Mariusz Wach decisions Marcelo Luiz Nascimento

By Boxing News - 05/14/2016 - Comments

wach6By Jim Dower: In a fight a lot tougher than expected, former heavyweight world title challenger Mariusz Wach (32-2, 17 KOs) had to struggle hard to defeat 35-year-old journeyman Marcelo Luiz Nascimento (22-13, 19 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Hala Azoty, in Kedzierzyn Kozle, Poland.

The 36-year-old Wach was a little bit better than Nascimento in every round. Wach mostly just jabbed and plodded forward looking to load up on slow right hands. Nascimento was able to get out of the way of most of Wach’s slow right hands. Howecver, Wach started to find his mark more often starting in the 4th round. Nascimento made it each for Wach by backing up to the ropes, where he was a sitting duck.

The final judges’ scores were 96-94, 96-95 and 98-92. Wach appeared to win enough rounds to justify the 98-92 score because he always just a little bit better than Nascimento.

The Brazilian fighter was throwing wild haymakers missing by a mile most of the time. The shots Nascimento did land didn’t move the 6’7” Wach because they were thrown with such bad form. Nascimento would have better off to throw straight right hands rather than throwing looping shots that had little power on them.

For Wach, this was his first fight since being stopped in the 12th round by Alexander Povetkin last year in November. Wach gave Povetkin a lot of problems before getting halted. Wach fought for a world title against former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko four years ago in 2012 in losing a one-sided 12 round decision. Wach has since won five of his six fights over weaker opposition. Wach can beat the lower level guys with his size and his steady jab. He runs into troubles when he steps up in class against better fighters.

Nascimento has lost three out of his last five fights. Besides his loss to Wach, Nascimento has also lost recently to Dereck Chisora, Johann Duhaupas, Carlos Takam, Dillian Whyte, Eddie Chambers and Joseph Parker.