01.12.05 – By Joseph Carlo Russo @Ringside: Coming into the November 30 bout, Litzau was a revered prospect, having been showcased on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights and even on an HBO undercard featuring Jermain Taylor. His record stood at 15-0 with 14 KO’s, an eye-opening feat when observed on a piece of paper. But last night at Schuetzen Park in North Bergen, NJ, Litzau failed to live up to his hype. With most of his opponents having a more stationary style that which Litzau can dominate, he found trouble in the game Miguel Angel Munguia of Mexico City, Mexico..
Munguia was game with consistent head and body movement that kept Litzau off target all night. Throughout the fight, Litzau landed a few clean blows, none of which stunned Munguia as Munguia landed a few crisp shots of his own.
The fight was sloppy all the way through but Litzau won most, if not all, of the rounds on aggressiveness as he constantly pushed forward advancing his record to 16-0 with 14KOs. But, he exhibited some flaws as well. He finds difficulty in opponents with lots of movement and gets caught with shots based on careless mistakes. Jason Litzau is only 22 years old, so he has time to improve, but as of now, I don’t see him making any noise in the featherweight division. I would rather put my money on Robert Guerrerro.
Who did look impressive last night was Joel Julio. 24-0 (21 KO’s) welterweight Joel Julio of Monteria, Colombia who is trained by Buddy McGirt advanced his record to 25-0 via 4th round TKO over Hicklet Lau after the second knockdown in round four.
Having been in the ring with the likes of Kermit Cintron, Ben Tackie, Emmanuel Clottey, Carlos Maussa, and Kofi Jantuah Hicklet Lau was no stranger to the fight game. The Cuban Lau was game through the four rounds using his height and reach advantage to test the highly-rated prospect Joel Julio. But, in round four Julio landed a thunderous right that sent Lau crumbling to the canvas. Upon getting up Lau was chased onto the ropes where he was hit with a barrage of punches that sent him down for a second time. Lau came to his feet and appeared to be fine before the referee threw his hands up stopping the only eventful bout of the night.
Undefeated welterweight Henry Crawford moved his record to 8-0-1 (3 KO’s) upon landing a perfect, textbook straight right to finish his opponent in round one.
Other action featured numerous New Jersey natives. Lyndhurst, NJ’s Wayne Johnsen lost a sloppy, boring fight to Joe Hill via decision. Also of New Jersey, Bobby Rooney looked sluggish and plodding as he lost a decision to Andre Hemphill.
The first bout of the evening was one of the more eventful ones featuring now 3-0-1 (1 KO) junior lightweight Danny McDermott who managed a draw with Valdez. In this four rounder Valdez landed good right hooks to the body and connected with numerous lunging rights and lefts to get the best of McDermott. McDermott fought back some but Valdez landed the harder, cleaner shots.