By Jim Dower: In a closely contested match, interim World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight champ Darleys Perez (32-1, 20 KOs) was able to beat the hard hitting Jonathan Maicelo (21-1, 12 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision last Friday night on ESPN2 from the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California. The final judges’ scores were 118-109, 118-109 and 120-107.
The fight was much closer than the lopsided scores the judges handed down, as Perez did precious little in many of the rounds and Maicelo was constantly landing the harder shots. In the 11th, knocked Maicelo down with a left hand after hurting him moments earlier.
Many of the rounds were extremely difficult to pick a winner because both guys were fighting so strategically and not letting their hands go enough to establish a clear winner. It was mostly dull action without a lot of punches thrown.
In other action, welterweight Francisco Santana (22-3-1, 1 Kos) destroyed Kendal Mena (20-1, 11 Kos) by a 1st round knockout. The fight was obviously seen as a competitive one on paper beforehand, but Mena was clearly not ready for a fighter in the class of Santana due to the poor opposition that Mena had built his inflated resume on going into the fight. Santana was able to nail Mena repeatedly with clean left hands to the head in the 1st. Finally, Santana loaded up with a huge left hook to the head that put Mena down flat on his back on the canvas. Mena stared at the lights while on his back and was very hurt from the knockout. The fight was immediately halted at that point at 1:43 of the round.
In heavyweight action, a plump 281 pound Jerrell Miller (11-0-1, 9 KOs) waddled his way to an unimpressive six round unanimous decision over 35-year-old Aaron Kinch (5-4-2, 1 KOs). The final judges’ scores were 60-54, 60-43 and 60-53. Miller threw a lot of punches, but he lacked power. He appeared to be at least 30 pounds overweight for the fight. The weight is going to need to come off if he wants to find out what he really has as a fighter.
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