By Paul Strauss – With a couple of titles on the line, it was surprising to see empty seats at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, CA. Those folks who couldn’t pull themselves away from the gambling tables missed two very good fights
The little Raging Bull started things out with a thud. The thud was Tomas “Gusano” Rojas’ body hitting the floor. As many times is the case, the telling blow came within a lot of other movement and swinging. It took a second look (replay) to discover exactly what happened. Initially Showtime announcer Al Bernstein speculated the damaging blow to Rojas might have been a Darchiyan straight left to the solar plexus. The replay showed that Vic had indeed thrown a punch to the chest area, but Rojas ducked right into it. It landed right on the chin, and the fight was over at 2:54 of the second round, which means Darchinyan hangs on to his WBC Super Flyweight title..
Even though there was quick ending, the fight was interesting up to that point. In fact, Rojas was probably ahead on points. His height and reach advantage seemed to be presenting a bit of a problem to Darchinyan, but Rojas also appeared to be very awkward and off balance. He did make a fight of it though, and initiated the action early on, and also landed some good counter left hands from his southpaw stance.
In the post fight Jim Gray interview Darchinyan explained that he intentionally likes it when his opponent thinks he can be hit, because that opens up opportunities for him to use his skills. In this case, he stated that he was allowing Rojas to be aggressive, because he was timing him.
He saw how Rojas was continually ducking when he would throw, so he specifically planned the kayo punch. He also mentioned that he would like a rematch with Nonito Donaire and a chance to reverse that knockout loss.
In the main event, Timothy Bradley and Lamont Peterson put on a great boxing exhibition. Bradley came away the clear cut winner, but he heaped praises on Peterson for the battle he waged, and said Lamont was his toughest opponent so far in his career. That’s pretty good company when you figure Bradley has fought very good fighters like Nate Campbell, Kendall Holt, Edner Cherry and Junior Witter.
The strategy for Peterson included taking advantage of his usually very good jab and also his height and reach advantage. Expectations were that he would box from the outside, and not let Bradley be his usual busy self on the inside.
However, Bradley nullified Peterson’s jab with good head movement and counter right hands. In fact, he had Peterson hurt in the first round when Peterson slipped a left hand to his left and moved right into one of Bradley’s sharp looping right hands. The punch jolted him, but he remained calm and came back with some good left hooks to the body. He also continued to press forward.
In the second round, Peterson demonstrated excellent defensive skills by slipping and countering punches; however, he did not counter punch enough, and Bradley was the busier fighter. That proved to be the case much of the night. Peterson would allow Bradley to step around him, changing angles, and then fire off multiple punch combination without answering.
Bradley had Peterson hurt again in the second round, which surprised announcer Al Bernstein, who offered that no one really thought either of these guys would hurt the other early, because neither is noted for being a big puncher.
In the third round, Peterson stepped up his attack, and really started ripping good left hooks to Bradley’s body, but then he got clipped again. This time a right hand landed behind the left ear, and dropped Peterson. He didn’t appear hurt and actually winked over at his corner to signify that he was okay, but he also did a little chicken step which suggested his equilibrium was knocked kilter a little bit.
The next couple of rounds remained close and could easily have been scored even. But, Peterson did come out with a cut left eye that referee Pat Russell said came from a punch. In the fifth round, it was Peterson’s turn to hurt Bradley by landing a big right hand, but he also was continuing to slip and roll with punches without countering. Hence, Bradley continued to be the busier of the two fighters.
The next several rounds followed the same pattern. Peterson was pressing the action by it was not effective aggression. He was following rather than cutting off the ring, and he repeatedly allowed Bradley to throw multiple punch combinations without answering. Bradley was piling up the points.
By the tenth round, Peterson had a cut left eye and bruised right eye. His nose also dripped a little blood at times. Bradley showed some signs of tiring a bit. His “Desert Storm” diminished a bit, but he still was fighting smart and controlling the action. The judges scoring made this a one-sided fight, but the action was exciting, and Peterson proved to be a tough, skilled, quality fighter who will remain on top of the division and prove to be a difficult opponent for anyone. The judges scored the fight as follows: 118-110, 119-108 and 120-107.