By Chris Williams: Unbeaten welterweight contender Mike Jones (23-0, 18 KO’s) looked horrible in defeating Jesus Soto-Karass (24-5-3, 16 KO’s) by a 10 round majority decision on Saturday night on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito fight at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. The final judges’ scores were 94-92, 95-94, and 97-93. This was the co-main event and it was pushed up after Kelly Pavlik was injured while in training. Pavlik was supposed to be facing Bryan Vera. As it was, the Jones-Karass fight was a poor replacement for that fight, even though that fight was also a rather poor fight as well. However, tonight’s card has been filled with mostly mismatches and dull fights, so the Jones-Karass fight fit in nicely with what’s been shown thus far.

Jones looked musclebound and tight in the early rounds of the fight, as he seemed to lack the ability straighten his arms out to get full extension on his punches. Karass stood right in front of Jones and seemed to want to make it war. At this point, they both looked more like 2nd tier fighters than top welterweights. It looked nothing like watching quality fighters like Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr. As the fight wore on, Jones began to wear down as he seemed to have punched himself out.

All the muscle weight in his upper body seemed to work against him, as he began to look increasingly tired. Karass then took the fight to him. However, Karass was wide open for Jones’ weak shots and the action got really sloppy in the last few rounds. At the end of the fight, they both looked equally horrible. I called it a draw. I hope I don’t have to see either one of them fight again.