Boxing Results – Velasquez Brothers Fail to Impress, Escalante Defeats Lock

By Boxing News - 07/26/2009 - Comments

velasquez3234By Jim Dower: The Velasquez Twins found an uneven success on Friday night, with super featherweight prospect Velasquez(11-0, 9 KO’s) defeating Juan Nazario (6-2-1, 4 KO’s) by a six-round unanimous decision, and Carlos’ brother, super bantamweight Juan Velasquez (9-1, 5 KO’s) being defeated by Mexican journeyman Jose Angel Beranza (32-15-2, 25 KO’s) by a six-round unanimous decision at the Don Haskins Convention Center, in El Paso, Texas.

Carlos Velasquez, 24, a Gold Medalist at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games and a 2004 Olympian for Puerto Rico, looked a lot better than his brother, Juan. Carlos Velasquez used his power and movement to give Nazario all kinds of problems in their fight.

Nazario looked as if he was just in to survive and spent a good portion of the first round moving and grabbing. However, Nazario landed some nice right hands in the round and it looked as if this was going to be a competitive fight at this point.

In the 2nd round, Carlos nailed Nazario with a right hand that sent Nazario backwards with his left glove touching the canvas. The referee Rocky Burke missed the knockdown, however. Carlos Velasquez then spent the rest of the round stalking Nazario around the ring nailing him with single shots.

It was in this round that Nazario began clinching constantly, trying to slow Velasquez down. While being clinched, Velasquez had an odd habit of holding his arms outstretched to his sides, as if to show the crowd and the referee that it wasn’t him that was doing the clinching.

However, Velasquez wasn’t fighting the clinches at all and it looked as if he actually wanted to be clinched when he would do this. He easily could have stepped back or fought Nazario off, but instead Velasquez would hold his arms out. Even when Nazario wasn’t trying to grab Velasquez, he would hold his arms out to his sides when he would get close, as if expecting the clinch to happen but starting the action way too soon.

Nazario circled the ring constantly in rounds three and four, looking to pot shot, clinch and slow things down for Velasquez. The crowd hated it and started booing by the 4th round. Velasquez continued to land big power shots, but throwing only one at a time unfortunately. Additionally, Velasquez continued with his annoying habit of stretching his arms out to his sides whenever he would get close to Nazario, as if a signal for Nazario to grab him in a clinch. In the 5th round, Nazario was deducted a point for holding. By this time in the fight, Nazario was rarely throwing anything back.

In the 6th, Velasquez finished strong loading up on single shots while Nazario continued to avoid mixing it up. The final judges’ scores were 60-53, 60-53 and 60-53.

Velasquez, despite winning the fight, has a lot of work cut out for him. He needs to learn how to throw combinations instead of throwing single shots and he needs to cut out his habit of stretching out his arms like an airplane every time he gets close to an opponent.

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Super bantamweight prospect Juan Velasquez looked much less impressive than his brother Carlos. A much weaker puncher than his brother and more of a finesse fighter, Juan struggled against the veteran 33-year-old Beranza, having problems with the Mexican fighter’s heavy pressure and short hooks and uppercuts. The difference between Juan’s style of fighting and his twin brother Carlos was like night and day. Juan showed much less power than his brother and was a lot more passive. Beranza is the type of opponent that Carlos would have easily handled, but Juan was out of his element against Beranza and unable to deal with his heavy pressure.

In the 1st round, Juan Velasquez moved around the ring in wide circles, hitting Beranza with jabs and left hands. It was a close round, but Velasquez appeared to do enough to win it.

Velasquez continued to move a lot in the round, and was able to avoid Beranza’s attacks. However, you could see that Beranza’s pressure was going to be a problem for Velasquez when he eventually slowed down, because he didn’t have the power or the offensive skills needed to fend off the attacks from the Mexican.

In the 3rd round, Beranza landed a right hand to the midsection of Velasquez that caused the Puerto Rican fighter to take a step backwards and then collapse on the canvas. It looked as if his knees went out on from a slip. However, Beranza immediately attacked Velasquez and put him down with a left hook to the head. For the remainder of the round, Velasquez moved around the ring in big circles trying to avoid getting hit again. He threw next to no punches during this time and the crowd hated it, booing the rest of the round.

In rounds four through six, Beranza stalked Velasquez around the ring, roughing him up and pounding him with uppercuts to the head and short hooks. The uppercuts didn’t look like they were thrown with a lot of power but they did a job on Velasquez’s nose, bloodying it in the 5th round. The fight was no longer competitive from the 3rd round on, as Velasquez looked to be in the survival mode and was getting hit a lot by the tough Beranza.

The final judges’ scores were 58-54, 58-54 and 57-55, all for Beranza. Overall, it was a poor performance by Velasquez, who showed little power and an inability to handle the pressure from Beranza.

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In the main event, super bantamweight contender Antonio Escalante (21-2, 13 KO’s) defeated Cornelius Lock (18-4-1, 11 KO’s) by a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 100-88, 100-88 and 98-90. Escalante, 24, was much too powerful for the 30-year-old Lock to deal with. Escalante knocked Lock down twice in the 3rd round, one coming from a body shot and another from a big right to the head. For the remainder of the way, Escalante dominated Lock at close range, punishing him with wide shots to the head. The bout probably should have been stopped at some point along the way because Lock took beating and wasn’t competitive beyond the first couple of rounds.

Escalante, who came into the fight ranked #3 in the WBA and WBO, pounded Lock at will from the 3rd round, hitting him with big shots to the head. Escalante was cut on the side of his left eye in the 4th, but the cut failed to slow him down any. In rounds eight, nine and ten, Lock got the stuffing beat out of him by Escalante and was really hammered by the Mexican fighter.

By this point in the fight, Lock was throwing only token jabs and hooks and was spending the better part of every round getting drilled by Escalante. However, to his credit, Lock stayed in there for the last three rounds despite absorbing terrible punishment and ended the fight on his feet.

It was a good win for Escalante, and showed that he can beat a good fighter in Lock who’s on his way down in his career. Escalante needs to enjoy his victory while he can, because I give him zero chance against super bantamweight champions Celestino Caballero and Juan Manuel Lopez, both of whom will probably beat Escalante as easily as he defeated Lock.



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