By Paul Strauss: Isaac Chilemba 18-1-1 (9 KO) gambled and won in taking on short notice what might be the biggest fight of his career against knockout puncher Edison “Pantera” Miranda 35-6-0 (30 KO) at the Texas Station Casino, Las Vegas. Not surprisingly he started out a bit tight and cautious. As usual Miranda was all about pressure and trying to land his big right hand.
The tall and rangy Chilmeba needed to use his height and reach advantage to be successful against the murderous punching Miranda. Initially it didn’t look as though he was going to be able to do it. Miranda was continually closing and pressing. He bragged before hand that he was going to get Chilemba by the seventh. He looked as though his prediction might come true.
Chilemba did enough to make the early rounds close, managing to avoid Miranda’s biggest shots. But, Miranda deserved the rounds. True to character Miranda was rough early and got a brief warning from Referee Robert Byrd for using his left elbow. Both fighters were also hammering rabbitt punches to the back of their heads and necks.
In the third round, there was an accidental clash of heads. Miranda came out of it with a nasty cut above the left eye. It was more to the outside of the brow, but the blood flowed freely. The sight of Miranda’s blood spurred on Chilemba, and he started pumping more right hands to the left side of Miranda’s head.
From about the third round on, Chilemba fought the good fight. He used lead rights, uppercuts, and well timed clinches to control Pantera, who increasingly became more and more frustrated. Miranda became more and more careless, which resulted in opening himself up to Chilemba’s stinging punches. Miranda wasn’t in danger of being knocked out, but he was kept off balance and left unable to land the big shot he needed.
As often happens when a fighter gets desperate, Miranda over extended, leaving himself draped over the ducking Chilemba. By doing so, he limited himself to one wild swing and then smothered himself. Chilemba also over extended at times, but smothering himself and Miranda turned out to be a strategic move for him.
Mranda’s corner was unable to stop the flow of blood from the cut over his left eye. As the rounds rolled on, there was blood smearing the entire left side of his face. Then blood was all over Chilemba’s body, and finally announcers Teddy Atlas and Joe Tessitore pointed out that they were getting sprinkled with it as well.
Chilemba came away with a UD. Judges scored it as follows: Robert Hoyle and Al Lefkowitz saw it 96-92 for Chilemba. Dave Moretti had a little bigger margin at 97-91 for Chilemba.