Ponce De Leon wins scrappy fight

23.10.06 – By Geoffrey Ciani: Saturday night, Daniel Ponce De Leon successfully defended his WBO junior featherweight championship against Al Seegar. This was Ponce De Leon’s first fight since facing Sod Looknongyangtoy July of this year. During that bout, his amazing power was put on display when he knocked out Looknongyangtoy just 52 seconds into the first round. Brutal first round knockouts often lead to intrigue and the case of Ponce De Leon was no exception. Would he be able to do it again?

On paper, this appeared to have the makings of a classic brawler versus a classic boxer. Sadly, things didn’t unfold that way. After a close, but uneventful first round, this quickly became a one-sided affair. After taking the first round, Seegar seemed intimidated and appeared to be more content surviving than fighting. His defensive prowess and elusive fighting style proved disappointing. He was never able to get into any sort of rhythm, he wasn’t throwing enough punches, and he wasn’t countering the wild haymakers being launched by Ponce De Leon.

It was a scrappy fight with a lot of dirty tactics being used by both fighters. There were many clinches in the fight that often appeared like a wrestling match. These clinches included head butts, low blows, elbows, headlocks, holding and hitting, rabbit punches, and a variety of other questionable tactics. At one point during the third round, it appeared that Ponce De Leon deliberately stepped on the foot of his opponent as he threw a punch, knocking him down (which was properly ruled a slip). For the most part, the referee didn’t do much to keep the fight clean (barring one instant, when he inexplicably deducted a point from Seegar – which was one of the few times that roughhouse tactics in the fight probably didn’t warrant a point deduction).

In the fourth round, Ponce De Leon landed a flush left hand that dropped Seegar for just the third time in his career. The punch was reminiscent of the one he had landed on Looknongyangtoy three months earlier. To his credit, Seegar rose to his feet and continued fighting, but he appeared to be a beaten man for the remainder of the fight. In the eighth round, Seegar’s corner stopped the fight after he was caught with a barrage of punches from the vicious Ponce De Leon – it was a good stoppage by the corner.

Ponce De Leon proved why he’s one of the most feared punchers in the 122 pound division, but even still, he looked reckless and vulnerable. All too often, he would lunge in missing wildly with chopping punches. He was also none-too-subtle with his use of questionable roughhouse tactics. It seems that it’s only a matter of time before he runs into a skilled counter-puncher who will make him pay for throwing monster haymakers with reckless abandon. Still, it was a good win for Ponce De Leon who has improved his record to 30-1, including three successful defenses of his WBO championship.