Custio Clayton beats ex-champion Johan Perez

By Bob Caico at ringside

Unbeaten welterweight Custio Clayton (17-0, 11 KOs) of Nova Scotia now fighting out of Montreal won the vacant WBO International and vacant NABA belts with a unanimous 10-round decision over two-time interim world champion Johan Perez (25-6-2, 16 KOs) of Venezuela.
Clayton Perez02
The title bout was the main event Saturday night at the Scotiabank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls, Canada on a card promoted by Lee Baxter Promotions.

Clayton throws heavy punches with both hands and landed his share against the tough Perez. Clayton would land hard jabs and follow up with combinations but Perez would fire back with a volume of punches. Perez was credited with a knockdown in round three that looked more like a slip which was a bad break for Clayton as he would have won the round otherwise.

The sixth round was all Clayton has he trapped Perez against the ropes and ripped right hands to the head and body for most of the round. Perez to his credit was never seriously hurt and consistently fired back showing a champions heart.

Round nine Clayton again took charge as his powerful jabs and right hands finally slowed Perez but his gameness kept him in the fight. In the end there was no question who the winner would be as the scores were read 97-93, 99-91 and 98-91 for the former Canadian Olympian.

In the co-main event super welterweight Samuel Vargas (31-5-2, 14 KOs) of Toronto won a hard fought eight-round battle against veteran Silverio Ortiz (37-26, 18 KOs) of Mexico.

Over the first four rounds Vargas threw the sharper combinations but Ortiz landed several overhand rights that caught Vargas’s attention. In the fifth round Ortiz began to slow down and Vargas took advantage with left hooks to the head and combinations to the body.

In the sixth round an accidental head butt opened a cut over Vargas’s right eye and the sight of blood gave Ortiz renewed vigor. He out landed and out hustled Vargas over the last two rounds but came up short on the scorecards as all three judges scored it for Vargas 77-75.

Lee Reeves of Limerick, Ireland remained undefeated (5-0, 4 KOs) as he stopped Dominik Karoly (2-2-1, 1 KO) of Hungary in the fifth round of a scheduled six welterweight contest.

In the second round Reeves landed three straight right hands that had Karoly backing up and finished the round with a body shot that hurt his opponent. The next round Reeves continued to batter Karoly’s body that noticeably slowed him down and Reeves pin point punching caused a cut over the Hungarians left eye.

The fifth round looked like it would not happened as Karoly was slow to get off his stool bothered by the cut and exhaustion from the body blows. In hindsight he probably should have remained on the stool because Reeves battered him with head and body punches that gave referee Donovan Boucher no choice but to stop the fight at 2:48.

Welterweight Lucas Bahdi of Niagara Falls, Canada scored the knockout of the night as he stopped Ricardo Gonzalez of Mexico 55 seconds into the fight of a scheduled four. A perfect right hand landed on the chin of the Mexican and was down face first on the canvas. Bahdi remained undefeated at 2-0 with his second KO while Gonzalez lost his O to go 2-1.

Amanda Galle (3-0) of Mississauga, Ontario won a unanimous four-round decision over Daniela Ortiz (1-3, 1 KO). Galle, a super bantamweight, suffered a bad cut by her right eye in the second round and that caused her to fight with more urgency. In the third round Galle landed several right hands to the jaw that caused Ortiz’s mouth piece to fly out at two different times. Combinations to the head and body were numerous in the last round and Galle received the verdict by scores of 40-36, 40-36 and 39-37.

Benjamin Solar Martinez of Mexico opened the show with a unanimous decision over debuting William Briscoe, Jr. in a four round welterweight battle. Martinez (3-0,1 KO) seemed to have too much experience for Briscoe of Philadelphia as he battered him around the ring for most of the bout. Briscoe was deducted a point for holding in the third round which made the scores 40-35 thrice for the Mexican.

The special feature walk out bout pitted undefeated Josh Lupia (4-0, 4 KOs) of Niagara Falls, Canada against Victor Manuel Campos (6-8, 2 KOs) of Mexico. The welterweight six-round fight lasted a total of two minutes and 43 seconds as a left hook to the body dropped Campos to a knee that he could not get up from.

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  • I don’t know much about this guy Custio Clayton. He would be taking a big step up fighting any of the WBO top 10. And Clayton used to be #1 in the WBO, but got dropped for inactivity/promotional changes/or not having the international and NABA belt, which he has now. So he should be top 8 again in no time. Not sure who in the top 10 will get a shot at Crawford? It probably shouldn’t be Collazo, and Danny Garcia and Lipinets are with Haymon, who won’t fight Top Rank guys.
    1 Egidijus Kavaliauskas LIT
    2 Jessie Vargas USA
    3 Danny Garcia USA
    4 Segey Lipinets RUS
    5 Mikka Shonena (WBO Africa) NAM
    6 Luis Alberto Veron (Latino) ARG
    7 Rashidi Ellis USA
    8 Diego Ramirez ARG
    9 Kudratillo Abdukakhorov UZB
    10 Luis Collazo USA
    11 Custio Clayton CAN

  • I like Clayton but feel he’s a bit too muscular. He was landing good shots but not as effective as you’d expect. Looks good though.

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