By: William Holmes

The Fox Sports 1 network televised back to back boxing cards this week. Last night’s card was promoted by Golden Boy while tonight’s card was promoted by Iron Mike Productions. The American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida was the host site for tonight’s three televised bouts.

For a Thursday night the venue appeared to be surprisingly packed.

The first bout of the night was between Noe Bolanos (25-9) and eighteen year old Erickson Lubin (5-0) in the welterweight division.

Lubin, a southpaw, was slightly taller than Bolanos but his reach advantage was readily apparent early on. He was touching Bolanos early on with his jab and left crosses to the body. In the second half of the first round Lubin started to throw his left cross more often and was landing at will.

The second round featured more domination by Lubin, who was very accuate with his punches. Bolanos appeared to have no power in his punches and barely made any attempts to fight on the inside. Bolanos was able to land some body shots on Lubin, but not much else.

Lubin stated before the fight that it would end in the third round, but he was not able to fulfill his promise. He seemed more willing to engage with Bolanos in the third and was throwing more power behind his punches. He connected with a hard right hook left cross combination in the middle of the round and he ended the round with a double right hook combo to the body and head.

Lubin began to throw more lead left uppercuts in the fourth round while Bolanos resorted to holding on more. Bolanos punches, when he wasn’t throwing to the body, were way off the mark. By the fifth round Lubin was landing on about 42% of his punches while Bolanos was only landing about 15% of his punches.

Lubin continued to dominate against a lackluster and lackadaisical Bolanos in the sixth and seventh rounds. By the seventh round Lubin had landed 131 punches in comparison to the 25 punches Bolanos had landed.

Bolanos needed a knockout in the final round to win, but he just continued to eat punches from the much better Lubin. The final scores were 80-72 on all three scorecards.

The next bout of the night was between the veteran Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy (26-4) and Humberto Savigne (12-1) in the light heavyweight division.

Savigne, a Cuban amateur champion, looked to be the much bigger fighter inside the ring. Savigne landed his overhand right in the first round and his jabs were touching Lacy. Lacy was unable to offer much of an offense and was wobbled by an overhand right from Savigne. Lacy complained about getting hit in the back of the head but was quickly knocked down by Savigne. Lacy was able to get back to his feet but slipped on the mat again. Lacy was able to survive the round, but his legs looked wobbly as the round came to a close.

Savigne opens up the second round with another big right hand and Lacy again complains about punches landing on the back of his head. Savigne was walking Lacy down in the second round and landing hard right hands and stiff jabs. Lacy backed into a corner and was pounded by another hard straight right and a stiff jab and Lacy was stunned and tried to cover up. The referee jumped in immediately and stopped the bout.

Humberto Savigne wins by TKO at 2:04 of the second round.

The main event of the night was for the IBF Junior Lightweight Championship between Rances Barthelemy (20-0-1) and Argeniz Mendez (21-2-1-1) in a rematch of their controversial earlier bout which was changed from a knockout victory for Barthelemy to a no contest.

Mendez stated before this bout started that this was going to be his last fight in the junior lightweight division.

Both boxers fought out of the orthodox stance, but Barthelemy had the height and reach on Mendez. Barthelemy opened up the first land by landing a good straight right hand which had Mendez backing up to the ropes. Barthelemy jumped on him and it was obvious he was looking to test the chin of Mendez early, but Mendez covered up and stayed on the defensive.

Mendez stayed out of Barthelemy’s range at the start of the second round, but Barthelemy adjusted by attacking the body of Mendez and keeping up the pace. Mendez was not very active, and wasn’t very active for most of this bout.

Barthelemy was still walking Mendez down in the third round and throwing out a lot of jabs and body shots. He mixed up combinations to the body and head while Mendez did little in return. Mendez did land a good left hook in the fourth round, but Barthelemy was way more active with his jab in the fourth and fifth rounds.

By the sixth round Barthelemy had thrown 172 jabs and landed 26 of them. Barthelemy was throwing more combinations in the sixth round and looked very relaxed in the ring. Barthelemy connected with a good three punch combination on Mendez while his back was against the ropes. Mendez smiled in response, but did not throw any punches.

Mendez had a solid seventh round as he took the center of the ring and was throwing more, but Barthelemy retook control in the eighth round by mixing up his combinations to the body and head, and his body shots appeared to be doing more damage than before.

Barthelemy continued to control the fight in the ninth round, but lost a point for a low blow. He would lose another point in the tenth round for a low blow, but he still won the round.
Mendez made the fight interesting in the eleventh round when he landed a huge right hand that hurt Barthelemy, but Barthelemy was able to survive the round and fight back.

Mendez needed a knockout to win the fight in the final round, but it was Barthelemy who came out aggressive and looked like he was going for the stoppage. Neither fighter was able to knock each other out or down in the final rounds.

Barthelemy won the decision despite losing two points for low blows. The final scores were 115-111 for Rances Barthelemy.

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