HERNAN MARQUEZ KO1 LUIS CONCEPCION

Sometimes, when a fighter gets knocked out he can make an adjustment in strategy and come back to win the return bout.
 
Terry Norris did this when he boxed intelligently to outscore Simon Brown in their rematch; Chiquita Gonzalez switched to a smart-boxing style when, after Michael Carbajal knocked him out in a war, he twice outpointed Carbajal in subsequent meetings.
 
Some fighters, though, seem to be too stubborn to learn from mistakes. Luis Concepcion, the Panamanian flyweight, is one of them, and thus he crashed to defeat in the opening round of his rematch with Hernan “Tyson” Marquez in Mexico on Saturday night.
 
Having lost by stoppage in his war with Marquez last April, one would have expected Concepcion to be a little more circumspect this time.
 
I don’t mean that he should have changed his style completely, but Concepcion is fast and knows how to box. I would have thought he could have used a speedy, in-and-out style, making quick attacks and then staying away, seeking to win rounds, rather than doing what he did in the first fight, which was to bank everything on a frontal assault.
 
Unfortunately for Concepcion, he forgot history and thus was doomed to repeat the mistake of the first fight.
 
I couldn’t believe what I was watching as Concepcion sallied forth, hands low, chin high, looking to land big right hands. These might have been the worst tactics since the Charge of the Light Brigade. All Marquez had to do was wait for the right moment to land a well-timed left-hand counter from his southpaw stance. There was a sense of inevitability about the outcome, like waiting for a bomb to go off.
 
What did surprise me was the first-round finish. When Concepcion went down for the first of three knockdowns it didn’t seem that he had been hit any harder than Marquez hit him in their first meeting, and that fight went 10 rounds, with Concepcion still strong but suffering from a severely swollen eye that caused a doctor-recommended stoppage. This time, though, as soon as Concepcion got hit, it was as if his senses were scrambled. Even though Concepcion beat the count it was clear that he wouldn’t be getting out of the first round.
 
Marquez fought a cool, steady fight, using the ring and letting Concepcion come onto his punches. It was an electrifying victory for the young Mexican fighter in front of a deliriously happy hometown crowd in Hermosillo. Fans who had expected another long, thrilling battle of attrition were no doubt disappointed — and this rematch had been eagerly anticipated — but when a fighter walks right into a big punch in the opening round, a punch he doesn’t even see coming, the fight is likely to be over, if not at that moment, then soon after.
 
ShoBox continues to offer excellent entertainment for fight fans. On Friday night we saw an upset when Artemio Reyes soundly outpointed Javier Molina, the unbeaten U.S. Olympic representative, in a well-fought junior welter eight-rounder: Reyes was too tough, too strong and too determined — he was hurting Molina, and Molina couldn’t hurt Reyes.
 
In the main event, unbeaten middleweight prospect Brandon Gonzalez barely eked out a split decision win over the tough and seasoned Ossie Duran. It was, I thought, fortunate for Gonzales that the bout was only an eight-rounder — a smart piece of matchmaking by Goossen Tutor’s Tom Brown — because Duran was predictably coming on strongly at the end. Indeed, all three judges had Duran winning the last round.
 
The commentary team was split, with Steve Farhood making Duran a clear winner — as did one judge — while Antonio Tarver saw the fight as a draw, 76-76. I was more on Tarver’s side here. Duran landed the harder single blows but Gonzales was busier. There were rounds when Gonzales would throw nice clusters of punches that were not damaging but could be seen as scoring points, but then Duran would land a couple of stiff, head-jerking jabs or a clean right hand or left hook. So, should the round have gone to the more active, harder-working boxer or the one who landed several solid shots?
 
I have heard the verdict described as a robbery, which it clearly wasn’t. When both corners are urging their man to dig deeper then you can be pretty sure you are watching a close fight, and it seemed to me that there was real concern in both corners as the fighters came out for the final round.
 
I liked the way that Gonzales, cut over the left eye from round three, sucked it up and let his hands go to win the sixth and seventh rounds on the Julie Lederman and John McKaie scorecards, but he expended a considerable amount of energy in so doing, and Duran clearly outfought and outlasted him in the last round. The sixth and seventh rounds cost Duran the fight, but this decision could have gone either way with no argument from me although I did get the impression that Gonzales was very relieved to hear the final bell. The step-up fight was almost a step too far.