Rough "Road To Redemption"
Posted by Ryan Bates on 11.07.2009
Although Friday's boxing in Las Vegas may have been technically bumpy, Judah & Casamayor cruise through their opponents.
If you were a boxing writer, Friday's fight card at the Palms Hotel & Casino would have made for a rough night. Confusion with credentials, lack of a power source for your laptop, fights that started 35 minutes late, and losing your internet source halfway through the card left a lot of writers grumpy.
If you were Zab Judah, however, Friday's fight card at the Palms Hotel & Casino would have made for a very easy night. In the main event, "Super" Zab Judah (now 38-6, 26 KOs) picked up another win on the comeback trail against veteran Ubaldo Hernandez (now 22-20-2, 10 KOs). The mismatch was evident from the start, as the first punch Judah landed sent Hernandez into a strategy of clinging and holding. Halfway through the first round, Judah landed a jab to the body that knocked the wind out of Hernandez and sent him to a seated position on the canvas. Hernandez got up at 8, and Judah tracked him down and sank another body blow deep into the challenger's stomach. Surviving the round, Judah started the second round with a straight right then another deep body blow, and the third knockdown prompted referee Joe Cortez to stop the fight in the second round at the 35-second mark.
Joel Casamayor also started his road to a comeback on the co-main event, defeating Jason Davis by unanimous decision. For what it's worth, Casamayor didn't seem like the Casamayor of old. He found himself frequently trapped on the ropes from Davis' pressure strategy. In fact, the third round almost seemed as if Davis had figured "El Cepillo" out, popping off combinations and trapping Casamayor into corners. But the veteran adjusted to fighting off the ropes, and took back control of the fight. Casamayor did show signs of aging, however, as he seemed tired toward the seventh and eighth round, leaving his hands low for Davis to use what energy he had left to try to make a miracle happen. Judges scored the bout 79-73 across the board for Joel Casamayor. 411mania scored the bout 78-74, also for Casamayor.
In other undercard bouts, Judah protege Ron "The American Dream" Johnson clashed heads with Dumont Welliver in the second round, opening up a nasty cut dripping straight into Welliver's eye, causing a no-contest. Salvador Sanchez II won a near-clean sweep decision in six rounds, defeating professional opponent Jose Pacheco in the featherweight division.
