number1contender.net

ESPN Wednesday Night Fights Recap

May 2, 2007

Mahi Shrine Auditorium-Miami, Florida

Heavyweight (200+ pounds) 10-Round Match:

Fres Oquendo (26-4, 16 KO's, 225.75 pounds) vs. Damian Norris (9-2, 7 KO's, 210 pounds)

Oquendo was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but raised in Chicago, Illinois. At 34-years old he has faced some top heavyweights, recently losing two world championship matches. One to Chris Byrd, in a controversial decision, and the other to John Ruiz, via round 7 TKO. Oquendo's last outing was a ten round decision loss to the 44-year-old, Evander Holyfield, which was a disappointment considering where both boxers are at in their careers. Oquendo has been trained for his more recent matches by Freddie Roach, but is being trained for this match by his father and brother, while Roach is training De La Hoya for the match on Saturday. He hopes to resume work with Roach, after Roach's commitments to De La Hoya are complete, but the temporary shift in trainers, could effect Oquendo's preparation for this match.  Oquendo is the shorter of the two boxers, standing 6' 3" tall. He has weighed in for matches as heavy as 238 pounds, and is coming in to this match at his highest weight in the last 4.5 years. Which, can be both a good, and bad sign for Oquendo. He should have the power advantage with the extra mass, but it also could be a sign he is out of shape. This extra weight could cause Oquendo to tire early, as the match progresses.

Norris is 6' 5" tall, but very light for a heavyweight. At 24-years-old having boxed professionally weighing in as low as 179 pounds, means he is definitely in the wrong weight class. He is a Cuban defector, leaving the communist country in 2003 for Mexico. In 2006, he was legally allowed to enter the United States and begin his boxing career, in the US. The last time Norris stepped up to face a boxer as talented as Oquendo, he was knocked out. That loss came last August. The other loss on his record came in the longest match of Norris' career 7 rounds. That match ended when Norris was disqualified for intentional.  Norris, as is typical of boxers in the Cuban system (or any traditional communist system), has a lot of amateur experience, 157 matches. 

Close first round, probably to Oquendo, 10-9. With 2:40 to go in round 2, the referee briefly stops the action to deal with some loose tape on Oquendo's right glove. The action resumes almost immediately.  Round 2 to Oquendo, 10-9. Teddy Atlas has noted during round 3, that there are some clashes of heads beginning to occur and it may get worse. Neither boxer is using their jab, allowing Oquendo to fall in with his head after he throws his punches causing the frequent clash of heads. Oquendo takes round 3, 10-9. There are counter opportunities for Norris, but he is not throwing the punches, when they are available. The height difference and angle that Oquendo is falling in at, make it likely that when the headbutting leads to a cut, that he will be the one bleeding. ESPN, in one of the most poorly timed commercial breaks in recent televised boxing, cut away at the end of round 3 when Norris actually fell to the mat from an Oquendo right hand behind the ear or to the back of the head. Coming back from break the viewers at home are shown the replay and the round will actually, be scored for Oquendo, 10-8.  Norris did get up from the knockdown, at what count is unclear, but the match is continuing. Not a good job by the usually reliable producers at ESPN.

Oquendo comes out furiously, looking to end the match, as the bell rings to start round 4. A left hand closes the opening torrent of punches from Oquendo, and it sends Norris to the canvas for a second time. This happens, less than 10 seconds into round 4. Norris is now cut over his left eye. Both boxers, take a long time to go to their proper, neutral corners so the count can be administered. After the count is administered and Norris responds satisfactorily, the referee looks at the cut on Norris' head. Finally, action is resumed with 2:30 to go in the round after over 20 seconds taken for an 8 count to be applied.  It is unlikely that Norris survives the round, but he got an extra fifteen seconds to help recover. With 1:26 to go in round 4, Norris throws his first punch of the round. It does not land, but it was the first punch he had even attempted in the round and that makes it notable. Norris goes down due to a slip with 1:04 left to go in the round. The slip is ruled correctly, but the tumble came out of a clinch that appeared to be a continuation of a stagger turning into a fall that Oquendo got in the way of as Norris' way down. Had Oquendo not been there to create a momentary place to grab for Norris to grab, Norris probably would have fallen anyway and a knockdown would have been scored for Oquendo. Norris is in survival mode, and not looking to do anything offensively. Action is resumed with 58 seconds to go in the round. Round 4 goes to Oquendo, 10-8. Oquendo should have ended the match in that round, because he had plenty of opportunities. The only thing stopping Oquendo was his bad habit of falling in when punching that allowed Norris to clinch and buy time to last out the round. In round 4, Oquendo landed 27 punches. In comparison, Norris landed 2 punches. Teddy Atlas and my scorecard match through 4 rounds have it in favor of Oquendo, 40-34.

Round 5 to Oquendo, 10-9. With 1:43 to go in round 6 after a flurry capped with a right hand against the ropes Norris again slides/falls awkwardly to his knees. The referee administers his count and the match will continue with 1:31 to go in the round. With 1:20 to go in round 6 another Oquendo right hand sends Norris to the mat and this time the referee is not going to apply a count. The match is over, Oquendo has won a sloppy, somewhat unimpressive technical knockout over an inferior boxer. The final punch track numbers are that Norris landed 36 of 145 punches thrown, good for a 25% connect percentage. Conversely, Oquendo landed 94 of 240 punches thrown good for a 39% connect percentage and of those connects 81 were head shots.

The official decision is: at 1:44 of round 6 the winner by technical knockout is Fres Oquendo. This match was designed to boost the confidence of Oquendo and it should do that. However, it did not appear to be a championship quality outing for Oquendo. Oquendo is now 27-4, with 17 of those wins coming by knockout.

This show did not have a single competitive match on it. The show can be skipped without missing much. For maximum enjoyment of the boxing on this show, at least skip this match, before tuning in to watch one of the replays, everything else on the show was entertaining.