By Jim Dower: Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) did what many people expected him to do and that is easily defeat Carlos Molina (17-1, 7 KO’s) by a 10th round TKO in what meant as a confidence building fight for the down in his luck Khan at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California.
The fight was stopped after the 10th round with a badly beaten Molina still on his stool in between rounds at the request of his corner people. The fight was stopped due to Molina’s badly cut up left eye, but it was also stopped in part because Molina wasn’t throwing many punches in the last six rounds and was taking a horrendous beating from the taller Khan.
Other than an odd punch here and there thrown by Molina in the first four rounds, it was all Khan, as he tore into the slower, and much shorter Molina. Khan was throwing a lot of combinations but he also was backing off to throw jabs. You could see Khan mentally thinking, ‘I got to back off.’ It looked weird and out of place for Khan, and I don’t know if this new style will help him beat better fighters than Molina, as Khan still leaves himself wide open quite often when he throws flurries and was throwing a lot of them tonight.
As far the changes that I saw in Khan’s game, I’d say he’s perhaps 10 to 20% changed from before. I don’t know if that’s going to be enough for him to be able to beat the better fighters in the division, however.
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Undefeated heavyweight Deontay Wilder (26-0, 26 KO’s) prospect defeated Kelvin Price (13-1, 6 KO’s) by a 3rd round TKO in a fight that Wilder underperformed up until finally scoring a knockout with a big right hand to the head of Price that left him his back and looking stunned. But overall, it wasn’t a good performance from Wilder, as he showed clearly that he doesn’t have much in his offensive skills other than a big fight hand. His jab was nonexistent, he didn’t use his left hand to throw punches, and he looked clumsy on his feet. His defense was mostly his feet, but he didn’t have to worry too much coming back at him because Price showed little in the way of offensive skills.
By the 2nd round, the crowd had grown restless at the non-action between the two raw heavyweights and they then began to boo loudly. This must have gotten to Wilder, because in the next round he hurt Price with two short right hands when the two fighters came together briefly in a clinch. Wilder must have known Price was hurt because he immediately hit him with his hardest right hand of the night and that sent Price down and out.
Wilder needs a lot of work and you have to wonder if he’s getting it with his current trainers that he has. He might need to consider looking for a new team because he looks still like a novice despite having fought as a pro since 2008. There’s much in the way of development that I can see in his game.
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Junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo (22-2, 19 KO’s) had to really reach for everything he had to defeat Jorge Silva (18-3-2, 14 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision. All three judges scored it 97-93 for Angulo. However, it was far from an impressive performance despite the fact that Angulo really punished Silva in the last four rounds of the fight.
Angulo was made to look slow by the game Silva, and he was hit with a lot of shots that knocked him off balance quite frequently. Silvan was really taking the fight to Angulo in many of the rounds. However, Silva couldn’t maintain the pace, and eventually Angulo was able to wear him down and really batter him in the last part of the fight.
This wasn’t the type of fight that Angulo’s team had expected when Silva was chosen for him, because this was supposed to have been a one-sided fight, as Silva’s a 2nd tier fight, yet Angulo had to really struggle in this fight and you really wonder if he’s going to ever pan out.
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IBF bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (23-0-1, 13 Ko’s) defeated Alberto Guevara (16-1, 6 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 116-112, 118-110 and 119-109. This wasn’t an easy fight for Santa Cruz, as Guevara proved to be really light on his feet and was able to move around to not present a stationary target for the Antonio Margarito-like Santa Cruz. Without a stationary target, Santa Cruz was a lot less impressive than he normally is, and he took a lot of shots from Guevara in this fight. The difference here was that Guevara didn’t have Santa Cruz’s huge power and that kept him from winning.
Other boxing results on the card:
Errol Spence TKO 3 Richard Andrews
Joseph Diaz UD 4 Vicente Alfaro
Jerren Cochran UD 4 Chris Lopez
Marcus Browne KO 1 Ritchie Cherry
Frankie Gomez TKO 1 Pavel Miranda
Hugo Centeno Jr RTD 6 Allen Conyers
Shawn Porter 10 draw Julio Diaz
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