Mayweather/Marquez Undercard – Michael Katsidis vs. Vicente Escobedo
This starts our coverage of Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez superfight.
Michael Katsidis vs. Vicente Escobedo
R1
Escobedo came out jabbing in front of a straight right and Katsidis came out throwing big shots with hooks and over-hand rights. Both guys are letting it fly already. Katsidis is hitting the bigger shots, but he’s also taking some flush ones because he’s opening up so much.
R2
Escobedo can’t keep him off. But, even though it seems like Katsidis is hitting all the power shots, he already has two cuts, one underneath his left eye and one above his right eye. I’m not sure they can keep up this pace. I have the fight even right now, though I’ll admit that Katsidis’ aggressiveness is impressive.
R3
Katsidis is just bullying Escobedo and pushing him around. They are close to bumping heads too. Katsidis threw a left hook that caught mostly glove, but it was so hard that it still rocked him. Easily Katsidis’ round.
R4
Escobedo had a much better round and he’s making Katsidis’ eye look bad. He probably got the round.
R5
Escobedo is starting to box much better now. He’s able to keep Katsidis at a better distance with a good jab. Katsidis came inside and threw four or five straight body shots to the side. Escobedo might’ve pulled out that round too.
R6
Katsidis rocked Escobedo a couple of times and he had his best round since the third.
R7
Another strong round for Katsidis. He was throwing the better and stronger combinations and he may be wearing Escobedo down now.
R8
Katsidis has hit Escobedo in the back of the head twice and was warned. I said he was wearing Escobedo down possibly, but he’s hanging in there. Katsidis’ work rate is the same now as it was in the first. That’s pretty amazing.
R9
Katsidis kept the pressure on the entire time and won the round easily.
R10
Escobedo was throwing some nice counter shots and it was his best round in a while, but he still took a ton of shots. Katsidis probably wins the round just because he was the aggressor and threw more shots. Katsidis also was warned for throwing a shot to the back of the head again.
R11
Katsidis won the round by throwing non-stop punches and just pushing Escobedo around. He hasn’t killed Escobedo’s spirit, but he’s just overwhelmed him.
R12
They ended it just like they started it. Katsidis, who should be winning this thing, didn’t stay away from him. He kept pushing forward and landing shots. Escobedo held his own. Strong finish to the fight.
Winner: Michael Katsidis by split decision
The scores were 116-112 Escobedo, 115-113 Katsidis, and 118-110 Katsidis.
Escobedo fought as well as he could with the amount of pressure that Katsidis put on him, but I’m not so sure this should’ve been a split decision.
