By Paul Strauss: ESPN2’s featured bout of the evening, coming from the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa, Hollywood, FL was full of action……one-sided action, but action. Joan “Little Tyson” Guzman was much too skilled for the bigger Jesus Pabon, who was down in the 1st , 3rd, and 4th rounds before going down for the fourth and final time in the 8th.
From the beginning it was pretty obvious it was only a matter of time before Guzman was going to put Pabon away. The fact that it took him eight rounds to do it was his own fault, mainly due to his own easing off of the pressure. He knew all he had to do was to get Pabon to engage with him, because Guzman had to know he was the harder puncher and was faster. So why was he holding back? Only he knows the answer to that question.
Pabon had heart though. If not, how else did he manage to come back after being decked three times. Granted he did get penalized for excessive holding, but he was giving it his best shot. Guzman almost got penalized as well for holding and hitting. But, with him it was obviously an attempt to gain the upper hand offensively.
The fight wasn’t much older than a minute or so when Guzman dropped Pabon for the first time. It was with a beautifully timed counter left hook. Pabon slumped down to a knee. He was stunned and embarrassed, but managed to regain his composure and kick into the survivor mode. The southpaw Pabon did manage to land one pretty good right hook, but that was about it for him. It was enough that he survived.
In the second round, Guzman landed some brutally hard body shots. You could see Pabon wilting. It probably wasn’t your imagination to think that Pabon’s protector was creeping higher by the third round. Chest high probably would have been okay with him. Still Guzman didn’t look real sharp. He wasn’t exhibiting a sustained, well planned attack. Normally very accurate, he was missing too many shots, probably because he was trying to load up too much. But he still managed to put Pabon down again after a very intense body attack.
In the third round, Referee Frank Gentile once again warned Guzman about holding and hitting. In the fourth round, Guzman rushed Pabon and landed a flurry of shots. Pabon was caught off balance, and down he went for the third time in the fight. Once again he dusted himself off and came back for more. Before the round ended, he actually landed a good straight left, followed by a right hook.
Surprisingly the fifth round was a better round for Pabon. He showed a lot of guts, and tried desperately to muster an attack. Guzman seemed to be lying in the weeds, waiting for his chance. Pabon’s effort was praise worthy, but it also made him vulnerable, and you knew it was only a matter of time.
Guzman was having some difficulty in setting a trap for Pabon, so he resorted to some showboating. It was foolish. What he should have been doing was pressing Pabon, and forcing him to engage. That’s what he did in the eighth and final round.
In the sixth, Pabon lost a point for excessive holding. It didn’t matter because the fight was a shut out. Deduct three more points for the knockdowns, and well you can see the hopelessness of the situation.
For a while in the seventh round, it looked like the fight might turn into a boring one. Guzman was screwing around again, and not getting down to business. However, he came out fast in the eighth and did what he should have done earlier, and that was to make Pabon trade with him. What happened was what everyone knew was going to happen, and that was Guzman was going to catch him with a hard shot.
The big punch came from the left side out of a squared up, almost southpaw stance. Guzman had managed to transition himself during the exchange while throwing his own shots, and rolling with Pabon’s counters. The effect of the big left was magnified by the forward movement of Pabon. The resulting crunch put him straight back, folding his left leg underneath his body. There was no doubt the fight was over, and Referee Gentile made it official at 1:23 seconds of the round.
With the win, Guzman captures the WBC FECCARBOX junior welterweight title. That amounts to three titles for Guzman, and still no defeats. Loss of the first two titles happened on the scale. He couldn’t make weight! What a shame for this clever 35 yr old. If he had stayed on task, who knows what he might have accomplished? The sun is about ready to set on his career, so he needs to take full advantage of every remaining opportunity, or he might be looking back with some pretty painful regrets.
Back in the studio, Bernardo Ozuna filled in spots with clips of his interviews with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Miguel Cotto. There was nothing too revealing or surprising from either; although, Cotto might have provided the best and possibly the most appropriate line in response. Specifically, Ozuna reminded him that Floyd was a master at getting into the heads of his opponents. He asked Cotto how he planned on dealing with that aspect of his challenge. His response was, “I’m a master at ignoring people”!
When it comes to the Mayweather trio of stooges, father, son and uncle, wouldn’t it be great if the media managed to provide a little mastery of their own and ignore Moe, Larry and Curly. Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!