Video | David Benavidez Cruises To Victory Over Alexis Angulo
David Benavidez (23-0, 20 KO) may have come into his bout with Alexis Angulo (26-2, 22 KO) over the weight limit, but there was nothing sluggish about his performance as he cruised to a tenth-round stoppage victory.
Yesterday, the 23-year-old was stripped of his WBC Super Middleweight World Title because he missed weight. However, based on tonight, it won’t be the last time he has a world title associated with his name. It took Benavidez only two rounds before he began to dominate the contest. The Arizona-native picked Angulo apart with a variety of shots, landing cleanly with little concern about what Angulo was firing back.
Angulo was a game competitor but was unable to connect with anything of note. As the fight progressed the damage, the Colombian was taking began to tally up. After being rocked by a massive uppercut at the end of the tenth, and with Benavidez landing a career-high 54 punches, it came as no surprise when Angulo’s corner threw in the towel before the start of the eleventh round.
“I rate myself a solid eight. I could have done some stuff better, but overall it was a great performance. I didn’t want to go too fast and leave myself exposed for some big shots,” Benavidez said.
“He’s a heavy puncher. But like I said, I like to do the stuff that nobody has ever done. Nobody has ever stopped him and I’m pretty sure nobody is ever going to make him look like that again. I demolished him from round one to round 10.”
Benavidez opened about missing weight, following the fight. He pledged it would not become a recurring theme and aims to get straight back into training.
“Everything everyone said about me is true. I should be a professional and come in on weight, but this time I couldn’t do it. It’s my first time not making weight in eight years of being a professional,” Benavidez exclaimed.
“I really have to talk to my promoter to see what’s next,” Benavidez added. “I’ll fight anybody to get back to the spot I was. You could see by this performance tonight, I could put on a great performance against anybody and people will pay to see that. I’m probably going to go right back into training camp to make sure I don’t miss weight.”
The night was not without controversy with many fans and pundits feeling that lightweight Jackson Maríñez (19-1, 7 KO) ended up on the wrong side of the judges scorecard following his unanimous decision to Rolando Romero (12-0, 10 KO) in the co-main event. The judges favored Romero with scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 118-110. In the night’s first televised bout heavyweight Otto Wallin scored a fifth round TKO victory over Travis Kauffman, after Kauffman injured himself at the start of the round, and was unable to list his left arm.
What did you think of the evening’s action?
