J’Leon Love defeats Periban

By Boxing News - 05/03/2014 - Comments

007 Love vs Periban IMG_9174(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Jim Dower: Unbeaten #14 WBA J’Leon Love (18-0, 10 KO’s) overcame a 5th round knockdown to come back and defeat Marco Antonio Periban (20-2-1, 13 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision to capture the WBA International super middleweight title on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges scores were 95-93, 97-92, and 96-93. Love was very fortunate to survive the 5th round because he took a pounding in that round and was on the verge of being stopped after getting hit with a crushing right hand from Periban.

After being stunned, Love was hit with a nonstop flurry of hard power shots that ended with Love going down. Periban nailed Love with at least two punches to the back of the head after he went down. Love was able to get back to his feet and clinch his way out of the round. During the round, referee Jay Nady shoved an exhausted Periban back and knocked him to the canvas due to Periban being so tired from throwing punches. In the 6th, Periban had no gas left in the tank after throwing everything he had in the previous round in trying to get Love out.

Love then took over the round and was able top jab a tired Periban at will. Late in the round, Love hit Periban with an elbow to left eye that opened up a bad cut that was quite deep. Love continued to dominate the action in rounds 7 through 10 against a tired Periban.

Overall, Love looked good, especially with jabs and his defensive ability. His jab is quite good, and he’s able to dominate with that weapon alone. However, his lack of power is going to be a problem as he moves up the ranks to face the better contenders like George Groves and James DeGale. Those two fighters appear to be a level above Love in talent right now. Love is young enough to wait out champions like Sakio Bika, Carl Froch, Andre Ward and Arthur Abraham, but he’s young enough to wait out the younger and more talented fighters like Groves and DeGale. Love will need to improve for him to beat those fighters.



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