Johnson-Montiel: Chess Match

By Tom Donelson

17.08 - Last night, I tuned in HBO to see a fight and a chess match broke out. Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson was trying to regain past glory in the 115-pound junior bantamweight division against the current WBO champion, Fernando Montiel. What ensued was a chess match with each boxer viewing each other with tentative eyes. While on occasion, Johnson would bull rush the quicker Montiel but for most part, neither fighter felt comfortable in attacking the other. It was a case of boxers fighting one another and neither felt comfortable in the role of pursuer.

While Johnson pursued and cut off Montiel route of escapes, he rarely took advantage of the younger Mexican frequent trips to the rope. He would throw one hard body shot at a time and there was no doubt that Johnson's punches were hard as Montiel had welts on the body as well as two swollen eyes. Johnson's corner repeatedly told their fighter, throw in combination but Johnson did not often let his hands go. The saving grace was that Montiel was throwing even less.

On the reverse side, Montiel spent the first seven rounds on his bicycle and while punches were rarity from both men, Johnson nailed Montiel with a picture perfect right hand hook midway through the fifth round that send Montiel to the canvas with one of those punches. Montiel danced his way out of trouble after he got up from the knockdown.

In the eighth round, Montiel was way behind points on most of the scorecards and found himself in a position that only a knockout would preserve his title. Montiel started to throw more punches and as the fight entered its late round, Montiel found more confidence to throw more punches. Montiel performance in the first two thirds of the fight was marred by fear and confusion but as the fight progressed, this started to disappear as Montiel figured out how best to attack the left handed Johnson. In the first seven round, Montiel could not land his patented left hook but eventually Montiel started to connect with the straight right hand and this set up the occasional effective left hook He easily won the ninth, tenth and eleventh round but in the twelve round, both men decided that maybe it might be a good time to start fighting. Both men wailed at each other. The keypunch of the round came at the first minute as the southpaw Johnson nailed Montiel with a perfect body shot that stopped the Mexican fighter in his path. Johnson pursued Montiel all other the ring as he started to threw straight lefts over Montiel jab and started to connect. Montiel tried to stem the tide in the final 30 seconds as he threw a left hook that staggered Johnson but it was too little, too late. Johnson was rewarded a majority decision as he regained a portion of the junior bantamweight title.

As for Montiel, he will have to ask himself- why did he allow a fighter eight his senior to fight at a measure pace instead of forcing the older fighter to expend energy? The failure of Montiel to put any pressure on Johnson in the first seven round doomed his chances.

Which brings me to another interesting point. There is a change in Mexican fighters. There use to be a time that Mexican fighters were brawlers who stay in front of you and wear you out. Larry Merchant brought up an interesting tidbit that many Mexican fighters are both training and living in the United States. You are seeing more boxing skills being developed. Montiel is a pure boxer and does not fit any profile for any Mexican fighters but other Mexican fighters are following similar practice. Juan Manual Marquez, who owns a portion of the featherweight championship, is another Mexican with excellent boxing skills. In the fight on the under card, Marquez combined boxing skills with power to outbox the game Marcos Licona. Marquez using foot movement and left jab danced and maneuver the outclassed Licona before Licona's corner stopped the fight at the end of the ninth round.

A few years ago, Marco Barrera used superior boxing skills to defeat Prince Hamed and as his career has progressed, Barrera has become a better boxer and unlike some past Mexican fighters, Barrera occasionally avoids punches headed his way. Some of this change in Mexican fighters may be due to training and living in the United States as they combined the toughness of Mexican fighters with boxing skills. What we may be witnessing is the evolution of the new Mexican fighter- the classy boxer.