By Jason Kim: Super flyweight Jorge Arce (52-5-1, 40 KO’s) scored a 3rd round knockout over Filipino Fernando Lumacad (19-2-2, 7 KO’s) on Saturday night on the undercard of the WBO super bantamweight title bout between champion Juan Manuel Lopez and challenger Oliver Lontchi at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, in New Jersey. Arce, 29, landed a big right hand at the start of the 3rd round that sent Lumacad down on the canvas.
Although he got up fairly quickly, he looked too hurt to continue and the fight was stopped by referee Wayne Hedgepeth at 0:35 of the round. The fight was Arce’s first bout since being stopped by Vic Darchinyan in the 11th round in February 2009.
At first glance, Lumacad, 23, looked to have a good record, but almost all of his wins have come against unknown opponents in the Philippines. In facing Arce, Lumacad was obviously being brought in to make Arce look good, because he had looked so awful in his last fight against Darchinyan.
There was very little action in the first round as Arce and Lumacad bounced around the ring, throwing few punches. Arce got the better of the action by landing a small handful of right hands. However, he looked really cautious as if his beating at the hands of Darchinyan was still fresh in his mind. The 2nd round was more of the same with both fighters looked timid and afraid to let their hands go. Lumacad awed by the situation and seemed to have stage fright.
At the start of the 3rd round, Arce landed a right hand, and then followed it with a huge right that crashed off the side of Lumacad’s jaw sending him down. The fight was then almost immediately stopped by referee Wayne Hedgepeth.
It was a good win for Arce, but it’s unclear what it accomplishes. Arce was badly dominated by Darchinyan last time out, and if Arce gets a rematch with him I can’t see the outcome being any different than it was last time out. If anything, I can see Arce getting beaten even worse next time he fights Darchinyan. Arce would be getting a good payday, but that’s about it. He’s just not in the same league as Darchinyan.
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In another one-sided bout on this card, light middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (25-0, 16 KO’s) stopped Russian Andrey Tsurkan (26-5, 17 KO’s) in a 6th round in a scheduled 10-round bout. Martiosyan landed at will throughout the bout and was rarely hit by the shorter, weaker and slower 5’8” Tsurkan. Following the 6th round, the ringside doctor suggested that the bout be stopped. Referee Steve Smoger officially stopped the bout at 3:00 of the 6th.
Tsurkan, 31, was facing his second consecutive tough opponent, coming off a brutal 10th round knockout loss to Alfredo Angulo in October 2008. This bout proved to be much less punishing than that fight had been. However, Tsurkan still ended up absorbing a lot of right hands and left hooks from Martirosyan along with a ton of jabs before the bout was eventually stopped. Tsurkan’s left eye was badly swollen and bruised at the time of the stoppage.
In rounds one through three, Martirosyan circled the ring, jabbing and firing off right hands. Tsurkan tried hard to get in range to land his short punches against the 6-foot tall Martiosyan, but he was caught by his jabs and hooks each time he would try to close the distance. Had this fight occurred a year earlier when Martiosyan was more of a slugger, Tsurkan would have stood a much better chance of getting his shots off.
However, Martiosyan has evolved into more of a boxer/puncher since then and doesn’t mix it up with his opponents nearly as much as he did back then. Tsurkan was able to catch up to Martiosyan on a few occasions in each of the first three rounds, but not nearly enough to make the fight interesting to watch.
For his part, Martiosyan began to put more power into his hooks and right hands in the 2nd and 3rd round, but his movement kept him from getting the huge power on his shots that he’s capable of throwing when he’s fighting flat-footed and loading up.
Tsurkan caught up to Martiosyan several times in the 4th round. However, Martirosyan fired back with some huge right hands that bruised up Tsurkan’s left eye. The 5th and 6th rounds were totally one-sided as Martiosyan landed at will with a high number of right hands and jabs, and kept Tsurkan from landing his own punches. Tsurkan looked discouraged in the 6th, and didn’t seem to try as hard as he was earlier in the fight. In between rounds, the bout was stopped at the suggestion of the ringside doctor.
Martirosyan, ranked number #12 in the International Boxing Federation light middleweight division, got a good win out of it. However, he looked much less impressive than Angulo did in beating Tsurkan and will have to improve a lot more if he’s to be competitive with IBF champion Cory Spinks.
At this point, I don’t think Martiosyan would be good enough to win a round against Spinks nor against the other champions in the light middleweight division like Sergeii Dzinziruk, Paul Williams, Daniel Santos or Sergio Martinez.
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Yuri Foreman (27-0, 8 KO’s) fought to a three round no decision with Cornelius Bundrage (29-4, 17 KO’s) in an IBF light middleweight title eliminator bout. The fight was stopped after the third round due to cut over the right eye of Foreman. In the 3rd round, Foreman clashed heads with Bundrage, 36, causing a cut over the right eye of Foreman. The cut also closed Foreman’s right eye making it impossible to see out of it.
The clash of heads, however, was Foreman’s fault, because he had been diving in after throwing many of his punches looking to tie Bundrage and prevent him from countering him. I suspected that a cut would result sooner or later because Foreman was charging forward like a Billy goat and trying to grab Bundrage.
Like many of Foreman’s fights, there was almost zero action in the 1st round, as Foreman stayed on the outside moving. He dove inside several times at high speed initiating clinches. Overall, Foreman landed five punches in the round and Bundrage nothing.
In the 2nd round, Bundrage was able to land a few shots before he was wrapped up in a tight embrace by the clinching Foreman. Again, there was little action in the round and the fight was already starting to be booed by the fans at ringside.
In the 3d round, Foreman clinched and moved repeatedly, throwing an occasional punch while diving in for clinches. It was pretty awful boxing to watch, because it prevented any real action from occurring. On one of Foreman’s attempts at clinching, he was cut over his right eye. For the remainder of the round, he continued with the punch and clinch routine.
After the round, the bout was stopped by referee Eddie Cotton due to Foreman’s bad cut. Since the bout didn’t go at least four rounds, the fight was ruled as a ‘no decision.’
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