The Showtime Saturday night special bought
itself a dandy of a barn burner with its
Miguel Acosta - Brandon "Bam-Bam" Rios
battle for the Venezuelan's lightweight
bauble.
Over the early candles the defending
champion displayed the better skills,
coupled with quick movement as he picked
apart a determined, rock jawed Rios who
repeatedly walked into the incoming fire.
Then, following a monster Acosta round four
that saw him tagging Rios with what seemed
the entire arsenal, Rios would rebound in
numero cinco unleashing power punches from
both sides of the plate.
Then during a heated stanza six with both
having moments, Acosta is caught flatfooted
and down from left hand – to his credit, the
defending champ more than held his own in
another sizzling stanza seven.
The handwriting began appearing on the
proverbial war come numero eight with Acosta
once again on the canvas; still, he would
engage the durable hard punching
Californian in number nine, a scorching
stanza that would be his last hurrah.
Rios answers numero ten with an
all out assault; closes the show with a
power right hand that followed a barrage of
punches that found the target.
The game defending champion truly went out
with his proverbial boots on as the
corner quickly jumps to
his assistance as Acosta slowly sinks to the
canvas.
At time of knockout (1:14 ) the official
scoring was all Rios @ 86-83.
Brandon Rios (27-0, 20 KO) ~ age 24 -- in
style and clearly in substance, on this
night, the kid with the "Bam-Bam" sobriquet
showed flashes of past lightweight/welters
Ray "Boom-Boom" Mancini and welter Carmen
Basilio that once filled the joint with
fight fans. Lightweight division a loaded one, so hold on to your hats, this Oxnard, California
battler comes to wage war.
Miguel Acosta (28-4-2, 22 KO) ~ age 32 --
Caracas, Venezuela,
gave it 100%. Nice moves, with quick hands
loaded with enough clout to keep most foes
honest. The pace was too quick to sustain
the earlier rounds tempo. No longer title
shareholder but not shot entity as yet.
Showtime co-feature from Grand Island,
Nebraska delivered a fast paced table setter
for the night's opener, with numero uno WBC
lightweight Antonio DeMarco facing its
number two rated Reyes Sanchez in what was
labeled an eliminator.
DeMarco, working from the port side
advantage quickly took the lead; Sanchez
cut over left eye from punch in stanza one, but the problem would be more a shortage of
punching power.
The gamer from Mexico City never stopped
trying against countryman DeMarco of
Tijuana, but over the front side his mauling
attempts had him coming up short.
However, over stanzas seven through nine it
was Sanchez capitalizing on a DeMarco in
need of a pit stop. DeMarco grabs number
ten and the Sanchez busier finish proved too
little too late.
Official scoring went DeMarco 117-111,
116-112, 115-113 -- my unofficial agreed
DeMarco 115-113 in points and 7-5 under the
yesterday proven round by round method of
scoring.
Post Scripts: Antonio DeMarco ( 25-2-1, 18
KO) ~ age 24 -- not sure
he's ready for time tested WBC champ
Humberto Soto; tired down the stretch, and
while in control over front side outscoring
his opponent, he lacked the needed fire in a
Soto challenge.
Reyes Sanchez ( 20-4-1, 11KO) ~age 25 --
early on unable to execute game plan facing
southpaw. Once DeMarco slowed the earlier
output the kid became competitive.
-
Feb. 27, 11
