Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. retained his WBC middleweight title with a twelve round unanimous decision over tough Marco Antonio Rubio. Scores were 118-110, 116-112, and 115-113. Chavez Jr. struggled to make weight - and then put on nearly 22 pounds in the 30 hours between the weigh-in and the fight - but looked strong throughout and did not fade down the stretch. However, he reportedly skipped a mandatory post-fight drug test so there may be more to this story. Combine this with his arrest for drunk driving just two weeks prior to the fight and it looks like the 25-year-old Chavez still has a lot of maturing to do before he's ready to face the real middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.
Punch Stats: Total Punches - Chavez Jr.: 237 of 560 (42%); Rubio: 201 of 962 (21%). Power Punches: Chavez Jr.: 209 of 429 (49%); Rubio: 157 of 653 (24%).
In the co-feature, Nonito Donaire, a top five pound-for-pounder, moved up in weight to claim the vacant WBO super bantamweight title with a tougher than expected twelve round split decision over former champ Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.. Donaire dropped Vasquez in round nine with an uppercut, left hook combo but Vasquez popped right up and remained competitive until the final bell. Donaire hurt his left hand early in the bout and - unlike many fighters who claim an injured hand to excuse a poor performance - the tape on Donaire's hand was soaked with blood when his glove was removed after the fight. Scores were 117-110 twice for Donaire and an atrocious 115-112 for Vasquez from judge Ruben Garcia, who somehow only gave four rounds to Donaire. Add Garcia to the long list of judges who should find another line of work.
Punch Stats: Total Punches - Donaire: 231 of 556 (42%); Vasquez Jr.: 163 of 548 (30%). Power Punches: Donaire: 147 of 245 (60%); Vasquez Jr.: 56 of 163 (34%).
Comments
I agree, the score by Ruben Garcia….115-112 for Vazquez was really awful. I wondered what fight was he watching or was he busy cleaning his fingernails.?
A solid performance by Donaire and an honest post fight interview. He seemed to indicate that he might stay at Bantamweight and that going up in weight was tougher than expected. He still hits very hard at Superbantam but some of the opponents will absorb the punches so much better. The question remains will Donaire be able to absorb the harder punches in the late rounds of a tough fight. He surely doesn’t need Ruben Garcia as a judge, pathetic.
Good to see Chavez silence some more of the criticism leveled at him. However it is worrying to read of substance abuse and you wonder if he will throw it all away when he is so close to genuine star status. I still think he is too big and strong for Martinez who looked anything but superb in his last outing. If Chavez is serious about staying at middleweight and conducts himself properly in and out of the fight game he could light up the devision.
Did Judge Garcia give Donaire a 10-8 round when the knockdown was scored? How can a judge be so out of touch with what;s going on? This occurs far too often in Boxing & the sport should do something affirmative to adress it. When a judge hands in a score that is obviously scored poorly, that judge should be confronted by being compeled by whatever alphabet organization is in charge of the ofgficiating, along with an official of the commision of the venue. Hopefully, those enities have people who posess knowledge of boxing & how a boxing match should be scored. The Judge should then be compelled to review the bout round by round to substantiate his scoring ratuionale. Hopefully it’s only ineptitude at work here & not corruption. A judge who is this ineffective at his task should be relegated to scoring low rung bouts until he either actually learns his craft & scores matches correctly or in the alternative finds a new line of work. I simply think there are far too many judges who simply are ignorant about boxing & obtained their positions via cronyism, politics, nepotism or somekind of connection instead of ability. Why is bad officiating & judge scoring at such a ubiquitous & frequent level?