SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Golden Boy Live! delivered two quality matchups last night at Cowboys Dance Hall with Fidel Maldonado Jr. getting a stiff, bruising test from an inspired Luis Ramos, and Fernando Guerrero nearly getting his comeback derailed by a surprising effort from unknown Raymond Gatica.
TERRELL GUASHA KO1 ANDRES CALIXTO: Middleweight prospect Terrell Guasha didn’t even need a solid punch to send Andres Calixto to the canvas. What looked like a glancing shot to the side of the head rendered Calixto in the position of a man who just hit the snooze button on his alarm clock. The 26-year old Guasha (7-0, 5 KOs) has already fought six times in 2013 and might as well go for a 7th next month.
GATICA’S MISSED OPPORTUNITIES ARE GUERRERO’S BLESSING: Coming into this fight, southpaw Ray Gatica (13-2, 8 KOs) was on a three-fight win streak after taking three years off following a sixth round TKO loss to Mark Jason Melligen. This was supposed to be Guerreor’s (26-2, 19 KOs) comeback fight after getting blasted out by Peter Quillin in April, but Guerrero nearly found himself out of there in the first round after an overhand left stiffened his legs and forced him to take a knee. Gueero recovered and over the ensuing rounds founds success when he pumped hard jabs off the backfoot, shot his counter left, and stayed off the ropes. Gatica’s head provided an easy target since he kept his guard at his waist and didn’t have the reflexes a fighter needs to effectively employ that style.
Even with the skill advantage, Gatica replicated his first round damage by delivering an eighth round beating to Guerrero on the ropes and nearly getting a stoppage. He replicated the feat again in the 12th and looked just a few punches away from a ending matters. Unfortunately for Gatica, he hesitated due to stamina issues and possibly Guerrero’s counter-punching ability, allowing the Cuban to escape with his faculties intact.
The unanimous score of 96-93 for Guerrero was booed elicited a “bullshit” chant from the crowd. The bigger concern for Guerrero is that he had so much difficulty with a fighter on this level. Remember, this is a fighter with wins over Gabriel Rosado and Ishe Smith on his ledger. Time and future fights will tell if this was just an anomaly, or the first indicator of Guerrero being on the slide.
MALDONADO CARVES UP AND STOPS RAMOS: These two promised an exciting fight and delivered a brutal, entertaining affair in last night’s main event. Bombs were thrown from the outset as each fighter wanted to establish early dominance and force the other backwards. The first one to give was Ramos — it wasn’t his will but his skin, as a Maldonado shot sliced open a deep cut above the left eye. From there the tide clearly turned with Malanado landing more flush southpaw left hands, right hooks and uppercuts to close out the first.
Wisely, Ramos took the combat inside and worked the body with noticeable results. Maldonado’s punch output dropped, and at times he looked lost on how to fight off the ropes or catch Ramos coming in. Maldonado was still landing, but his blows were more sporadic compared to Ramos’ body work.
Ramos’ fortunes took a final turn for the worse in the sixth when Maldonado finally adjusted and unleashed a cluster of short power shots in-close. The lethal mix of speed and power shocked Ramos’ system, as the previous rounds gave him no indication that Maldonado could be so deadly inside. The punishment lead to Ramos hitting the canvas twice and concern that his corner might stop it was he made barely made it out the round.
Maldonado needed only seconds into the seventh to make Ramos submit with an uppercut and several left hooks that brought him to his knees. The referee wisely called the bout, giving Maldonado one of the hardest fought wins of his career.
As a junior-welterweight, Maldonado is a welcome Golden Boy addition to a division that will soon see many of its stars (Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse etc.) make the jump to 147.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 