By Jason Kim: Unbeaten super bantamweight contender Wilfredo Vasquez Jr. (16-0-1, 13 KO’s) stopped journeyman Cecilio Santos (23-10-3, 10 KO’s) in the 2nd round on Friday night at the Civic Center, in Kissimmee, Florida. Vazquez Jr, ranked number #9 in the World Boxing Organization and #12 in the WBA, caught Santos with a left hand to the midsection in the 2nd round, putting him down for the count.
Santos, 30, was in too much pain from the body shot to get up and continue. The bout was stopped at 2:59 of the 2nd round. Aside from the knockout, the fight was actually pretty even until the stoppage with neither fighter really establishing themselves as the better fighter.
In the 1st round, Santos looked good landing big right hands to the head and nice body shots. Vazquez Jr. focused on throwing right hands for the most part. His defense was nonexistent as Santos was able to hit him pretty much every time he tried to land. Vazquez went through the motions of trying to ducked and dodged in between punches thrown by Santos, but when Santos would throw a shot, Vazquez would seem to forget all about moving his head and body and would get nailed repeatedly.
As soon as he would get hit, then the movement would start for a few seconds and then stop. It was as if Vazquez was saying to himself, ‘oh yeah, I got to move my head’ but he wasn’t very consistent in dodging the punches from Santos unfortunately.
Santos looked good in the 2nd round, jabbing Vazquez and moving nicely for a journeyman fighter. Vazquez began throwing right hands but not getting a whole lot of power on the shots. Early in the round, Santos suffered a cut over his right eye.
The blood from the cut was dripping into his eye making Santos squint to see out of the eye. With Santos fighting with essentially only one good eye, Vazquez Jr. began to suddenly have good success in landing combinations, throwing them over and over and getting confident now. Santos was there for the taking because of his inability to see and not one to let a good opportunity like this go to waste, Vazquez Jr. landed a left hand to the midsection to put Santos down.
Vazquez, although ranked high in super bantamweight division, hasn’t really fought anyone beyond B and C level opponents, making it hard to see how good he really is. His father, Wilfredo Vazquez Sr. was a good fighter in the 90s, winning titles in the super bantamweight and featherweight divisions. Vazquez Jr., however, has yet to prove that he’s in the same league as his talented fighter.
Vazquez Jr. fought to an eight round majority draw against Jorge Cardenas (9-4-3) in December 2007, a fight which Vazquez Jr. appeared to lose by at least four rounds on my scorecard. Since that fight, Vazquez has defeated opponents with records like 7-4, 2-0, 12-13, 20-10, 14-3, 31-14 and now 23-10, yet has moved up quickly in the rankings.