By Eric Thomas: In a stay busy fight, super middleweight Edison Miranda (33-4, 29 KO’s) stopped Francisco Sierra (20-3, 19 KO’s) in the 1st round to win the vacant WBO NABO super middleweight title last night at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, in Lemoore, California. The win keeps Miranda in contention in the super middleweight division where he hopes to get a title shot in the future.
Miranda, 28, was soundly defeated in his last bout against unbeaten top contender Andre Ward in May of this year. Miranda looked bad in that fight and never was competitive against the fast and elusive Ward. Last night, however, Miranda found Sierra very easy to hit, flattening him with a huge chopping right hand to the back of the head that sent the 21-year-old Sierra down face first on the canvas.
At the time of the knockout, Sierra was backed up against the ropes and trying to cover up. The bout was almost immediately stopped by referee Dan Stell as Sierra was too hurt to continue fighting. The official time of the stoppage was 2:16 of the 1st.
In the earlier part of the round, Sierra did most of the punching, throwing jabs, right hands and combinations. Miranda mostly took the shots and covered up. Miranda looked as if he was waiting for an opening. Finally, Miranda started letting his hands go, throwing combinations, a couple of hard right hands to the body and a big right hand that backed Sierra up against the ropes.
Miranda then landed a hard left hook to the head. The punch connected but didn’t land completely flush because if it had Sierra would have likely been decapitated by it. However, Miranda followed it up with a chopping right hand that caught Sierra while he was bent down trying to duck Miranda’s shots. The punch landed to the back of Sierra’s head and sent him face first down on the canvas.
He was far too hurt to make it up from the knock down and the bout was stopped at this point. Taking a way the shot behind the head, it’s unclear whether the 21-year-old Sierra would have been able to take Miranda’s big power shots for long.
This fight appeared to be a case of Sierra having too little experience against quality opposition and being a bit over his head in taking on the knockout artist Miranda. You can say that Miranda doesn’t have the best boxing skills, chin, speed or size for a super middleweight, but he can definitely punch. If he’s allowed to get his shots off, he has a chance of beating anyone in the division.
There is talk of Miranda possibly being one of the fighters that could replace Jermain Taylor if he’s pulled out of the Super Six tournament. Taylor was viciously knocked out in the 12th round by Arthur Abraham on October 17th, and there’s questions as to whether Taylor will continue in the tournament. Miranda would have a good chance against some of the contestants in the tournament, specifically Carl Froch, Andre Dirrell, Abraham and Mikkel Kessler due to his big power.
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