Friday night’s Solo Boxeo USBA featherweight title affair over Telefutura saw Mexican challenger Martin Honorio nipping defending Rogers Mtagwa in a scorcher that closed on a split decision verdict.

Both combatants showed little finesse, but had the paying clientele out of its seats with non-stop leather swapping from start to finis - a beauty in the eyes scenario that had Honorio the busier and Mtagwa the bigger puncher - both were all square in the blood and guts departments.

Mtagwa, a Tanzanian native now calling the "City of brotherly love" home, survived the early rounds blitz of the Mexican brawler, answering with power salvos of his own - but it wasn’t until the championship rounds of 10-11-12 that he would appear the one with more left in the tank.

While neither of the two looked in danger of being stopped, they both needed to dig deep to keep the respective warships afloat - the ongoing Honorio body barrages were  effective but never discouraged the African warrior from returning fire.

The scoring went Honorio 115-112, 114-113; Mtagwa 114-113 and my unofficial saw it Honorio 116-111 in points and 8-3-1 under the round by round method - still, more than a few stanzas were of the coin-flip variety.

Post Scripts: Martin Honorio ( 23-3-1, 12 KO’s) ~ young enough at age 26 to improve the outside skills - once stepping up to the next rung the shortage of serious punching power, coupled with a willingness to trade on the inside could be career threatening. Kid has good size to switch styles to boxer-puncher. Them eye catching barrages might better be saved for the championship rounds.
                     Rogers Mtagwa (21-11-2, 16 KO’s) ~ club fighter dandy at a still young 27 - physically strong and a durable no quit battler. Could use technique change - too erect in style with no height-reach edge - think it helps if schooled on the Joe Frazier bob-n-weave approach. Has the stamina to make it work.
                   Referee John O’Brien ~ local Cicero, Illinois hack without a clue. Gifted with a proverbial take no prisoners, barn burner small club title affair, and he attempts to insert his misguided egocentric persona into the picture. Have seen this guy’s lunacy before - focused his vertebrae organ at Honorio from the start - maybe the clown has had a past bad Mexican restaurant experience.

Closing Comments: Terrific action card that once again places Solo Boxeo at the Versus, ShoBox, ESPN2, levels of entertainment - a spawning field of future prospects. The single negative threat came from the inadequate third man in charge … the Honorio point deduction for hitting behind the head was clearly the result of Mtagwa’s turning away from the punch. The need for the O’Brien camera attention could well have cost the Mexican a well deserved win.

GEL -  

11-11-2006