Jose Felix narrowly outpoints Marcos Jimenez in 10 rounder

Sep

STUDIO CITY, Calif. – Lightweight standout Jose Felix may have a thing for the dramatic, considering what he has gone through in his last two fights.

Each time, he was dropped in the same round when he dropped his both opponent.

Each time, he had to hold off a late rally from his opponent.

More importantly, each time, he was able to grind out a win.

Felix won a hard-fought and close 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night over Marcos Jimenez at a sold-out Sportsmen’s Lodge.

Felix, who is ranked number seven by the IBF, goes to 31-1-1, 24 KOs. Jimenez falls to 20-6, 13 KOs.

In his previous fight on Jun. 13, Felix dropped Yakubu Amidu in the ninth round, before getting dropped himself later in the round. He held off a late rally by Amidu to win a 10 round unanimous decision.

Felix found himself in a familiar situation on Saturday night against Jimenez, who had not fought in about 18 months. Midway through the first round, a right hand dropped Felix to the canvas. While Jimenez went in for the kill moments later, a hard right cross from Felix dropped Jimenez to the canvas.

Jimenez did not look hurt and he was able to make it out of the first round.

Felix seemed to be in control during the first half of the fight, using his ring generalship and distance to keep Jimenez at bay. As the bout progressed through the middle rounds, Jimenez became more aggressive, cutting off the ring and walking Felix down.

It looked as though Jimenez was winning the sixth round until he landed a punch well below Felix’s belt-line. Felix went down from the punch, wincing in pain, prompting referee Thomas Taylor to deduct a point from Jimenez.

As the bout progressed toward the last couple of rounds, Felix’s punch output dropped considerably. Sensing this, Jimenez pressed on, doing his best work when he pinned Felix against the ropes. Jimenez did his best work in the last round, but it was too late as Felix was able to make it to the final round.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Felix, 95-94, 95-94, and 96-93.

Duran stops Orozco in 6

In the opening bout of the ‘Solo Boxeo Tecate’ telecast, lightweight Pedro Duran stopped Erick Orozco in the sixth and final round.

With the win, Duran goes to 11-0, 8 KOs, while Orozco falls to 5-3-2, 3 KOs.

After an even first round, Duran began to let his hands go more, countering Orozco with straight right hands to the head. The southpaw Orozco was able to land a counter left cross or right hook that landed to Duran’s head.

Duran would have been best served initiating with repeated jabs, but was content to counter anytime Orozco lunged in with lead right hands that would miss during the second half of the fight.

The fight took a dramatic turn a minute into the sixth round. During an exchange, Duran dropped Orozco with a right hand to the head. Orozco got up, but was dropped again, this time with a right uppercut to the head. Referee David Denkin immediately waved the fight over at 1:32.

Non-televised undercard:

– Lenny Zappavigna improved to 34-2, 24 KOs following a sixth round technical knockout win over Ramon Ayala. Zappavigna dominated the action, walking Ayala (23-5-1, 11 KOs) down throughout the fight before referee David Denkin stopped the bout at 2:40 of the sixth round.

– Unbeaten light heavyweight Oleksandr Gvozdyk (7-0, 4 KOs) slowly broke Francisco Sierra down through six rounds, forcing Sierra to remain on his stool to start the sixth round. Gvozdyk won a Bronze medal in 2012 and is trained by Robert Garcia. Sierra drops to 27-9, 24 KOs.

– Light heavyweight Trevor McCumby (20-0, 16 KOs) dropped Brian Holstein three times in the first round in route to a stoppage win. Referee Thomas Taylor waved the fight over at 2:52.

– Lightweight Urmat Ryskeldiev (11-3-1, 7 KOs) stopped Yusmani Abreu (4-12-2) after the fourth round when Abreu did not come out for the fifth round.

– Featherweight Edwin Sandoval (5-0, 2 KOs) won a four round unanimous decision over Stephon McIntyre (2-12-2). All three judges scored the bout in favor of Sandoval, 40-36, 40-36, and 39-37.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing