Alberto Machado had a rough ride along the way, but in the end he scored a one shot eighth round stoppage of Jezreel Corrales to win his first world title. Corrales had already lost it previously on the scale. Demetrius Andrade won a pretty simple decision against seemingly disinterested Alantez Fox in the opener.
In the first two rounds, Jezreel Corrales (22-2, 8 KOs) used his considerable athleticism advantage to at times overwhelm his bigger but slower challenger. Often he was wild, but he had such a speed advantage that it didn’t matter. Alberto Machado (19-0, 16 KOs) was landing, but taking several for every one in return.
Machado actually responded pretty well in the third, punctuated by landing a big left hand about two thirds of the way through. Corrales took control back in the fourth, however, and things got much worse when Corrales hurt and dropped Machado in the fifth on one of many big left hands.
Everything turned on its head from basically no where in the sixth round. Alberto Machado landed a short but powerful counter right hook that had Corrales in terrible shape. The Panamanian hung on for dear life, even going as far as to essentially score an MMA takedown to avoid engaging on poor legs.
The Puerto Rican challenger came out looking for a finish in the seventh, but he again turned around and got hurt himself in an increasingly wild fight. Worse for Machado, he snuck in a short shot that caused Corrales to touch his glove without the referee noticing. It didn’t hurt him but it should have been an extra point.
The eighth round continued the theme of alternating hurting one another and brought the end of the fight. About half way through the frame, both fighters landed simultaneous and huge straight left hands. Machado might have been buzzed by his, but Corrales was put down very hard. He beat the count, but the referee ruled that he was in no shape to continue. Alberto Machado is now your WBA junior lightweight titleholder. That was a damn good fight.
Corrales having missed weight must be mentioned as well. It is hard to say how exactly something like this has impacted the fight, but it didn’t look like he had killed himself trying to make weight by any means. Regardless, he is no longer the WBA junior lightweight titleholder as that belt was briefly vacant and now is owned by Machado. Corrales should move to lightweight. but post fight he was crying for a rematch.
In the opener, Demtrius Andrade (25-0, 16 KOs) cruised to an easy win over Alantez Fox (23-1-1, 11 KOs) in a fight that got less interesting to watch as it went on. This was no fault of the debuting middleweight here, however. Alantez Fox just wasn’t particularly interested in entertaining the crowd. Maybe Andrade could have pressed harder, but you can only work with what is in front of you.
Almost immediately at the beginning of the fight, Andrade landed a big shot and wobbled Fox. From there the 6’5″ middleweight froze and never opened up. According to the HBO crew, Fox has averaged near ninety punches a round in previous fights. Here he rarely put up even thirty. Fox was awarded a bogus knockdown in the seventh round on a combination slip and trip, but otherwise he was shut out over twelve.
Here is to Demetrius Andrade staying active at middleweight now. He is a very talented fighter and there are some real compelling matches to be made in the division. Hopefully he doesn’t fall back to his fight only once a year habit.
