The first PBC show of the night is in the books. It opened with an upset, but the main billed bouts came back with their expected returns. Both Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares prevailed over Chris Avalos and Andres Gutierrez respectively. The real story was the opener, however, in which unbeaten prospect Eddie Ramirez was upset by former titlist Antonio DeMarco in dramatic fashion.
Leo Santa Cruz’s eighth round stoppage win over Chris Avalos went as expected. Santa Cruz, who is not a puncher, landed and landed at will against his wide open opponent. Avalos was game, but it was never even close to enough. It was never going to be. The stoppage came as a result of accumulation rather than Avalos being hurt at the time. Really he was fine when it was stopped, but it was a good one anyway due to the hopelessness of his situation.
This was a tune up through and through. It was somehow simultaneously action packed and tedious to watch at the same time due to its obvious inevitability. There isn’t much else to say here. Santa Cruz had a particularly strong fourth round, I guess, if you’re looking for a small part of the fight to watch.
Three division titleholder Abner Mares (31-2-1, 15 KOs) won a ten round technical decision over extremely game and just as outmatched challenger Andres Gutierrez (35-2-1, 25 KOs) in the c0-main event. The fight was stopped due to a cut that opened early on an accidental headbutt and then was made pretty nasty by repeated right hands.
Mares dominated this fight start to finish. Early on he was boxing spectacularly against his slower opponent, landing massive shots and sliding away. Over time he fatigued a bit and Gutierrez was able to do a little here and there, but never enough to win a round. I wanted this stopped a bit earlier as Gutierrez was just taking an epic beating, but it was finally pulled due to the cut in the tenth at least. Overall Mares showed pretty good stamina here too.
Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares II looks like its on its way for early next year.
Opening the show, Antonio DeMarco (33-6-1, 24 KOs) gave one hell of a statement towards his continuing relevance in the sport with a first round finish of hot PBC prospect Eddie Ramirez in the very first round. This was not what was supposed to happen here. Ramirez came out hot, putting DeMarco in the corner and attacking. A counter shot had him reeling before too long, however, and Ramirez ended up in the opposite corner trying to defend himself. After a few big shots, the fight was waved off.
I thought the stoppage was a hair early, but the veteran was landing and the prospect wasn’t exactly doing a stellar job protecting himself. I’ve seen worse.
