Long return, short night!
Former title challenger Juan Lazcano makes quick work of Marco Angel Perez in return to ring

Ringside report by Ricardo Trujillo and Chris Cozzone
photos by cozzone

“I waited so long for this return and it was over so quick . . . .”

A minute-fifty-two, to be exact.

That—and, literally, two punches—was all it took for former world title challenger Juan Lazcano to end his lengthy layoff while making a short night of his fight against Marco Angel Perez.

A sparse fifteen-hundred showed up at the spacious Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas to see the return of Lazcano on the Telefutura-televised, Golden Boy-promoted card.

They, and Perez, were in for a short one.

When the opening bell rang, it was all Perez, pressing and punching at the Hispanic-causin’-little-panic. Lazcano bided his time, not throwing a single punch or jab until well into the second round when Perez, getting braver with each unanswered punch, went to town on the reluctant hometowner.

Then, in a moment of carelessness for Perez, a single opening was seen, and it was over. Lazcano threw a short left to the chin followed by a textbook-perfect right uppercut; Perez’s strings were cut, and he plummeted do the canvas where he was counted out.

“I waited a long time for this fight and was taking my time with my rhythm,” Lazcano said after parading around the stadium visiting pockets of fans in the crowd.

“I felt perfectly fine in there and when he got aggressive, all the fears and butterflies went away.”

Trainer Freddie Roach would’ve preferred to see Lazcano shake off some rust and get some work in but was satisfied with the way things ended:

“The opponent was beginning to get aggressive, so Juan did what he had to do.”

Now 34-3, 26 KOs, the former WBC #1 Lightweight Contender plans to stay at 140 where this bout was fought.

“At 140, I have snap and I’m flexible,” said the former #1 Contender, now 34-3 (26 KOs).

Perez, slipping to 21-8 (14 KOs), has now been KO’d twice in the first round on consecutive bouts.

“His connects were better than mine,” he said. “This is not the way I wanted it to end, but that’s boxing.”

Matias no match for Escobedo

In the co-main event, hot Golden Boy prospect Vincente Escobedo had little trouble dominating Dominican fighter Juan Pablo Matias.

Escobedo employed his jab in the first round, pestering his aggressive opponent with it while trying to land a straight right. Escobedo also landed two big left hooks that rocked Matias.

Matias never had a chance, for in the 2nd, Escobedo landed a beautiful inside left hook, short and crisp, that felled the Dominican. Up on spaghetti legs, Matias tried to survive but Escobedo overpowered him until the stoppage at 2:58.

“I was headhunting at first, but then I became a real Mexican fighter by turning body puncher,” said the 23-year-old junior lightweight, now 6-0 (6 KOs).

“I’m taking my time with my career and in no hurry to get to the top.”

Matias falls to 8-3 (3 KOs).

Escalante continues to escalate

Texas superbantamweight champion Antonio Escalante, one of two El Pasoan’s on last night’s card, drew a crowd that rivaled, perhaps surpassed Lazcano’s, as he beat up on Tennessean Terrence Roy for a round-and-a-half.

To his credit, Roy came out to fight at the opening bell, running across the ring at Escalante and winning the first minute by keeping Escalante on the defense.

Roy’s ploy was short-lived, for Escalante exploded at the first opportunity, pounding away at his body and giving him a view of the lights above no less than three times in the remainder of Round One.

Roy was a broken toy in Round Two, and after yet another brutal body assault by Escalante, Roy collapsed under the pressure as ref Rocky Burke waved it off at 1:43.

“He had experience but he couldn’t take my power,” Escalante stated. “the plan was to take his body away. I’m just happy that I made TV.”

Many view Escalante as the hottest ticket in El Paso--and, word is, Golden Boy has been talking with them.

Girlfight slugfest

In the curtain raiser, Odessa female Krystal Davis and Houston pro debuter Vashon Living warmed up the ring with a scheduled four-round super middleweight slugfest.

Davis towered over the squat Living, and,  while taking a few overhand bombs from below, found her distance and started to load up on big rights.

Living pushed the fight, occasionally pushed Davis, but Davis pushed back, and, by Round Three, had Living’s face a living nightmare, swollen and bleeding.

The fight was stopped at the end of Round Three.

Soto wins one for big bro, Cesar

Orlando Soto. An ex-champion’s young brother. Short. Chubby. A blown-up featherweight and the perfect opponent for lightweights to welters looking for a win against someone who always comes to fight, and ends up losing.

A safe fight for any prospect.

But last night, after nine straight losses, Soto’s luck--or resolve--had the Juarez fighter bringing home a ‘W’ instead of the near-dozen ‘L’s’ he normally brings back across the border.

Slated to win was Fort Worth prospect Saul Torres--only he didn’t.

It was the best fight of the night, the only close one, and an accident at that, for Torres had been slated to fight Martin Quiroz Mendoza, another by-product of the Juarez Meat Wagon.

Soto took the fight on short notice, then took the fight from Torres.

As he did in every round, Torres never let up for a moment. He came at Soto like a madman, throwing punch after punch, sometimes landing something clean on Soto’s head, but mostly bouncing bombs off Soto’s shoulders or arms.

When Soto threw, on the other hand, he landed. Clean and crisp. Uppercuts? Soto couldn't miss. Every time he threw one, Torres’ head snapped back. Sometimes it was one or two, other times, Soto stepped on the gas pedal and drove a defenseless Torres back into the ropes.

If the fight had been in Torres’ hometown of Fort Worth, it’s doubtful he would’ve lost, but last night in El Paso when at least two of the three judges were as on target as Soto’s uppercuts, the Juarez pug was awarded a split decision win.

Judge Martinez had it 58-56, Judge Ortega had it 59-55, and, more-than-occasionally-off-the-mark, Judge Valencia had it 58-56.

“I won this one for my brother, who was robbed in Juarez recently,” Soto, now 7-11 (3 KOs), said afterward.

Orozco chases McLin

In the walkout bout of the night, a sleeper after watching Soto vs. Torres, Benjamin Orozco won a shutout decision over runner Mack McLin.

The southpaw McLin had a decent first round, using his jab to keep the charging Orozco at bay, but as soon as the shorter Orozco gave him a taste of his leather, McClin was running.

He ran and he ran and he ran . . . through Rounds Two, Three and Four, sometimes tripping and nearly falling out of the ring, other times stopping to drape himself over Orozco for a brief respite.

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