Broner KO’s Rodriguez. Alvarez crushes Cintron; Wilder destroys Long in 1st round KO; Russell Jr. stops Ruiz

By Boxing News - 11/26/2011 - Comments

Image: Broner KO's Rodriguez. Alvarez crushes Cintron; Wilder destroys Long in 1st round KO; Russell Jr. stops RuizBy Jim Dower: Unbeaten heavyweight knockout artist Deontay Wilder (20-0, 20 KO’s) continued his perfect knockout streak with a 1st round knockout against the tough David Long (11-2-2, 7 KO’s) in a previously scheduled 10 round bout at the U.S. Bank Arena, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.

Deontay Wilder, a 2008 Olympic Bronze heavyweight medalist, lined Long up and tagged him with a hard right hand that sent him down flat on the canvas. Long, who was badly hurt from the shot, stayed down for a long time before he eventually got up. In winning this fight, Wilder showed that he’s for real and is someone to be reckoned with in the heavyweight division.

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Unbeaten featherweight prospect Gary Russell Jr. (19-0, 11 KO’s) destroyed journeyman Heriberto Ruiz (48-12-2, 30 KO’s) by a 1st round TKO. Showing some amazing hand speed, Russell Jr. badly hurt Ruiz with a right hand after trapping him by the ropes and then followed up with another right hand to put him down for the count. Russell showed excellent power in this fight and like always, great hand speed. It’s going to be interesting to see how Russell Jr. does when he’s finally put in with a quality fighter at some point in the future. The ending came from a right to the midsection followed by a right to the head that Ruiz never saw coming. The punch put him down flat on his back on the canvas. Overall, it was a good performance from Russell Jr. but not a sign that he’s ready for the better fighters in the division. First of all, Russell Jr. didn’t use any head movement, fought flat-footed and was hit cleanly every time Ruiz would throw a shot. The defense wasn’t there for Russell Jr. Had this been Yuriorkis Gamboa, Brandon Rios or Juan Manuel Lopez, Russell Jr. would have been out of his league.

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WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) did well against Kermit Cintron (33-5-1, 28 KO’s), knocking him down once, cutting his nose and stopping him in the 5th round of a mostly one-sided fight at the at the Plaza Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico. Alvarez, 21, hurt Cintron was three consecutive right hands to the head while he was backed against the ropes at the end of the 4th round to put Cintron down on one knee. Cintron got back to his feet but after getting hit with four shots to the head, Cintron collapsed into the ropes as the round ended. Cintron, now bleeding from a cut on the bridge of his nose, staggered back to his corner. At the start of the 5th round, Alvarez and Cintron met at center ring with both fighters landing hard shots. Cintron was literally fighting for his life and was able to get Alvarez to back off after hitting him with some really big punches. However, Alvarez came back with three straight right hands to the head that caused Cintron to back up towards the ropes. Alvarez followed after him and landed two big lefts to the head that prompted the referee to step in and stop the fight when he saw that Cintron was again hurt and ready to go down.

It was a good win for Canelo, but it didn’t prove all that much because Cintron came into the fight having lost two out of his last three fights and was ranked at a deserved #14 by the World Boxing Council.

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Undefeated No.1 ranked WBO lightweight super featherweight contender Adrien Broner (22-0, 18 KO’s) defeated Vincente Martin Rodriguez (34-3-1, 18 KO’s) by a 3rd round TKO to win the vacant WBO super featherweight title. Broner, 22, hurt Rodriguez with a right uppercut after being backed into a corner by the tough Argentinean. Broner then opened up with a salvo of shots as Rodriguez attempted to cover up in the corner. Broner finally landed a big left hook to the head that sent Rodriguez crashing into the ropes where the fight was immediately halted. Rodriguez had blood coming out of his nose and he was in no condition to continue fighting.

In the 1st round, Broner, looking as if he was borrowing the fight style of Floyd Mayweather Jr,, mostly landed pot shots. Rodriguez put a lot of pressure on Broner and had him constantly backing up or moving in circles to escape the pressure. The hand speed difference between the two fighters was startling, as Broner was so much faster than the slow Rodriguez and it looked like this fight wouldn’t go long because of that. Early in the round, Broner hurt Rodriguez with a left hook to the head that caused Rodriguez to back up a couple of steps and cover up. However, Broner didn’t go for broke trying to KO Rodriguez in the round, instead he took his time and continued to fight in a relaxed, non-hurried manner.

In the 2nd round, Rodriguez was a virtual punching machine, as he really went after Broner throwing massive amounts of shots with most of them missing badly. However, Rodriguez threw so many punches that he landed a fair amount of nice head shots and had Broner pinned to the ropes for much of the round. Broner was still able to land some nice uppercuts every now and then, but he was forced to spent a considerable amount of time defending all the incoming punches. It looked as if Broner made up his mind to stay put against the ropes rather than moving because he wanted to counter punch, and he had a lot of opportunities to do just that because of all the punches Rodriguez threw.

Broner came out for the third with more of an urgency to take the fight to Rodriguez after taking a tongue lashing in between rounds. However, Rodriguez once again backed Broner up against the ropes with a furious attack. However, while in the attack mode, Rodriguez walked into a powerful right uppercut from Broner that badly hurt Rodriguez. Broner then really went after Rodriguez, forcing him against the ropes and unloading with a blizzard of punches ending with a beautiful left hook that knocked Rodriguez down into the ropes back first. The fight was then stopped because Rodriguez was badly hurt and wasn’t going to make it back to his feet.

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In other fights on the card:

Juan Garcia PTS 6 William Jackson
Chris Pearson KO 1 Steven Chadwick
DeVonte Allen SD 4 Salvador Perez



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