Verdejo stops Martinez

By Boxing News - 06/11/2016 - Comments

YouTube video

By Dan Ambrose: In a perfect showcase mismatch fight, WBO Latino lightweight champion Felix Verdejo (22-0, 15 KOs) totally dominated little known Mexican fighter Juan Jose “Piquet” Martinez (25-3, 17 KOs) in stopping him in the 5th round at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Verdejo, 23, badly hurt the 29-year-old Martinez with a hard right hand to the head in the 5th. Verdejo then flurried on the nearly helpless Martinez until referee Michael Ortega stepped in and halted the fight. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:40 of the round. Martinez was hurt and wasn’t going to be able to make it out of the round if Ortega hadn’t stopped the contest.

Earlier in the fight in the third round, Verdejo bloodied Martinez’s right eye.

This was an odd looking fight from start to finish with Verdejo moving away from Martinez and trying not to get hit. It was strange because Verdejo was the one with the superior punching power, hand speed, size and youth. The image of Verdejo running from a guy that was not in class was hard to shake. The question why was Verdejo moving away from the guy?

Martinez was obviously brought in to make Verdejo look good. It wasn’t a quality fighter or even someone as good as the last two guys that Verdejo had fought. I think Verdejo needs to learn that he’s got more offensive weapons and size than the majority of the fighters in the lightweight division. He can’t be running from his opponents when he gets in there with better fighters than he had tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghar47vERK8

I don’t think Verdejo has the mindset to beat the best fighters in the lightweight division. With the way he runs around on the outskirts of the ring, I think he’s too timid to beat the very best in the division. Yes, Verdejo beat Martinez tonight, but we’re talking about a mediocre smaller fighter that came up from the super featherweight division to fight Verdejo. This wasn’t a truly talented fighter from the lightweight division Verdejo was in the ring with tonight. Verdejo’s promoters at Top Rank did some clever match-making in selecting a smaller fighter with limited skills from the super featherweight division for Verdejo to shine against.

I think it might be in Verdejo’s best interest to forget about fighting for world titles for the next three to five years while he matures and gets his mind together so that he gets comfortable fighting better fighters. The way that he looked tonight against Martinez and the way he looked in his two previous fights against William Silva and Jose Luis Rodriguez, I don’t think Verdejo has the aggression to fight at the very top of the lightweight division.

You’ve got to be able to fight hard and show some anger in the ring. To me, Verdejo just looks like a timid fighter that isn’t willing to go after his opponents. He’s seems to shy away from contact rather than invite it. Verdejo is winning his fights now based on him being the bigger, stronger and faster guy. He’s not impressing.