Berto overwhelms Urango

It was another impressive night of boxing at the Seminole Hard Rock hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL as HBO’s boxing after dark invaded the Hard Rock live arena. The stars came out for this one as notables in the crowd were 2004 Fighter of the Year Glen Johnson, former Heat Jamal Mashburn, Nate Campbell, former Miami Dolphin and member of the “Killer Bees” Kim Bokamper, and one time undisputed heavyweight sensation Riddick Bowe not to mention the 3,500 or so on hand as well.
The featured bout of the evening was a WBC welterweight title fight between undefeated Andre Berto and the IBF light welterweight champ Juan “Iron Twin” Urango who moved up in weight in search of a second world title.
The Winter Haven, FL native Berto put on a true boxing lesson in route to a unanimous decision victory over Urango via scores of 117 – 111 and 118 – 110 twice.
The 2004 Haitian Olympian Berto showed off his speed early with his jab meanwhile countering Urango’s attacks with huge upper cuts.
The paced picked up in the fourth as the champ had his best round of the fight to that moment landing massive right hands. Urango demonstrated a valiant chin taking the 25 year old Berto’s best shot and avoiding what he can with great head movement.
Things would only get worse for the Colombian as Berto got busier and the light welterweight champ got slower. Berto started to be more efficient picking his shots while avoiding any counter attacks by the clearly much slower challenger.
By the time the ninth round rolled around it was an obvious mismatch though to Urango’s credit a lesser man would have been down for the count long before the second half of the fight.
Urango would go on to connect with some jaw dropping shots but the crispier and more effective blows were being landed by the 2006 prospect of the year Berto.
In the co – feature event of the night Alfredo “El Perro” Angulo put his unbeaten streak on the line against former welterweight champ Kermit “The Killer” Cintron in a Jr. Middleweight title eliminator.
Angulo’s 11 straight knockout streak would coe to an end as the crowd favorite Cintron came away with a unanimous decision by scores of 116 – 112 on all three judges score card’s.
Definitely the best performance of my career, said Cintron immediately after the fight.
It was another epic battle between Puerto Rico vs. Mexico inside the squared circle as both fighter s let their hands go early. While Angulo (15 – 1 12 KO’s) landed what seemed to be the more powerful punches it was the Puerto Rican Cintron (31 – 2 27 KO’s) connecting with the more efficient shots through out the first three rounds racking up an early lead.
The 29 year old Cintron hid behind his jab through the first seven of the scheduled 12 round fight, giving up one good Angulo shot for a three punch combinations. The former champ was able to sneak out rounds in the first half of the fight thanks to good body shots and a steady jab that would momentarily stop the Mexican in his tracks.
The tide seemed to turn in the eighth round as “El Perro” Angulo increased his work rate connecting with rights and lefts to the body of Cintron at times begging his opponent to stand and trade with him.
Both fighters would save their best for last as the 12 and final round saw both men stand toe to toe and trade blow for blow. Angulo scored with huge rights and left hooks while Cintron patiently waited and picked his shots landing clean and effective body shots. While Angulo had the more crowd pleasing shots on the night it was Cintron who not only through more punches but landed more as well.
In a light welterweight attraction Puerto Rican Olympian Jonathan Gonzalez improved his pro career to (3 – 0 3 KO’s) with a first round TKO win over Laquel Flemminng (1 – 3). Gonzalez wasted no time quickly demonstrating his impressive power bombarding his opponent with a flurry of punches prompting referee Telis Assiminios to call a halt to the fight at 1:45 of the opening frame.
Local Heavyweight Wilmer Vazquez (8 – 0 5 KO’s) remained undefeated with a unanimous decision over journey man Andrew Greeley, scores for the bout were 57 -57, 58 – 56, and 60 - 54. The Venezuelan looked sluggish for most of the six rounder getting caught with a huge left in the first and then again with a right later in the fight but the 27 year old Vazquez was the busier man in the fight earning him the victory.
In other notable bouts, light heavyweight Yusaf Mack (28 – 2 16 KO’s) came away with a TKO win against DeAndrey Abron (15 – 4 10 KO’s), dropping his foe twice in the fourth of a scheduled 10 rounder. The decisive blow was a huge right hand that nearly sent the 36 year old veteran Abron through the ropes. Meanwhile heavyweight Tor Hamer (6 – 0 5 KO’s) scored a TKO over Samuel Brown at 1:10 of the second.