Omar Chavez defeats Ventry

By Boxing News - 10/14/2009 - Comments

By Jim Dower: Unbeaten light welterweight prospect Omar Chavez (18-0-1, 13 KO’s) had to battle hard to defeat journeyman James Ventry (7-10-1, 4 KO’s) by a six round unanimous decision on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. The final judges’ scores were 59-54, 58-55 and 58-55. Chavez, 19, the son of former boxing star Julio Cesar Chavez, dropped the 37-year-old Ventry in the 1st round.

However, after that Chavez struggled badly, showing poor defense and little power. There was a point in the fight where it was unclear who would come out the victor in the fight as Ventry was badly outworking the young Chavez and fighting it easy to land his shots through Chavez’s nonexistent defense.

Luckily after the 4th round, Ventry tired out and stopped punching as often. Chavez then took over in rounds five and six, getting the better of Ventry but still getting hit a lot by Ventry.

In the 1st round, Ventry jumped all over Chavez, walking forward and hitting him with punch after punch to the head. Chavez blocked none of the shots and was like a human punching bag. I could see no similarities to his famous father during that time in the fight. The power and the heavy hands were missing from Chavez and his defense was just not there.

At the midpoint of the round, Chavez dropped the 7-10 Ventry with a left-right combination to the head. Ventry got up and continued to take shots from the wiry, rail thin Chavez for the remainder of the round. Chavez was unable to put Ventry down again, however.

Chavez appeared to edge the 2nd round due to a number of hard shots that he landed. But he still continued to take a lot of punishment from Ventry, who was able to hit Chavez at will with shots. The only thing that slowed Ventry down from landing more was his inability to throw shots nonstop. Chavez’s defense was horrid. His famous father sat ringside during this time with a sour expression on his face, as if he was not pleased with his son’s performance.

In rounds three and four, Ventry bombarded Chavez at will with punch after punch without Chavez doing anything to stop the steady incoming flow of punches. It was hard to see any flashes of talent from Chavez at this time in the fight. He looked much worse than the 7-10 journeyman he was fighting.

In the 5th and 6th, Ventry tired out from punching Chavez so many times. With the amount of shots that he landed cleanly in the 3rd and 4th rounds, I wasn’t surprised that Ventry would tire out because he threw a lot of punches and was able to hit Chavez an enormous amount of times.

By this time, Chavez’s face was badly reddened on the right side from the many shots that Ventry had hit him with. In the last two rounds, the 5th and 6th, Ventry’s work rate dropped off and he began to miss a lot of his shots even when he stood directly in front of Chavez. This enabled Chavez to retake control over the fight and win the last two rounds. It still wasn’t pretty because he kept taking shots during this time and didn’t look powerful or impressive.