By Norm Frauenheim (ringside)
PHOENIX, Ariz. – Jose Benavidez Jr. celebrated a birthday and a homecoming.
It was all part of the guarantee.
In a bold promise at a news conference, Benavidez Jr. promised that his WBA interim 140-pound title would not leave his hometown.
It didn’t.
It is still interim, whatever that means. But the guarantee proved to be as good as his word.
Benavidez kept it in his first defense Friday night with a 12th-round stoppage of Jorge Paez Jr. in a truTV bout at US Airways Center.
It was a solid win for the unbeaten Benavidez on his birthday. He went 23-0 on the day he turned 23.
He did so with his 16th stoppage, a short left hand that lifted Paez up and then onto the canvas. Paez scrambled to his feet. But he was as unsteady as a kid trying to walk on a trampoline. When he stumbled into the ropes, referee Raul Caiz Jr. ended at 21 seconds of the final round.
“I knew I would beat him,’’ said Benavidez (23-0, 16 KOs), who also floored Paez (38-6-2-1, 23 KOs) with right uppercut to the body in the third round. “I mean, there was no way I was going to lose my title in my hometown. No way, no way at all.
“But I have to say that Paez was really, really tough. Man, he can take a punch. I didn’t think there was any way he’d get up after that knockdown in the third. But there he was, up on his feet and coming back at me.’’
Paez, whose dad was a flamboyant featherweight champion and a clown in the Mexican circus, never saw the final punch coming. It landed, he said, when he turned his head after sustaining an inadvertent thumb to an eye.
Benavidez often fought off the ropes, which was a tactic he used in controversial decision over Mauricio Herrera for the title last December in Las Vegas.
“I wanted to tire him out,’’ Benavidez said. “I figured that if I could do that, I’d knock him out in a later
round.’’
The 6-foot Benavidez didn’t know how much longer he would stay at 140 pounds.
“I’m kind of big to be at 140,’’ he said. “But we’ll see. I’m willing to fight anybody at 140 or 147.’’
He has talked about Jessie Vargas, who fights Timothy Bradley on June 27. Bradley had a ringside seat as as a truTV analyst.
“Jose looked great,’’ Bradley said. “Yeah, he fights off the ropes. But he’s good at it. He’s very precise at what he does, especially with his punches’’
In the first bout on a truTV doubleheader , Antonio Orozco, a junior welterweight from San Diego, lived up to the nickname written in gold across his dark trucks throughout a unanimous decision over Emmanuel Taylor. Relentless summed up the pace and style of a stubborn, often deliberate attack sustained by Orozco (22-0, 15 KOs), who won a 96-94, 98-92, 96-94 on the scorecards.
Taylor (18-4, 12 KOs), of Baltimore, was at his best when he worked his stinging jab. But he didn’t work it enough.
Blood above Orozco’s swollen right eye appeared after the eighth round. By then, however, it was too late for Taylor to overcome the well-conditioned Orozco, who stayed on his toes and protected his advantage on the cards with a fundamental execution of body blows.
On the Undercard
The Best: It was delivered by Trevor McCumby, an unbeaten light-heavyweight who lives in Phoenix. McCumby (19-0, 150 KOs) threw a knockout left at 42 seconds of the second round with deadly accuracy and impact. Fabiano Pena (11-2-1, 8 KOs), of Brazil, was out before he landed flat on his back in a concussive crash that echoed like a backboard-shattering slam-dunk throughout the NBA arena.
The Rest: Phoenix light-heavyweight David Benavidez (9-0, 8 KOs), Jose Benavidez’ 18-year-old brother, scored a first-round knock down and finished the job in the second with a left that stopped Mexican Ricardo Campillo (9-8-1-1, 7 KOs) at 1:21 of the round; Arizona City super-lightweight Abel Ramos (12-0-2, 7 KOs) got the show started with a bang, landing a crushing left for a third-round KO of Angel Martinez (12-6-1, 8 KOs) of Mexico; Phoenix super-bantamweight Carlos Castro (8-0, 3 KOs) fought at a whirlwind pace, scoring often for a unanimous decision over a busy Victor Serrano (4-9-1, 1 KO) of Mexico.
