22.07.07 – by Pat Testa: Current IBA superfeatherweight champion Monty Meza-Clay scored a 6th round tko over replacement foe Lenny Devictoria last night at Heinz field in Pittsburgh. Meza-Clay was scheduled to fight former world title contender Luis Bolano in a bout that would propel Pittsburgh’s Meza Clay into the top ten of the WBO, but Bolano showed up a whopping 17 pounds over the 128 pound weight limit and was scratched from the bout..
Instead, Meza-Clay was forced to deal with Philadelphia’s Devictoria, an opponent he knew nothing about. So Meza-Clay did what he does best, launching an all-out assault from the opening bell. In what would be the main theme of the night, Meza-Clay quickly forced Devictoria against the ropes and pounded away with a vast array of power shots to both the head and body of Devictoria. Most of the fight was fought in this fashion, with very little action taking place in the center of the ring. Meza-Clay dominated the first 2 rounds, scoring at will and using a bobbing and weaving style to stay away from Devictoria’s punches.
The game Devictoria was able to withstand Meza-Clay’s onslaught, and landed a hard body shot in the 3rd round. Devictoria gained confidence and started landing punches upstairs, but that just spurred Meza-Clay into throwing even more punches, making for a crowd-pleasing fight. The fourth round featured relentless pressure from Meza-Clay, who rocked Devictoria with a huge right hand and closed out the round with an eight punch flurry.
In the fifth round Meza-Clay continually strafed Devictoria with hard right hands; then using left hooks and uppercuts in close. At this point, Devictoria was still landing, but his output was slowing as he was absorbing heavy punishment. As the 6th round started in similar style, a desperate Devictoria dropped his gloves and challenged Meza-Clay to hit him, as if to say he couldn’t be hurt. Meza-Clay was happy to oblige, landing three hard rights to Devictoria’s head.
That was enough for the corner of Devictoria and they waved the fight off at 57 seconds of the 6th round. With the victory, Meza-Clay improves to 25-1 with 16 KOs. Currently ranked number 11 in the WBO, Meza-Clay is now in line for a top-ten ranking and a high profile fight. Devictoria drops to 9-10.
In other bouts:
Mike Strauss tko Lee Kreisher, 3rd
Rod Salka maj. dec. Federico Flores, jr
Scott McCracken unan. dec. Cesar Vega
Jimmy Lubash ko Alan Snyder 1st
Alphonso Williams ko Roberto Florentino 2nd
Jesse Lubash tko Steve Perry 1st
Juan Mcpherson ko William Quintana 1st