Inside Ringside

From the opening bell in the first round, it looked like another dud from Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, as he did almost nothing in the first round.  Reyes the more active fighter looked to actually have a chance, but boy did that turn around quickly.  In the second, Chavez Jr started loading up with huge overhand rights and left hooks to the body and head, and Reyes would have no answer.

Chavez missed weight as you already know, and refused to be weighed in unofficially on the day of the fight, but to the naked eye it looked like he outweigh Reyes by at least 15-20 pounds.  Reyes, the obnoxiously smaller man last night could not hurt the huge looking Chavez with anything at all.  So basically, Chavez Jr just started walking Reyes down, eating all his punches, and firing back with the biggest shots he could muster.  It looked like a super Middleweight in the ring fighting against a Cruiserweight.  It was actually quite embarrassing how much bigger Chavez Jr was then his opponent, but none the less, I guess the plan worked.

In the middle rounds, Chavez turned from a slugger to a boxer, utilizing his jab very effectively, and was actually really nice to watch.  He was setting up his right hand and left hook there after with a stellar power jab, that rocked the head of Reyes back and forth.  Chavez would then abandon this tactic in the later rounds, and start slugging again.  To Reyes’ credit, he did take the powerful shots very well, because in the early rounds it looked like he was gonna get disposed of very quickly.  Chavez Jr cuised to a unanimous decision victory by basically walking through and mowing down his opponent, seemingly because of the huge size difference.  He improves to 49 – 2 – 1, 1NC (32KO’s).

Imam Defeats Angulo, Looks Terrific:

In my opinion, the most talented and fastest rising star in the sport of boxing is Amir Imam.  This kid has it all.  Speed, power in both hands, his defense will be elite with more experience, and his general knowledge of boxing at such a young age is just unbelievable.  Imam started off with the lightning quick jab, snapping Angulos head back time after time.

Imam stayed calm throughout the fight even though the wild Fernando Angulo kept throwing haymakers trying to get a knockout victory.  He did land one lucky shot that seemed to buzz Imam for a split second, but he recovered almost immedialty, and kept out boxing Angulo.  In the 4th round, Imam would come put strong, hitting Angulo with a power jab (that he stepped right into), and followed it up with a right cross directly to the side of Angulos’ head, which put him down immediately.  Angulo would not be able to get up from that huge combination, and Amir Imam cruises to a knockout victory in the fourth round, improving his record to 19 – 0 (16 KO’s).

In what was definitely the sloppiest fight of the night, McJoe Arroyo and Arthur Villanueva went at it for the vacant 115 pound IBF Championship.  The fight was filled with head butts and not much else.  Neither fighter landed over a 100 pinches in the fight, which is unusual for a 12 rounder.  Villanueva ended up with one of the deepest cuts I have ever seen due to an accidental head butt, and the fight was stopped and taken to the score cards.  Arroyo got the nod on the scorecards, but both fighters were undeserving of a win here, as they both performed horrendously.  McJoe Arroyo is now the IBF 115 pound champion.