Posts Tagged ‘Bryan Vera’

ESPN2 Friday Night Fights Results 2/4/11: Aggressive Vera Upsets Mora

Posted: February 5, 2011 in Fight Reports
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A determined Bryan Vera scored relied on aggression and punch output to score a surprising upset over Sergio Mora last night (February 4).

In the early rounds, Mora found himself backpedaling and being bullied by Vera’s constant pressure. On the ropes, Mora relied on defense to slip punches, but couldn’t back Vera up with his counter shots. The inside exchanges favored Vera, who found a home for short, jarring left hooks.

Both fighters had their moments in the middle rounds. Mora began moving forward in the fifth, and stood his ground with power shots. But Vera bounced back in the sixth by again pinning Mora on the ropes. A right hand resulted in a cut over Mora’s left eye. A cut over the right eye opened in the seventh, causing Mora to complain about headbutts.

The ninth was Mora’s best round. Perhaps sensing a potential loss, the Latin Snake tore into Vera with a vicious, two-fisted body attack. Mora dominated the stanza, and for the first time was able to consistently move and control.

Sergio Mora’s 3 minutes of energy left him spent for the 10th. Vera was able to move and not give Mora a chance to truly capitalize on his dominant previous round. Still, the back and forth in several earlier rounds left both camps unsure of who would emerge with the victory.

The judges favored Vera’s come forward style, giving him a split decision by scores of 94-96, and 96-94 twice. A disbelieving Mora immediately left the ring after the announcement.

Bryan Vera raises his record to 18-5, with 11 KOs. Sergio Mora suffers his second defeat, falling to 22-2-2 with 6 KOs. At press time, Sergio Mora has not verified if he will pursue a rematch.

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Contrary to many others, I like Sergio Mora. Let me clarify; I like Sergio Mora when he’s on his game. Despite not having much power, he gets down and dirty in the trenches, and really goes for broke with body shots. But when he’s off, he is atrocious. He owes me some loot for that Shane Mosley horror show.

Tonight was a clear case of will overcoming skill. When Mora employed his boxing acumen, he had Vera on his heels. But those moments weren’t consistent. Too often Vera trapped the Latin Snake on the ropes and wailed away.

The fight was close, but fan-friendly. I think ESPN wouldn’t mind a rematch, and its a solid option for Vera if the Andy Lee rematch doesn’t happen. Who’d of thought Mora-Vera would be way more exciting than Alexander-Bradley?

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Bryan Vera Questions Pavlik’s Injury: “I thought he was a world class fighter?”

Posted: November 2, 2010 in Fight News
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Bryan Vera is not among those sympathizing with Kelly Pavlik over a rib injury that’s ended his hopes of a comeback bout next Saturday (November 13).

Yesterday, Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KOs) formally withdrew from his scheduled November 13 catchweight (164 pounds) fight with Vera (17-5, 11 KOs). The bout was scheduled to be featured prominently on the pay-per-view undercard of Pacquiao-Margarito. To date, the Dallas Stadium event has sold close to 30,000 tickets. According to Pavlik trainer Jack Loew, the injury is torn cartilage in his rib cage that rob Pavlik of the ability to throw or take punches in the area. The injury is said have occurred two weeks ago, and Pavlik’s team attempted to work through it until recently.

Vera questions whether the rib injury is truly the cause for the fight withdrawal.

“I thought he was a world-class fighter? Right now it doesn’t seem like he’s acting like one, to be pulling out this late to the fight,” Vera fumed to WKBN.com. “If he was hurt, they would’ve said something right away. I think maybe he’s having problems with weight or something. If he was a man of his word he’d get ready and fight no matter what.”

The withdrawal can mean Vera’s team, who have trained two months for the fight, can end up with no financial compensation outside of a small stipend Top Rank provided to cover training expenses. To avoid this, Vera’s camp is attempting to renegotiate the fight for a date within the next 90 days.

Bryan believes even with a rescheduled date, Kelly Pavlik’s reputation has taken another hit. Last year, Paul Williams accused Pavlik of ducking him after canceling their fight due to a bad staph infection on his left hand. Those two were never able to come to terms on a new date.

“It doesn’t look good,” Vera told WKBN.com. “His reputation is already kind of down a little bit by him doing this in the past… I think a lot of people are looking down on him right now.”

At press time, Kelly Pavlik has not released a statement on his condition.

Kelly Pavlik Out of Nov. 13 PPV With Rib Injury, Brandon Rios Steps In

Posted: November 1, 2010 in Fight News
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The comeback will have to wait until next year. Kelly Pavlik’s team has confirmed their fighter will be unable to fight on November 13 due to an unspecified rib injury.

Pavlik’s manager Cameron Dunkin said the injury happened upon the fighter’s return to his native Youngstown, Ohio from an isolated training camp in Pennsylvania. The injury is devestating, as Dunkin is well aware that Pavlik is losing a huge opportunity to re-establish his name on one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was told by Jack Loew that he had a rib injury a few days ago and might not be able to fight, and then he confirmed it to me [this] morning,” Dunkin told ESPN. “I’m heartbroken, I’m devastated, I’m sick to my stomach. This was such a great opportunity for Kelly, to be at Cowboys Stadium in front of who knows how many fans in a fun fight on a great show, a great event. I could go on and on.”

Pavlik was scheduled to fight Bryan Vera in Dallas Stadium on the undercard of Pacquiao-Margarito. The comeback fight would have been his first since losing the middleweight title to Sergio Martinez in April.

Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew, said he kept silent about the injury for two weeks in hopes for an improvement. Unfortunately, the condition worsened to the point that Pavlik could no longer take body punches in sparring.

“He had a cortisone shot put in and it was still not better,” Loew detailed to ESPN. “Thursday he came into the gym and he was still sore and we decided that was it. I won’t put him in there when he’s injured. He said he’s injured and the doctor said it’s very tender and that it was probably the cartilage. I gotta believe the doctor. I do have to believe Kelly’s ribs are extremely sore.”

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum has moved in lightweight Brandon Rios as a replacement. Rios’ last fight was on HBO, where he defeated Anthony Peterson by disqualification.

At press time, Rios’ opponent has not been determined.

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Tough break (no pun intended) for Pavlik. The reason manager Cameron Dunkin sounds so distraught is because this fight was basically an audition to test Pavlik’s viability in facing Lucian Bute at super-middleweight. The HBO team would’ve been hyping up how solid Pavlik looked at the catchweight (164 pounds) and name-dropping Bute next Saturday. Now that he’s out of the picture, Bute may opt to face the winner of Pascal-Hopkins at light-heavyweight (175 pounds).

That would leave Pavlik with no big name options outside of the winner of Martinez-Williams II, which is for the middleweight title. The problem there is Pavlik has had well documented problems making 160 pounds, even going as far to say he’d have to hire a special nutritionist if he attempted to make that weight again. This is reinforced further by the fact the Vera fight was contracted at 164 pounds.

It sounds like Kelly Pavlik has cracked ribs, and if that’s the case he shouldn’t be fighting. There isn’t much a doctor can do for that except tape you up. The body has to rest and slowly heal itself. And the healing process does not include taking punches from another man.

Sad news for Kelly Pavlik fans. Don’t be surprised if he comes back in 2011 campaigning as a full-fledged super-middleweight.