BAYAMON, PUERTO RICO — Wilfredo Vazquez, competing in his first bout since losing a unanimous decision to Nonito Donaire in February, weathered an early rounds barrage from Jonathan Oquendo to storm back for a seventh round KO at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez last Saturday.
Early on, Oqunedo’s power succeeded in pushing Vazquez to the ropes, where Oquendo scored well inside with hooks. Vazquez would sparingly land flush with lead right hands, but could not sustain the offensive ouput of Oquendo’s inside attack.
The fifth round would be the fight’s turning point; Oquendo would stun Vazquez with a counter hook for a missed flash knockdown and went in for the kill. Vazquez would be heavily outpointed, but jarred Oquendo with several haymakers to close the round.
From there, Vazquez never gave Oquendo further momentum.
Vazquez began doubling and tripling his lead rights, a punch that the now tired Oquendo couldn’t avoid. Vazquez badly hurt Oquendo with it and tripled the shot to drop Oqunedo to his knees in a corner. Although still coherent, Oquendo stayed down until the ten count was reached.
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The tagline for this fight was “The War” and boy did we get that. Vazquez looked in trouble but once he realized that right hand couldn’t miss, he quickly got control of matters from the sixth until the finish. You could tell afterward that Vazquez was immensely impressed with Oquendo’s effort.
Juan Manuel Lopez was in attendance and had words with Vazquez, who today said he’s willing to fight him. You have to favor JuanMa on the weight difference alone, but that’s an action fight I’d love to see. Make it happen, Top Rank!
