Martin Honorio V Argenis Mendez USBA super featherweight title
The HBO Boxing After Dark card on May 8 from the Home Depot Center in Carson, California proved to be extremely anti-climactic when Paul Williams won a technical decision after Kermit Cintron was ruled unable to continue by ringside doctors after he went tumbling through the ring ropes and onto the ground below. However, there were several undercard fights that provided more excitement to the crowd at the stadium, including the bout between Martin Honorio and Argenis Mendez for the vacant USBA super featherweight title.
Honorio came into the fight as the favorite, mostly on the back of a more impressive track record. The 30-year-old from Mexico has held titles from the NABF, NABO and USBA at other weight divisions along with fighting Roberto Guerrero for the IBF featherweight title back in 2007 (a fight that did end with Honorio being stopped in the first round). Meanwhile, fighting Honorio was a major step up for Mendez – the 23-year-old Dominican had raised his record to 15-1 coming into the fight based on a steady diet of poorly-regarded prospects. His lone loss was in October 2008 via split decision to Jamie Sandoval.
Despite having the edge in experience, it was Honorio who would be frustrated and eventually undone by Mendez. Honorio never looked comfortable against Mendez, struggling to find him and not being able to do a lot when he did get there. However, he was the busier of the two fighters as Mendez – a member of the Dominican Republic's 2004 Olympic boxing team – was more content to counter punch rather than press the action.
In the end, the judges had a tough decision to make – would they favor the more active fighter or the more efficient one? Judges Jonathan Davis and Ralph McKnight each had the fight 116-112 for Mendez while Steve English had it a 114-114 draw, giving the majority decision victory and USBA super featherweight title to Mendez. After the fight, Honorio would admit that he had trouble being effective on a regular basis against Mendez, while the new champion would claim that he was able to counter punch because Honorio's punches lacked power.
The loss will be a serious blow to Honorio's chances at getting another world title shot. The loss to Guerrero hardly proved him to be a worthwhile world title contender and the defeat to Mendez was a surprising decision against an opponent he should have been able to outclass. Even if you disagreed with the decision and thought that the more active Honorio should have won the fight, it's tough to argue that Honorio likely shouldn't have let Mendez be in the fight in the first place and put a tough decision into the judges' hands.
For Mendez, the win is certainly the biggest in his young career. However, it remains to be seen if he actually has what it takes to become a legitimate threat in the division or simply pulled off a lucky win against a fringe contender. Even though he walked away with the victory, it was hardly a scintillating performance that will make fighters such as Roman Martinez or Malcolm Klassen quake in their boots.
In the opening bout of the under-card, Mike Dallas Jr. was simply faster and stronger than Daniel Gonzalez. Dallas Jr. stopped Gonzalez at 2:03 of the second round to run his record to 14-0-1 with five KOs. Gonzalez was clearly over-matched against Dallas Jr. and was unable to get anything going offensively before being swamped by a steady offensive assault in the second round.
In other under-card action before the Paul Williams vs. Kermit Cintron main event: light middleweight Jeremiah Wiggins earned a convincing six-round unanimous decision victory over Juan Carlos Diaz; lightweight Stan Martyniouk earned a tough six-round split decision victory over a game Brian Ramirez; and super bantamweight prospect Michael Ruiz Jr. stopped Jose Pacheco at 1:37 of the second round.
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