th. Things were looking ugly for Escobedo at this point and it looked like he was possibly on his way to being defeated by the former champion Hernandez.
However, Hernandez began showing his age in the 8th and 9th rounds, looking tired and not firing off shots like he did in the early rounds. This allowed Escobedo to take command of the fight, throwing a steady down pour of hooks to the body and head of Hernandez.
The punches weren’t all that hard due to Escobedo’s nonexistent power, but they were annoying just the same and ended up scoring points for him. In the 10th, both fighters stood toe to toe and traded for the full three minutes of the round. Escobedo once again got the best of Hernandez, but looked not all that much better than the former champion.
Given his youth and hype, Escobedo should have been able to easily defeat the 38-year-old Hernandez and the fact that he had to fight a life and death battle like this seems to suggest that Escobedo has some major problems he needs to work out if he wants to be a factor in the light welterweight division.