Soto vs. Antillon II Preview

• Las Vegas, Nevada – 5/7/2011
• Humberto Soto (55-7-2, 32 KO’s) vs. Urbano Antillon (28-2, 20 KO’s)

Credit: Mexsport

I see the rematch being a near identical version of the first, which is great news for anyone paying the $60 plus for the Pacquiao vs. Mosley Pay-per-view. It's a fight pitting two guys with aggressive, come-forward styles, each seeking to assert his position in the increasingly crowded lightweight division scene.

In the first couple of rounds, Soto’s skill advantage will be obvious with Antillon slow on shots and trying to pin Soto on the ropes and cut the ring off. I see Soto building an early lead with Antillon having a couple flurries here and there. Towards the middle of the fight Antillon will close the gap and get Soto to engage a bit, earning him some rounds. From about round 8 and on, this fight will be back and forth. As skilled as a boxer Soto is, the dude’s got heart and as we learned from the first fight – he’s got a chin too. Of course, he's typically the unabashed aggressor in his bouts, so seeing him apply more technical boxing in the face of another come-forward fighter sheds light on both his versatility, as well as the strength of Antillon.

Although Antillon will make it in into a war, and Soto will engage at certain points, especially later on because he’s a warrior, the early lead Humberto builds will be the difference and make up for the points he gives up to Urbano in the flurry filled action later.

Soto vs. Antillon II Prediction

With the scoring of certain fights recently being so bad, one judge will find a way to give Antillon the nod by a point or two. The other judges will have the same scores but in reverse for Soto. Ultimately, Soto is the more skilled and more versatile fighter and that will enable him to eek this one out again.

Prediction: Soto by Split Decision

At some point in everyone’s life they come across someone or something they are in awe of. Even those with the biggest of egos run into a situation where, although they won’t show you publicly, on a private level, they  marvel at it. It’s what makes gifts and abilities unique. They vary from person to person but every person has something they do well and do it better than most. The individuals who put those gifts to use on a big enough stage get to enjoy the benefits of them the most. It’s the athletes, the actors, the entertainers, the musicians and so forth who see the most fortune and fame from their gifts.

In the fight game, those who take their gifts, expand them, build a buzz, market themselves and reach the pinnacle of their sport, get that same “movie star” response and in some cases, even go mainstream and parlay that into a career outside the ropes and cage.

The difference for professional fighters is there comes a time in this high risk – high reward place of work where someone younger, someone hungrier, and maybe even someone better stands in front of you.

And by You I don’t mean, a cast, a team, or a band… I mean You and only You. I’ve heard it so many times from fighters – “Once you’re in there, you’re alone”

To me that’s the beauty. And behind every ounce of beauty is a pound of tragedy.

Through the years in my boxing life, there have been a lot of great ones. But there are those precious few that come along and carry that aura. It’s difficult to explain to those that don’t see it. But take your favorite musician or entertainer. The one whose amazing gift and talent blows you away, and mix in a mystery and presence that can control a room, an arena, and a stadium. Now sprinkle on an innate passion for violence and the understanding that inflicting physical pain is their path to success, and that’s the type of species I’m referring too.

Mike Tyson is at the top of the list for me as far as having that aura about him. With his black trunks, no robe, blank stare, calm demeanor and assault riffle like aggression the moment the bell rang, he won majority of his fights before he even got in the ring. There’s an old adage that says - “the only thing worse than getting your ass kicked, is waiting for it to happen.” With Tyson, it couldn’t be more true.

But then when Tyson himself was finally beat and knocked out, the aura diminished and the psychological advantage he had taken with him into every battle slowly became less threatening, and the fear faded for most of his opponents after.

This past weekend in the MMA world, a similar thing happened.

Fedor Emelianenko had that aura about him. A polite and humble man, the Russian heavyweight has a highlight reel full of brutal knockouts and submissions, to go along with the emotionless entrance and calm demeanor that Tyson had. When he lost Saturday, you saw a sense of knowing that the mental advantage he had become so used to, would probably never be captured again. It’s part of the business.

As fans and admirers of these special few, we feel an incredibly similar heartache. When Tyson lost, even as a kid I noticed his fans felt a disappointment different than that of a team loss. When your favorite football team loses, identifying and spreading out the heartache to a team of 50 plus players, sort of turns the break to a bruise. When you identify with an individual, it’s a singular pain.

The reaction to Fedor’s loss over the weekend from his fans was much like mine when a fighter I admire loses. What’s odd is that the most hurt physically and emotionally by the loss are the fighters themselves. To train tirelessly and invest relentlessly, just to come up short, is an exhausting defeat on so many levels. Yet the fans also wear the pain on their face as if they were the ones who stood toe-to-toe in that violent setting and lost.

The truth is, these fighters that we watch are the part of you that only exists in your mind. We’d all love to believe in some far away place that we could do the things we admire most but it’s just not the case. It’s why we fail to appreciate our own gifts and the things that make us great. Every single day, at every single moment, we do something that most people can’t. Because it’s so natural and routine, we don’t even notice it majority of the time.

When you latch onto a belief, your loyalty leads you to take emotional ownership of the end result. No matter how big and invincible a house may seem, the wind of a storm strong enough can always tear it down. And although you can physically rebuild the frame to a near identical version of the first, it’s never quite the same when the aura on the inside dies with the last gust."

Credit: Steven Limentani

When then 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins fought to a draw with Light Heavyweight champion Jean Pascal in December, he made it very clear and obvious to anyone who watched the fight, that the old man can still Go and can still Go hard. He looked great and the majority of fans and writers felt he was robbed and deserved the win.

At 48, Holyfield is a different story. On Saturday night he fought to a “No Contest” result with Sherman Williams as it was ruled Holyfield could not continue following an accidental head-butt in the 3^rd round.

When a boxer in his 40s goes out, laces up the gloves and trades shots in the ring, fan or not – they get your respect. But truth be told, Holyfield got that respect when he was beat on by James Toney in 2003 and his corner threw in the towel. The consensus around boxing was – “Great fighter, unmatched heart, Hall of Famer, A legend in the sport… But it’s time to retire. He can’t take another beating like that. He’s in his 40s and his skills have been slipping. This was it for Evander.”

He’s fought 9 times since.

When you see all-time greats and ex-fighters struggling later on in life because of the wars they were in years earlier, you just want to scream at the guy. You want to scream at the commissions that keep granting him a license to fight. You want to scream at his trainers for taking on the task, knowing he’s a shell of his former greatness. But in the end, who the hell am I to say when it’s his time to stop?

The view from the outside is always that – a view from the outside. We deal with these situations every day. How many times have you hammered a friend for choices in their love life? You tell them a list of reasons why they should leave their partner and are incensed when they don’t or when they do but go back… “How can you be with someone who does that to you?!”

We’ve all done it and will continue to. But most if not all of us have also been on the inside and have discarded similar comments and thoughts from others when it’s our decisions being questioned. The reason?

Love is blinding. When your heart leads your mind into a vulnerable world, your eyes cloud your judgment. What you want to see replaces what’s really there and your threshold for heartache and mental anguish reaches its peak. It’s just a side effect to an otherwise wonderful and amazing emotion. For Holyfield, that love, of course, is for boxing, and for being a champion.

Sometimes reality needs to hit you before you realize what it is. Sometimes you need to get knocked on your ass so that you can recognize the pain you’re enduring. The problem for Evander Holyfield is that his love is for something which not only has caused him emotional and mental blindness, but also has taken an unforgiving toll on his body.

For Holyfield, it shouldn't come to the literal and metaphorical punch of reality he will need to take to make him finally step away, but it will. And it might be his last.

[Check out our Muhammad Ali vs. Mike Tyson fantasy fight!]

Are you picking up on a common theme here?

All heavyweights.

What the hell has happened to the heavyweight division in boxing?!

Credit: Mike Boehm/ProBoxing-Fans.com

The most recent cancellation of the Wladimir Klitschko/David Haye fight is the latest in a long list of disappointing events that have transpired amongst boxing and its big boys. There are somewhat compelling possibilities in the division still, but not many. That was really the only fight in the weight class that had fans talking. The top 2 heavyweights in the world are Wladimir and his older brother Vitali. Both are good fighters and both have titles. But both have come out and stated multiple times that they will not fight each other. So unless one, or both, retires or loses, there is no unification possible. I mean, really? Is this what it has come down to?

No offense meant to those in the top 10, but the weight class… well, it kind of sucks now to be honest. It just feels watered down. If you ask a casual fan to name 3 heavyweights in the world, they probably couldn’t. There’s no possibility for crossover success and HBO doesn’t even carry heavyweight fights anymore. There’s zero excitement and zero buzz.

As someone who covers the sport, I will always watch. Part of it is the job but mainly it’s because I’m a fan. One thing I’ve made sure of during my time as a member of the media is that no matter what game, sport, or event I’ve covered, I’ll always remember that I’m still a fan. I’ve always recognized that I wouldn’t have chosen my career path, if it weren’t for the things I saw and enjoyed when I was younger. And when your first and fondest memories are the buzz around fights involving Tyson or an inspirational win by an aging warrior like Foeman, it gets frustrating that frankly the division just isn’t as good as it used to be.

(Maybe they feel the same about the writers…?)

If you look at the lower divisions, you have great matchups, crossover possibilities, and a wealth of established and rising talent. But there used to be a time when “the heavyweight fight” was exciting and what mattered most to the sport. I think it speaks to the real issue and begs a question that’s pretty tough to answer logically: Let's say you’re a big, athletic kid. If there are more lucrative and arguably safer options in the NFL or another sport where you can use that God given size to your advantage, why go into boxing and get punched for a living?

Given my physical stature, having to answer that question or make that choice has never been an issue. But no matter how much I diminish the current heavyweight landscape, as a writer and most importantly as someone who loves the sport as a fan, it would be impossible to diminish the respect I have for the big men that have made the choice to lace ‘em up and pursue their athletic dreams in the rough and unforgiving world of the sweet science.

Micky Ward Autographed/Hand Signed 16x20 Photo vs Gatti

Click to View Product Details

$78.95

Just like in the movie “Rudy” there were a lot of things exaggerated from an in-the-ring standpoint. I don’t want to ruin the flick for anyone that hasn’t seen it, but let's just say, the sequence of events after Ward’s win over Alfonoso Sanchez wasn’t accurately portrayed. Not to mention that the “beating” that he was given by Mike Mungin isn’t really a fair representation of the final score total from the fight.

But that’s Hollywood and that’s what you do with a lot of movies that are based on true stories; you have to dramatize them. No matter how nit-picky you want to get, there is no doubt that Christian Bale’s performance as Eklund was fantastic and I won’t be surprised if he receives an Oscar nomination for the role. The movie overall is good. The dialogue is thick with Boston slang, and funny. I would recommend it to anybody that hasn’t seen it.

Now, I’m not disappointed in any way that I saw it, but I’m a little disappointed that the only mention of Ward’s trilogy with Arturo Gatti was in the credits at the end. Make no mistake, if you talk to majority of boxing writers or hardcore boxing fans, they’ll tell you that the highlight of Ward’s career was his three wars with Gatti. I’ve made mention of the fights in columns before, in particular the 9^th round of their first battle, which is the greatest round that I’ve ever seen. I did find it odd in that some of the audio they used from the HBO announcers for his final fight in the movie was in fact pulled from that first Gatti fight, and not the fight shown in the movie.

I’ve always told anyone that would listen, that they need to watch that round, watch that fight, and watch that trilogy. Ward won that first fight and it would have been a fitting way to end the movie with him winning a battle that not even a director or Hollywood scriptwriter could come up with. It is that real, that dramatic, and that good.

Watch Gatti vs. Ward I Round 9

Admittedly I am not a movie critic. I have a brief background in acting and that is the extent of my in depth Hollywood knowledge. But I know what I feel and I know what inspires me. In one of the toughest times for me personally, I watched a replay of that first fight against Gatti and had chills and admiration for what I saw.

To sit here and rip a movie that people worked tirelessly on would be somewhat disrespectful to those parties involved. If you look at it from a consumer standpoint, you could say that I paid $11 to watch it, so I have the freedom to critique it. I also pay $10 a month for a DVR service and use that same freedom to playback, pause, record, watch, and delete various programs on my TV. There are three programs on my current DVR list that will never be deleted – Ward vs. Gatti I, II, and III.

HBO announcer Jim Lampley said it best during that epic first fight between Ward and Gatti. In the final minute of that 9^th round, with the crowd roar deafening, and Ward slugging it out and beating Gatti, Lampley yelled, “Just imagine if you bought a ticket!”

For those that did, there is no need to imagine. What they saw was real. And although the ticket I bought Monday didn’t get me the ending I desired, in that fight, Micky Ward got his.

For me, I spent the final moments of 2009 alone in a one bedroom apartment in North Charleston, South Carolina watching a replay of the first Juan Diaz/Juan Manuel Marquez fight, which is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Still, not an ideal New Year's Eve party for a single guy in his 20s… But being the new kid in town, I wasn’t exactly loaded with options or enough desire to sit at a bar downtown and look like I got off at the wrong exit. You see, that whole “southern hospitality” thing - it's not really all it's cracked up to be but I digress. For me, 2009 was a year full of sacrifices and ended up finishing strongly, and it was in 2010 when I found out just how quickly things can change, and without much warning.

The year in boxing started out with a ton of potential as well. There were solid matchups and big time fights scheduled. There was the anticipation of the “passing of the torch” battles like Shane Mosley taking on Andre Berto and the very real chance of finally getting to see Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather in the biggest fight the sport has had in the last two decades. But like I said, things change, and in boxing, sometimes they change without real reason either.

Now, maybe it’s just me but it seemed like there were a lot of cancellations in fights due to sickness and injury. That stuff you can’t control. The sport had some bad breaks in that department. Pacquiao/Mayweather not happening could and should have been avoided. Whether you believe the Mayweather side or the Pacquiao side, the end result was the same.

But the sport had some standout moments as well. Sergio Martinez is a superstar in the making, and behind Pacquiao and Mayweather, he is the best fighter in the world. 2010 saw an impressive win for the Argentinean over Kelly Pavlik and a knockout of the century type victory over Paul Williams. He’s got the ability and the looks to go mainstream and barring any set backs (which is always a big IF, especially with any carry over effects from the prior year in the sport) 2011 will be huge for Martinez. And to think he finished ’09 with disappointment in losing his first bout with Williams… Again, when you look back at where you were, you’re nowhere even close.

Looking back, I can’t help but notice a parallel between the year in noxing and the year that was for me - A lot of potential for great things that were taken away without warning, and some without reason. Relationships lost, bouts with illness, and a very poor outlook in the middle months or rounds if you will. Not anything close to what I could’ve predicted when the clock struck 12am on January 1^st. But if I’ve learned anything about myself during the last year, it’s that I can take a punch. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re made of until you get cracked, again and again.

Just like boxing did, you have to came back and finish strong. The last month and a half in boxing saw four straight fight of the year candidates. There was scintillating action that even a detractor of the sport would be in awe of...

So here I am now, back in Southern California, a thousand miles and moments from where I was a year ago. If I could have looked ahead and seen what would take place, I probably would’ve told myself to go duck and hide somewhere. But where’s the fun in that? And more importantly, where’s the challenge?

Mike Tyson once said “Everybody’s got a game plan, until they get hit on the mouth.”

He could not have been more right.

I have no clue where I’ll be a year from now, or if Pacquiao will have fought Mayweather, or if boxing will pick up where it left off in 2010, and nor does anyone else. If it was only as simple as being able to capsulize your life 365 days at a time… That’s why I’ve always thought that New Year's resolutions were silly. The reality is every day is different than the prior, and so on and so forth. So why wait ‘til the beginning or end of a calendar to reflect on failures and strategize towards success?

The fight is now.

Bernard Hopkins Still Recreating his Own Story

When the opportunity to do a weekly column was first presented by ProBoxing-Fans.com webmaster and editor Jake Emen, my goal was to do something that even non-boxing fans could read and understand. I really wanted to be able to cast out to an audience big enough so that someone who doesn’t watch the sport, or watches sparingly, can take it in and if not relate to the subject matter, at least relate to the fact that someone, somewhere does.

Photo Credit: Luc Grenier

Like I’ve said before – boxing is the metaphor for life. And in a society where most of our forms of entertainment come at someone else’s expense, this past Saturday night the sport they call “The Sweet Science” nearly turned into a stirring History class. And its professor you ask?

A 45-year-old ex-con, better known as “The Executioner” Bernard Hopkins.

The result will show that Hopkins fought to a draw with a Canadian, Jean Pascal in Quebec City. If you follow the fight game, you know that getting a draw on your opponent’s home turf usually means that in reality, you probably won. I had Hopkins winning the fight 114-112 but I could see some having it even at 113-113 as the 12^th round was close.

The desire to witness history has me somewhat bummed at the decision though. Just being able to come back from serving nearly 5 years in prison for robbery and assault at age 17, to not only come clean on the other side, but stay clean, is enough to applaud. To have the Hall of Fame career “The Executioner” has had makes the story even sweeter. To have been able to win a world title a month shy of his 46^th birthday… man, the tale would have been full of more life metaphors than even I could jot down.

The fan in me hopes that Bernard will get his rematch and will have yet another opportunity to do something that has never been done or seen before. But the journalist in me knows that with politics, sanctioning bodies, contractual disputes, timing, and yes – age, there is the strong chance that he won’t. And if he doesn’t, that will be a shame.

I wish I were in the head of Hopkins when he was 17. Just a kid and standing in that courtroom being sentenced to prison as an adult. Did he have any idea what the next 56 months had in store? If he knew that he was going to pay his debt to society and survive in doing so? Did he know he’d be great?

At age 22, Bernard Hopkins took on his first challenge - to become proof that you can always come back from your mistakes and write a different ending to your story. The rest as they say, was history. At age 45, Hopkins took on the challenge of a fighter in his prime, on his home turf, to become the oldest man to ever win a major world championship. This time, the rest was only almost history.

You see, as the years pass, the record books will show proof of a fight that ended in a draw on December 18^th, 2010. But that’s merely the surface of an event that didn’t seem possible 23 years earlier. And although fans were denied a certain record this past Saturday, there’s no denying that boxing really is a metaphor for life and we’re all in a fight to be great. I just wonder how close we are to our own history, and if like Hopkins, we’ll get back up when ours didn’t seem possible either.

On December 17th, 2010, from Miami, Florida, Don King has put together a card featuring several big names and intriguing fights. The top two contests of the evening are between light heavyweight titlist Tavoris Cloud and his challenger, Fulgencio Zuniga, and two heavyweights vying for a title shot against Vitali Klitschko, Odlanier Solis and Ray Austin. Check out the fight previews and predictions for each match here.

Tavoris Cloud (21-0, 18 KO’s) vs. Fulgencio Zuniga (24-4-1, 21 KO’s)

Many observers viewed Tavoris Cloud’s August bout with Glen Johnson as his test to see if he was ready to take on the “big boys” of the division. Getting a win over Johnson is impressive in itself. Doing so in the kind of rough, pressure filled fight that Johnson has made a career out of was enough to say that if he's not at the elite level, Cloud is definitely in the argument. If able to get past veteran Colombian Fulgencio Zuniga on Friday in impressive fashion, expect to see Cloud in a bigger money fight against one of the bigger names at 175 next.

Fulgencio Zuniga has rebounded nicely since his 4th round TKO loss to Super Middleweight stud Lucian Bute in March of 2009. Well if by nicely, you mean 2 TKO wins against 2 fighters who’s combined record is 10-38-1… The latter of which – Anibal Miranda - just turned 47 a few days ago. Sprinkle in that Zuniga is fighting at Light Heavy, against a younger fighter who will be fighting pretty close to home and defending his IBF title, and I am ready to give my prediction: Zuniga by 1^st round TK… I kid, I kid!

Prediction: Cloud, TKO Round 3

Odlanier Solis (16-0, 12 KO’s) vs. Ray Austin (28-4-4, 18 KO’s)

2004 Olympic Gold medalist and Cuban defect Odlanier Solis finds himself an 18 to 1 favorite when he steps in the ring Friday night for his WBC Heavyweight eliminator. The 30 year old from Havana, now residing in Miami, has all the amateur pedigree to be a threat in the Heavyweight division. His most notable wins have come against David Haye in the amateur ranks, Monte Barrett and Cisse Salif as a pro. Solis’s biggest hurdle in this fight will be his opponent’s height.

Although Ray Austin stands 6’6, he only has a 1-inch reach advantage over the 6’1^1/2 Solis. Austin has fought the better competition in the professional ranks of the two. Since his draw against Sultan Ibragimov in 2006 and his 2^nd round TKO loss to Wladimir Klitschko 7 months later, Austin has won four straight. At 40 years old, Austin no doubt views this as his last shot at glory, with the winner getting a mandatory crack at Wladimir’s older brother and WBC Heavyweight champ, Vitali Klitschko. But in fighting a guy ten years his junior and on his turf, albeit adopted, all signs point to a happy Cuban crowd at the end of this one.

Prediction: Solis, TKO Round 7

When the Amir Khan/Marcos Maidana fight was announced, us in the boxing community were excited to see the latest installment of the “Boxer” vs. the “Puncher”. The good looking next “Star” vs. the down and dirty “Brawler”. Combine that with the sensational Bantamweight tournament on Showtime, and yes, the UFC pay-per-view card, and it was another night of tough decisions for fight fans that lack the luxury of multiple TV’s, or the patience/discipline to watch fights recorded on their DVR.

With the MMA’s explosion into the mainstream in recent years, these same night cards have become more and more frequent. As a boxing journalist, I have no qualms about admitting that I also watch and enjoy Mixed Martial Arts. And I’m not one of these meatheads either, who wear jeans so tight they look painted on and a shirt with the image of a crow, and blood coming out of his mouth... I know my MMA! Ask some insta-UFC fans who Pat Smith or Keith Hackney is, and they’ll look more stumped than me trying to get out of a darce choke.

Growing up in a house full of fight fans, one night we stumbled across a pay-per-view event featuring cage fighting that I want to say cost $14.95 to purchase. It was called “The Ultimate Fighting Championship”.

We loved it. Although raw and different than boxing, it was still fighting and fed our appetites. I mean if you enjoy pizza and have enough of a craving, are you really going to turn down Papa John’s because it’s not Domino’s?

Nowadays, if I’m not covering the boxing that’s on and there is a UFC or Strikeforce event the same night, I usually watch with friends or family. Since all my friends prefer MMA, they know to have one TV in the other room on the boxing for my brother, my nephew, and I. It’s a Knox thing.

Credit: Mark Robinson/Golden Boy Promotions

For the first time in recent memory though, I found myself with little to no urge to even know what was going on in the UFC card. I stayed home and watched another fantastic night of action in boxing. And for the third week in a row, there was another contestant for fight of the year. Between Katsidis/Marquez, Soto/Antillon, and now Khan/Maidana, you could argue that this has been the best action in consecutive weeks for “The Sweet Science” in quite some time, dating back to glory periods such as the 1980s.

Diehard fight fans are always going to be built different. When casual fans bash our sports, we take offense to it... and not like a soccer fan. One of my dear friends is an Italian and loves his European futbol. When I dig at him about the sport just to get under his skin, he blows me off in a more regal tone. When he does the same with me about boxing though, the response is not suitable for children.

So often, boxing and MMA are always competing. Always trying to argue which is superior. For me, I like being able to take a step back and know that on a night when one of the most prestigious honors in sports, the Heisman Trophy was awarded to the nation’s top college football player, it took second fiddle to great action inside a couple of rings and a cage scattered throughout North America.

Now, it may just been an L.A. thing where it felt more like a nightclub party atmosphere but I doubt it. The fighters were hungry and are trying to make a name for themselves. That makes for determined, aggressive Boxing, much to the delight of the packed house. Having entertainer Jenny McCarthy sitting ringside didn’t hurt matters much either.

The Los Angeles Matadors swept all four contested bouts on the evening. Bantamweight, Fernando “El Puma” Martinez picked up the most impressive win of the evening in the card’s opening match. The 19-year old Argentinean took a unanimous decision over 2008 Bulgarian Olympian, Detelin Dalakliev.

Houston, Texas native Eric “Fearless” Fowler overcame a nasty gash on his forehead from an accidental head butt, to TKO Yahman Phelps at 2:46 of the third round.

Middleweight Russell “The Haitian Sensation” Lamour made it 3 for 3 for the Matadors as he took a unanimous decision victory over Chris Jones in an all action slugfest.

The Force’s lone victory on the evening came when Matador Light Heavyweight Carlos Gongora was forced to forfeit his contest due to being below the minimum weight requirement. Anthony Mack picked up the victory in that weight division for Memphis.

In the final bout featuring the Heavyweight’s, David “The Dream Catcher” Imoesiri scored a unanimous decision over 2009 USA National Champion Javonta Charles.

Photo Gallery

Fighter Quotes

“My opponent was larger then me,” Martinez said. “So the strategy was to move around, go for the body, keep my distance from his jab and, when I had the opportunity, move inside.”

“It feels good to get the knockout and pick up a win for The Matadors,” Fowler said. “We're fighting for LA - that's who we do this for.”

Added Fowler on his wild, go-for-broke style of punches, “I can box, but I wanted to put pressure on him and be aggressive.  His style made the fight a little sloppy and wild, but a win is a win.  We can always do better, always get better.”

“It feels good to pick up my second consecutive win,” Lamour said. “It puts me in perfect position for the rest of the season to help us advance to the semifinals.”

“I'm happy with the win but I'm a little bit disappointed in my performance,” Imoesiri said. “I could have been sharper and a little more prepared. I put up a good fight and had a tough guy in front of me, but I should have been able to put him away a little bit easier.”

The Matadors will compete against three other North American teams, Miami, Mexico City and Memphis, for the next four months with the winner from the North American division advancing to the semifinals to compete against teams from other continents.

The Matadors will travel to Memphis for a rematch against the Force on Thursday, Dec. 16 at Desoto Civic Center with their next home stand at Nokia Theatre Jan. 13.

The Matadors move to 2-1 on the season and travel to Memphis this Thursday to again take on the Force, who falls to 1-3.