Controversy reigns in Ciudad Juarez when Miguel Roman wins second,
unpopular decision over former champ Cesar Soto

Ringside report by Chris Cozzone and Ricardo Trujillo
Photos by Chris Cozzone

The theme was “¡Revancha!” (Rematch!) last night at the Promociones del Pueblo card in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, but “¡Feliz Navidad!” might have been more appropriate after Miguel “Mickey Mouse” Roman was handed a very unpopular and controversial decision over crosstown rival and former champion Cesar “Cobrita” Soto in a ten-round featherweight bout for local bragging rights.

If the talk at ringside, and the deluge of bottles, beer and rubbish thrown into the ring upon the announcement of the verdict were any indication, the unanimous win to still-undefeated Roman might be the worst decision seen in Juarez since . . . well, since the original fight in August.

Last August, in what was a closer fight, Roman edged Soto for a split decision—thanks to the judges and referee Javier Caballero, who aided the outcome by deducting a point off Soto in the final round. Still, the fans were outraged and the general consensus was that Soto had won.

This time around, two factors made the fight much easier to score. The first was, a neutral referee, Rocky Burke from New Mexico, kept things on the level inside the ring.

The second? Soto made it easier to score, by winning the fight by a wider margin—on nearly everyone’s cards but the three judges.

Soto came out fast and won the first three rounds by outboxing Roman, who took too long to get warmed up. Taking the fight to Roman, Soto landed the cleaner shots and outworked Roman in the first three stanzas, keeping the fight on the outside and his foe on the retreat.

Finally, in the third, Roman mounted his first serious attack, but was countered nicely by Soto, who continued to put on a clinic.

The lesson ended in the fourth, however, for through the sixth round, the gutsy Roman turned the fight around and evened the score.

Roman stood his ground in the fourth and while Soto might have outjabbed and outhustled his rival through much of the stanza, “Mickey Mouse” turned “Mighty Mouse” in the final minute, stealing the round with big right hands and lefts to the body that had the crowd’s chant of “Cobrita! Cobrita!” briefly swapped by “Ro-man! Ro-man!”

Soto slowed down in the fifth, as Roman bore on with a new intensity, throwing a high volume of punches while blocking a great deal of Soto’s counters with his gloves and arms.

Roman continued to dig into Soto’s body in the sixth and except for a solid left hook by Soto that stopped Roman in his tracks, the round went to the undefeated one.

Soto woke up in the seventh and took back his fight.

Soto’s footwork, jab and experience gave him the seventh. In the eighth, it was his left hook that earned him the round. The ninth was won as a result of landing the harder shots in what turned out to be the best exchanges in the fight. Roman was rocked back and, by the end of the round, was bleeding from his nose. In the tenth, it was pop! pop! pop!, Soto landing his jab and keeping Roman at the end of his range.

Fightnews/NewMexicoBoxing.com writers were in agreement, both scoring it a no-brainer 97-93 for Soto, who, it appeared, easily won the first three and last four.

The judges were in agreement, too, but only with themselves; all three scored it for Roman, 96-94.

As the verdict was called, the two-thirds capacity crowd erupted in anger, hurling Big Gulp-sized cups of beer into the ring along with bottle caps, wadded-up fight programs and at least two empty bottles of liquor (none of which hit anyone, luckily.) While a distraught (but victorious) Roman was hustled backstage, a corps of his fans rushed into the ring where they shouted back at the crowd, hurling bottles and cups back at them, inviting a riot. Poliforo security soon had things in check.

Shaking his head, laughing in disbelief, Soto stayed behind to talk to the press.

“What do I have to do to win?” Soto, now 56-18-13 (40 KOs), shook his head.

“You saw it . . . I won. I won with the punches. They had more punch than his. Look at his face.

“The commission here . . . they’re a bunch of idiots and are biased.”

Twenty minutes later, backstage, Roman, now 19-0 (13 KOs), was ready to talk to the media.

“I clearly won,” he said. “He didn’t get in any good shots. I didn’t feel his punches. His punches hit my arms and gloves. And this [pointing to his swollen eye] was from a head butt.

“The fans booed because they’re used to seeing me knock out someone in the early rounds, like earlier in my career. But stepping up, it’s harder to do. Soto is a world class fighter.”

Roman will have a break from headlining a local show in his next outing, when he takes on a TBA on a Golden Boy Promotions card in Tucson, Ariz. on Feb. 9.

Castro edges mauling, brawling Marquez

In an entertaining 10-round co-main event, lightweight Javier “Zorro” Castro, of Juarez, tried to leave his mark on Mexico City veteran Hector “Chocolate” Marquez, but had to settle for a close, but well-deserved unanimous decision.

Outsizing Marquez, who is usually a featherweight, and with all the height, reach and power advantages, Castro had a frustrating time with the veteran, who mauled, brawled, rammed and crammed the bigger puncher through ten rounds.

Castro picked up the first rounds with his jab and by measuring a big right hand—which immediately had Marquez, wary of Castro’s punch, plowing forward with his head as a battering ram and forcing Castro, time and again, into the ropes.

Smothering Castro’s punches and winning the fight on the inside with short hooks and uppers, Marquez picked up the third round but by the middle of the fourth, Castro was able to have a bit of success by creating just enough distance to land hooks to the head.

Forced to the ropes and worried about Marquez’s head-butts (which, by the sixth, had him bleeding from a cut on his brow), Castro edged Marquez in the fifth and sixth, clinching on the inside and landing just enough in the center of the ring.

In the seventh and eighth, however, Marquez forced Castro to fight his fight in the pocket, smothering the bigger man’s punches while mauling him with inside uppercuts and left hooks to the body.

In the best round of the fight, Marquez and Castro traded heavily, both inside and out, making it a tough round to score. The toe-to-toe action continued in the tenth, with Castro landing the cleaner, harder shots but Marquez making up for it in volume.

At the end of ten, all three judges had it for Castro: 97-95, 97-93 and 96-94.

Fightnews writers were split: Trujillo had it 95-95 even while Cozzone had Castro ahead 96-94.

“It was a hard fight,” said Castro.

“It was tough and he was good. He used his head all night. He hit me with it at least a hundred times—look at my face. I’m going to need stitches.”

Castro says he’s ready to headline a Juarez card now.

“I want to continue on and fight for a Latino belt. We’ll see what my promoter says is next.”

With the win, Castro ups his record to 10-1 (8 KOs) while Marquez loses six in a row now, falling to 28-18 (21 KOs).

Olivas drops decision to Valtierra

In the second of back-to-back ten-round sleepers, Juarez's Oscar "Zurdo de Oro" Olivas (11-3, 3 KOs) dropped a decision to Mexico City’s Aldo “El Pato” Valtierra (24-7, 13 KOs).

The match was a significant challenge to Olivas, whose only two losses have been to Soto and Roman.

Now, mark a third ‘L’, to the taller, lanky and more experienced Valtierra, who, while earning the decision, did not do so in impressive fashion; nor did Olivas show any sort of inclination that he actually wanted to win.

By virtue of a lazy jab, fighting on the outside and catching Olivas plodding forward, with a left hook, Valtierra racked up the rounds while Olivas, simply, did not throw or take risks.

All three judges scored it for the out-of-towner, 98-92, 99-91 and 98-93. Fightnews saw it 100-90 for Valtierra.

Avila, Reyna lull crowd to sleep

In the dullest bout on the card, Juarez welter Martin "Azteca" Avila (6-2, 1 KO), outsizing the chubby, tubby Jorge “Ciclon” Reyna (4-3, 1 KO) won an uninspired ten-round unanimous decision.

The crowd, in a strange mood, chose not to boo anyone during the evening, slow fight or not, and instead opted to focus on the chicas in attendance, for every time one left their seat to walk up the long aisle of stairs toward the restrooms or concession stands, a lurid chorus of whistles would erupt.

Over the ten longest rounds seen in Juarez in years, Avila and Reyna did little to persuade the crowd to pay attention.

Avila bored in, Reyna clinched or slipped out of range.

Despite the inaction, both fighters came out from their respective corners with more and more Vaseline pasted onto their bodies and faces as the rounds wore on until, by the seventh, both were sporting Santa Claus-like beards of Vaseline. Finally, the ref directed Avila’s corner to wipe some of it off.

Both Reyna and Avila decided to trade punches, however, before the end of the fight—but after nine rounds, two minutes and 50 seconds, the gesture could hardly be appreciated.

The judges’ scores ranged from 99-92 to 99-93 to 97-93, all for Avila, who is coming off his only loss, to Mauro Lucero.

Fightnews had it for Avila, 100-90, which hardly meant anything since the two writers had to nudge each other awake from time to time.

Romero racks up 50th loss

Losing for his golden 50th loss, and 13th consecutive, professional Juarez opponent Julian “Chilaquil” Romero (7-50-2, 2 KOs) put in a day at the office with a six-round performance to undefeated junior middleweight Bladimir Hernandez (4-0, 3 KOs), who was taken the distance for the first time in a sixer.

Romero did enough to lose every round, but with 59 bouts under his belt, proved as cagey and survival-minded as ever for Hernandez came at him over the rounds, trying his best to hurt his foe, but, to no avail.

At the end of six, it was a shut-out win for Hernandez on everyone’s cards, 60-54.

Ibarra decisions game Murillo in fast scrap

The second fight of the night, a six-round jr. lightweight scrap between Oscar “Ceviche” Ibarra (11-1, 4 KOs) and Arturo “La Sombra” Murillo (4-5-1, 2 KOs), was the highlight of the undercard.

Murillo gave Ibarra a stern test, taking the fight to Ibarra but receiving the more punishment. Murillo was floored in rounds one, two  and the final moments of the sixth, but paid the better-skilled Ybarra back in the fifth, rocking him with a left hook, then flooring him in the first minute of the final round with a right hand-step-on-shoe combo.

All three judges had Ybarra winning, with scores of 58-56, 56-55 and 57-52.

Ibarra picks up his third straight victory in Cd. Juarez while Murillo drops his fifth straight loss.

Reyna racks up fourth win

In the opening bout of the night, Juarez super featherweight Angel “Acertijo” Reyna (4-0, 2 KOs) fought a typical fight against a typical opponent, starting out slow and looking awful for the first round or so, then sharpening up and taking over, while a game-at-first foe, good for a couple rounds, empties his gas tank and ends up taking a beating.

The opponent this time was J. Pablo “Sabrosito” Vazquez (0-4), who took the fight to Reyna for a round-and-a-half, then got tired, and hurt, when Reyna started measuring his right hand and hook.

In the third, Reyna nearly dropped Vazquez and, after a barrage that had the foe out on his feet, the fight was stopped by a merciful corner at 1:20.

Bonus photos

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