By: William Holmes
Showtime and Golden Boy Promotions broadcasted an outside in Carson California. They had big competition from HBO tonight as their card was being broadcast from Montreal, Canada, one of the hottest cities for boxing in North America. Carson did not disappoint as they set an attendance record at the Home Depot Center.
Showtime wasted little time in broadcasting the first televised fight between Jermell Charlo (21-0) and Demetrius Hopkins (33-3-1) in the junior middleweight division. Unfortunately this was a dull fight with few moments of excitement.
Charlo controlled the fight his jab and Hopkins was inactive and too hesitant to go on the offensive. The crowd was booing throughout and Charlo won with scores of 115-113, 115-113, and 115-113.
The next fight of the night was between Erislandy Lara (17-1-2) and Alfredo Angulo (22-2) for the WBA Interim Junior Middleweight title. Lara and Angulo did more than enough to make up for fans displeasure in the second fight.
Lara started the fight off strongly and was connecting with his straight left cross in the middle of Angulo’s face in the first round. His combinations were quicker and Angulo looked slow early on but Angulo never stopped coming forward.
Lara was blocking most of Angulo’s punches but Angulo was slowly and increasingly pounding the body of Lara. In the fourth round Angulo’s persistence paid off when he suddenly landed a short left hook that knocked Lara down for the first time in his career. Angulo jumped on Lara after the knock down but Lara was able to survive.
Lara went back to boxing and doing his best to avoid any unnecessary brawls but Angulo continued to apply the pressure. By round six Angulo hand landed forty body punches in comparison to two body punches for Lara.
The action exploded in round nine when Angulo dropped Lara again with a left hook after pounding the body of his opponent. Lara was hurt more this round than before but was able to survive again.
Lara started the next round by using his combinations from the outside and landed a two punch combination that forced Angulo to turn around and walk away. The referee immediately stopped the fight since it appeared Angulo quit inside the ring.
Virgil Hill, Angulo’s trainer, claimed that Lara had thumbed his fighter in the eye but the massive hemotoma over Angulo’s left eye indicated his eye socket may have been severely damaged. Lara won by TKO at 1:57 of the tenth round.
Josesito Lopez (30-5) and Marcos Maidana (33-3) met in the welterweight division for the main event. Luckily fight fans were presented with action that eclipsed the previous fight.
Maidana came out in the first round being more active with his jab and Lopez was able to land couple overhand rights. The crowd was strongly pro-Lopez and cheered every time Lopez landed a punch. Maidana ended the first round with hard overhand right and Lopez answered back immediately.
The action in the second round eclipsed the first round as Maidana started to land solid hooks to the body and Lopez was crisp with his jab and straight rights. Lopez and Maidana began to brawl more than box in this round and that trend would continue towards more violence as the fight progressed.
Maidana started off the third round with a hard two punch combination while Lopez resorted back to his jab. Lopez connected three straight right hands that backed Maidana up and he was tagging the tiring Maidana with increasing regularity. The crowd rose to it’s feet as Lopez hurt Maidana with fifteen seconds in the round.
Lopez continued in the fourth round and hurt Maidana with an early body head combination. Later on in the round Lopez walked through a left hook by Maidana and pounds him with a combination by the corner. Maidana tries to hold on but falls down in the process. Luckily for him the referee ruled it a slip.
Maidana began to turn the fight back in his favor in the fifth round when he stung Lopez with two hard right uppercuts. Maidana continued to land hard body punches and vicious straight rights to the head. Maidana closed out the fifth round strong and began the sixth round even stronger.
Maidana was still confident from his strong fifth round and pressed the action on Lopez and dropped him with a body head combination. Lopez got up but was immediately met by an aggressive Maidana who continued his assault. Maidana landed some hard unanswered punches by the corner including a head snapping uppercut that forced the referee to stop the bout.
Marcos Maidana wins a thriller by TKO at 1:18 of the sixth round.