The first of tonight’s two Premier Boxing Champions cards has reached its conclusion. In the main event, Devon Alexander should have continued to revitalize his career with a nice win over former contender Victor Ortiz. Unfortunately, the decision came back a stupid draw. Caleb Plant also picked up a career best victory over former title challenger Rogelio Medina in the co-featured fight.
Devon Alexander (28-4, 14 KOs) boxed well in the first round. Victor Ortiz (32-7-2, 25 KOs) got going a bit in its last few seconds, but Alexander’s jabs and quick left hands carried the opening three minutes. I thought Ortiz picked up the pace in the second round and did some nice work with his lead hook, but I should note the commentary team was seeing these two rounds the exact opposite of me. Victor was bleeding going into the third and then his face got even worse when his left eye started swelling close thanks to the work of his St. Louis based foe. Alexander’s sharper work definitely carried rounds three and four.
By round five Victor Ortiz had largely given up on boxing. Instead he basically was just walking into Devon’s work while trying to close the gap. Occasionally Ortiz would get in and land a decent shot, but mostly he just was being battered around. His aggression worked a little better in the sixth, though I still thought Devon did the better work. The seventh was a really fun round in which the former two weight world titlist held his ground more either out of choice or fatigue. This gave Victor the openings he needed to get his work in really well at times. He still got lit up with some flashy shots, but I thought it was the first really good round for Ortiz in a while.
The firefight continued in the eighth. This was increasingly good stuff to watch. The commentary team was repeatedly highlighting the admittedly nice work Devon Alexander was doing, but Ortiz landed some of the stronger shots in a very close round. I’d shade it to Alexander, but I do wish Ortiz was getting the credit he deserved from the broadcast’s narrators. He didn’t win the ninth, however, as Alexander re-established his movement a bit in that round.
Victor Ortiz deserves a lot of credit for the fight he put on here, even though he should have lost. He ate a ton of clean shots tonight and pressed through it all. He really did some work tonight in redeeming his reputation as a quitter, though his reputation as a top welterweight is probably past salvaging at this point. He ate some especially vicious uppercuts in the tenth, but he came back out for the eleventh and kept trying. Both men were exhausted by the end of that round, but Victor was still plugging away. He might have won it too. Given that fatigue, it wasn’t surprising to see the final round contested sloppily in the clinch.
I scored the fight 116-112 for Devon Alexander. Official scores came back 115-113 Ortiz and 114-114 twice. I didn’t see it that way at all.
Caleb Plant (17-0, 10 KOs) coolly and calmly outboxed Rogelio “Porky” Medina (38-9, 32 KOs) over twelve rounds in the FOX show’s opening bout. This was a thorough outclassing with Plant being able to do basically anything he wanted. Mostly he moved around, jabbed, landed sharp right hands, and slipped. I didn’t see a number, but his connect percentage must have been off the charts. There were no real moments of drama or noteworthiness at all other than maybe Medina rallying to have a pretty good round 11. The fight was largely the same throughout otherwise. It was a pretty good performance for the unbeaten 25 year old prospect turning contender in terms of showcasing his skills and getting the job done, but it wasn’t exactly exciting.
Now there are a couple caveats with Porky’s poor performance. First, he missed weight and may have been drained physically if he truly pulled himself down as far as he could. Second, he was wearing a knee brace on his lead leg and never seemed completely comfortable and fluid putting his weight on it. Mostly, however, I think the near 50 fight veteran is just nearing the end of his career as a threat to top fighters. Porky really looked like he was struggling to led his hands go. He’s not even 30 yet, but he has had a full modern career worth of fights and he is a guy who takes a lot of shots in them. Finally, a slick mover like Caleb Plant would always be a tricky matchup for him anyway.
2016 Olympian Carlos Balderas (4-0, 3 KOs) was drawn the four round distance for the first time by Mexican club fighter Jorge Rojas (4-3, 2 KOs) in a swing bout between the two main fights. Balderas is a good prospect with a lot of obvious talent, but the 21 year old lightweight needs to work on his overall game outside looking for the knockout. He hurt Rojas almost immediately, but did struggle a tiny bit more than expected in terms of getting hit. Still, he is quite young and will continue to develop.
