Rising Cuban light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera had to get off the deck to do it, but in the end Barrera went on to largely control Felix Valera like he was supposed to. It was the second consecutive HBO fight in which Barrera had issues early only to overcome them to control the fight the rest of the way.
This was a fun one for sure. As Sullivan Barrera (21-1, 15 KOs) pressed forward to get some early work done in the opening round, Dominican power puncher Felix Valera (15-2, 13 KOs) unleashed a beautiful downstairs to upstairs dual left hook combination that landed flush and put the favored fighter down. Unfortunately for Valera, he too ended up having a knockdown scored against him to close the round as well. It wasn’t as serious, but it negated an all important potential two point round.
In bursts the second round was a war. Valera showboated early only to get tagged, but he fired back too and had his moments as well. Early in the third Felix Valera landed a big low blow and lost an early point having already been sternly warned for the same infraction previously. This coupled with the fact that the Cuban really took control resulted in a 10-8 in his favor.
Valera loosened up a bit in the fourth and did some good work, but it was a round that could have gone either way thanks to Barrera’s body work and a strong opening right hand. Of note, a good right hook from a temporarily south paw turned Valera did dramatically worsen a cut over Barrera’s eye that had been opened earlier. Though the fifth was close, Barrera seemed to have a solid lead at the halfway point.
This was strengthened further by another low blow deduction to start the sixth. These were hard low blows too and Valera was warned that another would result result in a disqualification. After that penalty, the sixth turned into a very fun round. Like many of the others, both fighters did good work but Barrera seemed like he just did more.
Valera notably seemed quite exhausted and maybe hurt in his corner in between rounds, but he was back to doing pretty well but not well enough to win the round in the seventh just the same. The eighth brought more Barrera control and yet another point deduction. At this point the scores were academic and the Dominican’s only chance was clearly a knockout. He was also lucky to not have been disqualified given the referee’s previous threats.
Barrera gave one point back in the ninth on a big low blow of his own which was strange given that he had never been warned, but it didn’t feel like it mattered anymore. Valera’s corner told him the needed the knockout in the tenth and he came out looking for it, but it wasn’t there to be found. He also didn’t have enough left in the tank to press for it for three minutes.
In the end, I only gave Valera two rounds, but despite that I thought he made a pretty good showing for himself against a top light heavyweight. My score was 97-89 after the all the deductions while HBO’s Harold Lederman scored it 98-88. The official scores came back similar for Barrera.
