Daniel Ponce de Leon Scores KO Win, Vivian Harris Suffers TKO Loss

by James Slater – Two exciting fighters who now appear to be heading in different directions had mixed fortunes last night in Mexico City, Mexico – as former WBO super-bantamweight king Daniel Ponce de Leon scored a 3rd round KO win over Orlando Cruz up at featherweight, and former WBA light-welterweight champion Vivian Harris was TKO’d in the 4th round by Lucas Matthysse at welterweight.

Mexico’s 29-year-old de Leon, a southpaw like Puerto Rico’s Cruz, got the job done with body shots in the 3rd, as a left and a right to the midsection caught Cruz as he was trapped in a corner.. Going down and staying down, the 28-year-old was counted out by the third man in the ring. Official time was 2 minutes and 37-seconds of the round. The hard-hitting de Leon is now 38-2(32) overall and 4-0 (2) since his disastrous 1st round KO loss to Juan Manuel Lopez. Cruz, who gave it his best shot, is now 16-2-1(7).

“Vicious” Vivian Harris of Guyana, living in Brooklyn, and now aged 31 and winless in three of his last four coming in, was in dire need of a win last night, and as many expected he came out swinging against fellow banger Matthysse. The action was lively right from the start, and both men had success. It was in the 3rd round that the 27-year-old from Argentina turned things in his favour in a big way, as he landed with hard shots to head and body. Wasting no time at all going for the finish in the next round, the younger man scored with more body shots as well as a final right hand to the head that stunned the former champion.

At this point the referee jumped in and waved the fight off at the official time of 2 minutes and 44-seconds of the round. The ending was certainly somewhat controversial, and Team-Harris complained afterwards. With his very career on the line, Harris should perhaps have been given a little more time to see if he could get himself together and fight back. The disappointed warrior who is now 29-4-1(19) may well get himself a rematch. For a couple of rounds at least it was not clear who was going to come out on top in this exciting little rumble. Matthysse, brother of Walter Matthysse, improved to 26-0(24) in scoring the biggest win of his pro career so far.