By Chris Williams: Welterweight contender Jesus Soto Karass (24-3-3, 16 KO’s) had to struggle on Saturday night to defeat 2nd tier fighter Edvan Dos Santos Barros (10-7-1, 7 KO’s) by a 10-round unanimous decision at the Grand Prairie, in Texas. The final judges’ scores were 97-93, 100-90 and 99-91. Like a lot of fights that take place in Texas, the scores for this fight were out of this world and didn’t indicate what actually took place in the fight.
The only thing the judges got right was that Karass got the win, but it was hardly a one-sided fight. Heck, Karass was stunned at one point in the fight and on the verge of being knocked out in the 8th round by Barros. I don’t know how the judges ignored that round because Karass took a pounding the entire round and showed no defense for Barros’ big left hooks and right hands.
Karass, 26, ranked #6 IBF, #7 WBC, #8 WBO and #14 WBA, looked slow and not all that powerful in the opening round. He looked like a poor man’s version of Antonio Margarito, only without Margarito’s power. Karass did a good job of throwing a lot of punches, but he paid for it by getting hit by big counter shots from Barros.
Karass continued to throw a lot of punches in the 2nd round, stalking Barros around the ring and throwing a lot of hooks to the body and looping shots to the head. Barros continued to find it easy to land an occasional big punch, taking advantage of Karass’ poor defense.
Karass kept his left hand low and was drilled by Barros pretty much whenever the fight wanted to land something. Although Karass was winning the rounds at this point, he wasn’t exactly looking good or dominating. Barros came into the fight having lost four out of his last six fights and had been stopped in one of them in the 2nd round by Alexis Camacho.
Given Karass’ high ranking, you would assume that he should have been able to dominate this opponent, or in the very least look like a top #6 welterweight in the world. However, Karass didn’t looked good at all, not even like a top 15 ranked welterweight. He looked like he would be right at home in the 2nd tier with other flawed welterweights, but no way like a top 10 fighter.
Part of the problem is the sanctioning bodies, but the other part is that the talent in the welterweight division is really uneven. You’ve got a small handful of super talented fighters like Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Joshua Clottey, Margarito and Andre Berto, and then you got all the rest, most of which should be in the 2nd tier.
Karass continued to walk Barros down in the 3rd and 4th. However, Karass was now walking into a lot big hooks from Barros and not even trying to block any of the shots. The punches were sailing right over Karass’ left hand, which remained glued to his waist as if his arm didn’t work and landed straight to his exposed face.
More often than not, Karass would fire back a bunch of shots in every direction after getting nailed, but Karass would miss mot of these punches in his urgency to try and even the score. I had Barros winning both the 3rd and 4th rounds quite easily.
Karass came back in the 5th and 6th round, outworking Barros and keeping him under constant pressure. Still, Karass was getting hit with some big shots and he looked awful on defense. I know sluggers like Arturo Gatti had a tendency to forget about his defense at times, but he at least had his guard up and would block shots when he would see them coming.
Karass, in contrast, is totally focused on throwing shots and when he’s not punching, his left arm is dangling by his waste as if he’s a fighter with lighting fast reflexes like Roy Jones Jr. Believe me, Karass doesn’t have great hand speed, not even close. He’s going to have to change this or else he’s going to be destroyed when he’s given a title shot against Berto. I see Karass getting destroyed even if he does fix his nonexistent defense, but at least the fight would go a few more rounds if he learns to protect his exposed head.
In the 8th round, Barros hurt Karass with a big left hook to the head in the first minute of the round. Karass immediately backed up against the ropes where he continued to get nailed with big left hooks and right hands, none of which Karass came close to blocking.
He was just standing there with his guard down getting pounded. I thought for a second that the referee would do the right thing and step and stop the bout, because Karass looked in trouble and was getting hit cleanly. He was making this 2nd tier fighter look like a champion.
After getting drilled with a terrifying amount of shots, Karass finally got off the ropes and began to return fire as the round was nearing the end. In the 9th and 10th rounds, Karass and Barros traded shots through most of the rounds. Karass got the better of the action, but they were very close rounds because of Karass’ continued poor defense. I can’t say it enough how terrible he looked on defense, like an amateur who had put on gloves for the very first time.
With this win, Karass is being considered for a fight against Alfonso Gomez for the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto card on November 14th. That aught to be interesting fight with two sluggers going toe to toe.