By Norm Frauenheim
LAS VEGAS — The sequel is never as good as the original.
Stephen Fulton and Brandon Figueroa proved the old line, ad nauseam, Saturday with an oh-so-dull rematch of their first encounter in November 2021.
Then, they did it at super-bantamweight in a bout won by Fulton in a majority-decision. Saturday, they were at featherweight with a World Boxing Council title at stake. But it didn’t matter. Fulton 23-1, 8 KOs) won the belt, scoring a unanimous decision.But there was no celebration. Only boos
On any scale, a restless T-Mobile Arena crowd waiting for the David Benavidez-David Morrell main course just wanted it to end.
The crowd began booing in the fourth round. The booing continued for the next few rounds before some in the crowd began to chant insults and expletives in Spanish. In any language, Fulton-Figueroa 2 was boring. It also took some air out of the arena after an entertaining junior welterweight bout won by Isaac Cruz over Angel Fierro in the prior bout.
Neither Fulton nor Figueroa was able to mount, much less sustain, any kind of an attack. Fulton landed a powerful right. But not much more from either fighter after that.
In the twelfth, there were finally cheers from a crowd happy only that it had ended
Isaac Cruz wins decision in tough fight for belt named after Israel Vazquez
Israel Vazquez would have been proud.
Isaac Cruz and Angel Fierro fought with some of the heart and much of the same stubborn skill that defined the late Vazquez through 10 competitive rounds for a WBC Aztec belt named after the late Mexican great Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
In the end, Cruz prevailed, winning a unanimous decision.
Go ahead and argue with the scores — 96-94, 97-93, 98-92, all for the better-known, more popular Cruz.
But there was no argument with the fight. It was a toe-to-toe, back-and-forth battle between two Mexicans. In the end Cruz (26-4-1, 18 KOs) prevailed. Perhaps, he had just a little bit more bite, although the 98-92 didn’t indicate that. It should have.
But Fierro (23-3-2, 11 KOs) didn’t complain.
“I came here to give the fans a great fight and leave it all in the ring,” he said through an interpreter. “I don’t care about the judges, I care about the fans. But I do hope that ‘Pitbull’ gives me a rematch, because I think I deserve it.”
With the crowd woofing and the dog still apparent in Cruz, nicknamed the Pitbull, things suddenly changed in the third round. That’s when Fierro let the barking fans and the aggressive Cruz know that he wasn’t going to go away meekly.
Fierro, of Tijuana, used his advantages in height and reach to catch the incoming Cruz with a succession of shots that wobbled him. Suddenly, some of that barking began to sound like begging in the pro-Cruz crowd..
Through the next two rounds, Cruz, of Mexico City, would back up Fierro with his power. But the stubborn Fierro always knew where he was. Cruz was moving, always incoming. He knows no other way. Hence, the dogged nickname.
Fierro caught again in the fourth
And again in the fifth..
By the seventh and eighth, both junior-welterweights began to tire. Cruz didn’t pursue with the same energy. Fierro’s hands and shoulders began to droop, then drop. But in the 1oth and final round, both stood, exchanging blow after blow.
Israel Vazquez must have been smiling.
Ramos wins middleweight TKO, plans to go back to 154 pounds
Losses are lessons.
Lesson learned.
Jesus Ramos applied what he remembered from a painful, controversial loss to Erickson Lubin in his lone defeat and beat Jeison Rosario Saturday at T-Mobile Arena with a definitive finish.
He won by stoppage. This time, he eliminated any chance at a scorecard debate.
“I was hoping for a knockcout,” said Ramos, who plans to go back down to junior middleweight after the 160-pound victory, his second straight win since the Lubin loss.
But he didn’t quibble with the technical part of it, although Rosario appeared to when the referee ended at 2:18 of the eighth round on a card featuring David Benavidez-versus-David Morrell.
By then, Ramos (22-1, 18 KOs), who ended it with a succession of punches — two to the head and two to the body , was in complete control with a thorough body-to-head attack that broke down Rosario (24-5-2, 13 KOs). It also knocked him down in the seventh.
Ramos, fighting out of a southpaw stance, was effective with lead left hands in the opening round and again in the second. Rosario, a former welterweight champion, moved forward, but his advance was repeatedly met by agile combinations, body to head and head to body.
After three rounds, Ramos had landed 38 body punches, according to a ringside computer.. By the fifth, Ramos appeared to be gaining control of the middleweight bout. His fans, many from his hometown of Casa Grande in central Arizona, thought so.
“Ramos, Ramos,” they chanted.
By the sixth, Ramos’ body shots were having an impact — one that echoed through the arena. Rosario’s forward movement began to slow. His hands began to drop. It was an opportunity, and Ramos capitalized with one uppercut after another. Rosario was hurt. In the seventh he was down, dropped by a right-left combination from Ramos..
Photo by Ester Lin/Premier Boxing Champions
