By Eric Baldwin: Former world title challenger Cesar Juarez (21-5, 16 KOs) had to battle hard to defeat Filipino Richard “The Beast” Pumicpic (19-8-2, 6 KOs) by a tougher than expected 10 round unanimous decision last Saturday night at the Auditorio Municipal in Los Cabos San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
The 25-year-old Juarez has a way of making easy fights into tough ones, as we saw last Saturday night with him needing to battle hard to beat 26-year-old Pumicpic by a decision in winning by the scores 95-93, 96-93 and 98-91. Juarez, ranked #2 by the WBO at super bantamweight, knocked Pumicpic down in the 6th round from a left hook to the head. However, Pumicpic came back strong to control the 9th and 10th rounds.
Juarez was staggered by a right hand from Pumicpic in the 10th round and needed to hold on to recover from the shot. Juarez was also staggered in the 6th round from a right hand to the head. Juarez was still able to come back to drop Pumicpic in the same round, albeit from a flash knockdown.
This was one of the more exciting fights in boxing in 2016, as neither guy stopped punching for a moment. It was thrilling stuff. Juarez isn’t the biggest puncher in the 122lb division, but he makes up for it with his high work rate. He just never lets up with his shots.
Juarez wants a rematch against Nonito Donaire, who beat him by a 12 round unanimous decision last December in their fight for the vacant World Boxing Organization super bantamweight title in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Juarez gave Donaire a lot of problems in that fight with his pressure and high work rate, but he clearly lost the fight. Donaire knocked Juarez down two times in the 4th round, and nailed him with huge shots all throughout the fight.
“I want a rematch with Donaire,” Juarez said via Fight News. “We’re ready, I know I’ll defeat him more clearly and be crowned world champion!”
If Juarez wants to avenge losses, then he should look to avenge his defeat from earlier this year to Giovanni Delgado (16-4, 9 KOs), who beat him by a 10 round split decision. Juarez wasn’t supposed to lose to Delgado, who came into the fight having lost three out of his last four fights. But like I was saying, Juarez has a way of making easy fights into tough ones due to his brawling style of fighting, and his lack of defensive skills. Juarez gets hit way too much for his own good, and you can’t do that at the pro level with all the punchers there are in the sport.
Juarez jumped on Pumicpic in the 1st round in attempting to get a quick knockout. Juarez backed Pumicpic to the corner and unleashed a flurry of shots to the head and body. It looked momentarily like he was going to succeed in getting a knockout, but Pumicpic got off the ropes and fought back brilliantly in connecting with some hard body shots.
Pumicpic kept ducking low in the 2nd round, and this enabled Juarez to land a lot of shopping shots to the head. He missed some of them, but he was still able to connect with some hurtful shots to the head of Pumicpic. The Filipino fighter kept backing up to the ropes for some reason, even though he didn’t appear to be tired in any way. He had a bad habit of backing up while under attack from Juarez. Each time Juarez would get Pumicpic against the ropes, he wound unleash a flurry of shots to the head and body. Pumicpic showed a good chin to take Juarez’s punishment without getting hurt. Juarez’s punching power wasn’t enough for him to hurt Pumicpic, who has never been knocked out before during his eight year pro career despite having lost eight fights.
Juarez began to show signs of tiring in the 3rd round, as he stopped attacking as hard. Pumicpic was able to slow the action down with wrestling on the inside. However, Juarez did land a huge left hook to the head that backed Pumicpic up at the 1:40 mark of the round. Pumicpic went to the ropes after taking that shot, and Juarez landed a tremendous left to the body that made a lot of noise when connecting. It was a great shot, but Pumicpic took it well.
In rounds four and five, Juarez caught Pumicpic against the ropes and pummeled him with power shots one after another. In each case, Pumicpic was able to get off the ropes and nail Juarez with powerful shots to the head and body. Juarez would then back Pumicpic up against the ropes again and continue to throw power shots. It was thrilling stuff seeing these two guys fire bombs back and forth.
Juarez was cut on the forehead at the start of the 6th round from a clash of heads with Pumicpic. However, a short while later, Juarez knocked Pumicpic down with a perfectly placed left hook to the head.
Juarez can certainly fight Donaire again and give him problems, but he needs to improve on defense for him to have a chance of beating him in a rematch. Donaire hits too hard, and if he’s able to land his power shots the way that he did in their first fight, the judges are going to give him another decision win.
In other boxing results on the card, flyweight Israel Gonzalez (16-1, 5 KOs) defeated Ramon Garcia Hirales (20-9-1, 12 KOs) by an eight round unanimous decision.