NEHOMAR CERMENO TKO11 ALEJANDRO VALDEZ

Just when things seemed to be going well for Alejandro Valdez in his bantamweight title bout against Nehomar Cermeno, he got caught, hurt and stopped in the 11th round. That’s boxing. These things happen.

I muted the sound to the barely audible level because I was finding the commentary distracting and annoying, and I stopped scoring after two rounds because it seemed, at this stage, that Valdez had no chance of winning. It seemed to me that he was coming back very well, though, after a terrible start — sliced over the right eye from a clash of heads in the opening round, down twice in the second.

Cermeno, making his third consecutive appearance in Mexico, appeared to be under pressure. The Venezuelan boxer was quick and clever and elusive, but there were times when Valdez was chasing him all over the ring. Valdez, fighting before his hometown fans in Ciudad Obregon, was giving everything he had, doing his best to land heavy punches from his southpaw style.

I had the sense, after 10 rounds, that this was one of those fights where the scoring was open to interpretation. There were passages where Valdez was being outboxed and made to look a bit clumsy, but he was persistent and every so often he was able to catch Cermeno although he couldn’t land squarely.

By the 11th Valdez was looking the stronger man, with referee Russell Mora cautioning Cermeno for holding. When Cermeno was docked a point for bringing up his knee in a clinch I was wondering if maybe the points gap had narrowed enough for Valdez to have a chance of winning. Valdez was getting very reckless though, dropping his hands, almost showing disdain for Cermeno’s punching, and suddenly a right hand had him looking unsteady and Cermeno opened up with a huge attack, fighting almost with a frenzy. Valdez was wobbling, his defence nonexistent, and inevitably he got caught flush by a big right hand and went down heavily. Although Valdez picked himself up he was gone, and referee Mora correctly waved the finish with 14 seconds remaining in the round.

Cermeno did what a champion is supposed to do — he seemed to sense that he might be in trouble on the scorecards when the point was taken, and he responded with a rally that seemed tinged with desperation to achieve a dramatic and richly deserved victory. When the fight was stopped it seemed as if Cermeno was overcome with relief as he dropped to the canvas on his hands and knees. Three title fights in a row in front of hostile crowds in Mexico, three wins — it takes a special type of fighter to do that, and I now have to consider Cermeno as being a bit special.