Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora fight to a draw
Dull bout offers little more than lots of holding and hugging.
By Lance Pugmire
September 18, 2010
Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora staged a dull bout Saturday packed with holding, hugging and inside fighting where it appeared there were more missed punches than those landed.
The deserved winner was neither.
A draw was declared, with judge Lou Moret scoring the bout 114-114 after his peers Kermit Bayless scored it 115-113 for Mora and David Denkin had it 116-112 for Mosley.
The bout featured no knockdowns, minimal blood (only a slight cut from a head butt near Mora's right eyebrow) and no compelling exchanges as the mostly tentative Mora fell to 22-1-2 and Mosley, looking all of 39 years old, suffered his first draw (46-6-1).
Mexico's Saul "Canelo" Alvarez showed the promise that caused his fans to erupt in applause as he entered the ring by leaving it with an assassin-like sixth-round attack of veteran former world welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir.
Alvarez (34-0-1, 26 KOs) belted Baldomir, 39, with a few impressive counter-punches and other selections through five rounds in which the 20-year-old's former Miss Mexico girlfriend, Marisol Gonzalez, generated more ringside conversation than the fight.
In the sixth, Guadalajara's Alvarez got everyone's thoughts out of the gutter by turning his junior-middleweight bout into a street fight, sensing weakness and surging with consecutive overhand rights followed by a hard right that hurt Baldomir. Earlier in the bout, Baldomir had tapped on his chin after a clean Alvarez shot to show it could handle a pounding.
Alvarez wanted to prove he could handle a former world champion, and he did by delivering a big right and left hook that might be the sport's knockout of the year. Baldomir had started throwing a right when struck, and he collapsed to the canvas at the 2-minute 58-second mark. Baldomir (45-13-6) hadn't been knocked out since 1994.
"It's true that he hits hard … really hard," Baldomir said. "His power really surprised me. This kid is the real deal and he's going to be a champion. No one has hit me like this kid hit me."
Baldomir has lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr., so that's saying something.
That credibility in the U.S. heaps upon the attention Alvarez has in Mexico, where he has packed venues and draws staggering television ratings. He'll return to the welterweight division next.
"This is for Mexico and all of my fans," Alvarez said to the L.A. crowd engaged in Mexico's independence bicentennial celebration week. "He wasn't very fast. That was a favor for me. I want to be a world champion. I want to be the best in the world."
Ventura's Victor Ortiz claimed the sensational victory he needed over Vivian Harris at Staples a year after he wilted in his main-event loss at the arena to junior-welterweight Marcos Maidana.
The 23-year-old Ortiz (28-2-1, 22 KOs) knocked down the veteran Harris (29-5-1) three times in the second round before dropping him for good with a hard right uppercut 45 seconds into the third round.
In the second, Ortiz first dropped Harris with rapid-fire left hands, then knocked him down again with a right hand to the head. Ortiz tried to finish former world champion Harris with a combination that dropped him, but Harris rose to survive the bell, a moral victory at best.
Ortiz, jeered by fans after his Maidana fight as not a "real Mexican," rallied to adoring support after Saturday's showing, eliciting cheers and ensuring he'll remain a major player in boxing's best division: junior-welterweight.
"The fans love me or hate me," Ortiz said. "Hopefully, they love me now.
"I progressed and learned a lot since the fight with Maidana and I still want him, wherever he is. I'm not dodging anyone. I'm ready for everyone."
Mexico's Daniel Ponce De Leon hammered Antonio Escalante with a brutal right to the jaw, winning by third-round knockout in an outcome that leaves him poised as the mandatory challenger to world featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez.
The southpaw Ponce De Leon (40-2, 32 knockouts) usually dismisses foes with his lefts. After landing two clean lefts, he belted Escalante (23-3) with the clean right, sending him to the canvas at the 2:40 mark of the third round. Escalante conceded the obvious: "He's very powerful and strong."
'I loosened up and got into my groove," Ponce De Leon said. "I want to fight for a world title again. I want to be a world champion again."
East Los Angeles' 18-year-old Frankie Gomez shined again on a pay-per-view undercard, scoring a third-round knockout of Ricardo Calazada. Gomez is 6-0 with six KOs.
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