By Jim Dower: The lanky 6’3” #5 WBC 154lb contender Willie Nelson (23-1-1, 13 KOs) defeated a game Luis Grajeda (17-3-2, 13 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision tonight in winning by the scores of 98-92, 98-92 and 98-92 at the Churchill County Fairgrounds in Fallon, Nevada.
The scores of the fight were much wider than the actual fight that took place in the ring tonight. It was a far closer fight with Grajeda losing by a couple of rounds, but not the wide scores the three judges scored it.
Nelson was staggered in the 8th round by a big right hand uppercut from Grajeda. There wasn’t enough time left in the round for Grajeda to finish Nelson off.
Nelson had problems using his reach to his advantage in the fight, as he would jab too close to Grajeda, and that led to him getting hit a lot. Nelson also tended to fight in close too much and that made him vulnerable to getting hit.
The victory puts Nelson in a good position to eventually get a world title shot once WBC junior middleweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr vacates his title.
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In an odd fight, heavyweight prospect Zhang Zhilei (1-0, 1 KOs) stopped Curtis Lee Tate (6-5, 6 KOs) in the 1st round of a scheduled 4-round bout. Tate fell over after getting hit with a shot to the left shoulder that didn’t even look like a real punishing shot. The fight was stopped in 17 seconds of the 1st round. It just looked like Tate didn’t want to be there. Tate went down face first on the canvas as if he’d been hit with a head shot. That was the weird part.
The handlers for Zhilei need to be a little more selective in the future to try and find better opposition than this for the 6’6” 2008 Olympic Silver medalist from China. He’s capable of facing far better competition, and fights like this are a complete waste of time for him and for the boxing fans that watch them.
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In a one-sided fight, super middleweight Jason Escalera (15-2-1, 12 KOs) dominated an over-matched Norbet Nemesapati (14-1, 13 KOs) in beating him by an 8 round unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 78-73, 78-72 and 79-72. Nemesapati looked strong in the 1st round and had Escalera hurt after nailed him with some tremendous shots. However, Nemesapati gassed out after the 1st round and ended up taking a beating in the final 7 rounds.
Escalera knocked him down in the 3rd round. The fight should have been stopped by the 4th, because Nemesapati was taking terrible punishment and looking too weak to put up much resistance.
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