Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. retained the WBC Middleweight title with a grueling seventh round stoppage over Irishman Andy Lee at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
Lee boxed well as he featured a solid right hook that Chavez tried to match with his patented body assault. It took Chavez a few rounds to figure Lee out but when he did he started the thudding body assault. The action was fought at an intense level with body giving their all.
In round seven, Chavez landed a huge right hook that spun the face of Lee and visibly hurt the Challenger. Chavez jumped on his prey and landed a four more huge shots that put Lee in a defenseless mode and referee Laurence Cole stopped the bout at 2:21 of round seven.
Chavez, 159 lbs of Culican, Mexican will now look for a fall date with lineal champion Sergio Martinez with a record of 46-0-1 with thirty-two knockouts. Lee, 159 1/4 lbs is now 28-2.
UNDERCARD REPORT WRITTEN BY BART BARRY
EL PASO, Texas – For its residents, this is “America’s Safest City” – as a promotional note read on the canvas – but it was something considerably less than that for the unfortunate man situated across from Oklahoma City welterweight Alex Saucedo in Saturday’s final off-television match from UTEP’s Sun Bowl Stadium.
That unfortunate man’s name was James Harrison (1-1-1, 1 KO), and after landing a few seeing-eye overhand rights in the fight’s opening, he was systematically brutalized by Saucedo (4-0, 3 KOs), who appears to posses power in both hands but, somewhat uncharacteristically for a Mexican fighter – Saucedo is from Chihuahua, originally – is particularly fond of throwing right crosses. Saucedo prevailed by three unanimous scores of 40-36.
Despite being overmatched in both power and class, though, Harrison fought back gamely and made Saucedo’s fourth career victory his hardest-fought yet, whacking the young prospect with more right hands than expected.
MIGUEL ANGEL VAZQUEZ VS. DANIEL ATTAH
It was another aesthetically tepid but otherwise successful outing for Mexican lightweight Miguel Angel Vazquez (31-3, 13 KOs) in the penultimate off-television match of Saturday’s nine-fight card. Keeping light-hitting but well-chinned Nigerian Daniel Attah (26-11-1-1, 9 KOs) on the end of his jab, measuring him then blasting him with right jabs, Vazquez won an all three scorecards by the wide margins of 100-90.
ADAM LOPEZ VS. RAUL CARILLO
Trying to meet the hype that preceded him into the pros, by way of an impressive amateur career, San Antonio bantamweight Adam Lopez (3-0, 1 KO) made his way through another hard four-round affair, Saturday, ultimately prevailing over local opponent Raul Carillo (1-6, 1 KO) by unanimous-decision scores of 40-36, 40-36 and 39-37.
Lopez, who was knocked down in his last fight, continues to collect more punishment, from designated-opponent types, than a highly touted prospect should. Lopez is loading-up on both left hooks and right-cross leads and expecting to blow through the overmatched men in front of him, but he is getting tagged often by men who, after tasting his power, appear to forget they were brought in to lose.
UNDERCARD
Casey Ramos (16-0, 5 KOs) of Austin stopped Fort Worth super featherweight Arthur Trevino (7-8-3, 4 KOs) at 1:14 of round 5.
Local middleweight favorite Abie “El Koreano Mexicano (Mexican Korean)” Han (17-0, 11 KOs) brought the Sun Bowl Stadium crowd to its feet with a fourth-round knockout of New Mexico’ Joseph Gomez (18-6-1, 8 KOs).
Guadalajara’s Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. (12-0-2, 7 KOs) went directly through fellow Mexican super flyweight Leopoldo Gonzalez (12-7-1, 7 KOs), stopping him in one round.
In the evening’s opening match, Connecticut super bantamweight Tremaine Williams (2-0, 2 KOs) blitzed and stopped San Antonian Theo Johnson (0-2) in three rounds.
Opening bell rang on a hot and sunny Sun Bowl Stadium at 5:33 PM local time.
Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank