In the main event from the second of two consecutive nights of boxing at the Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield, California, undefeated super featherweight prospect Maliek Montgomery (11-0, 10 KOs) pounded out a tough, gritty ten round unanimous decision over rugged Aleem Jumakhonov (9-4-2, 5 KOs). It was a very entertaining toe-to-toe slugfest for all ten rounds. Montgomery prevailed 100-90, 99-91, 98-92, but it wasn’t a one-sided fight at all.
Montgomery threw nearly 1,000 punches in the bout, landing 339 of 973. Jumakhonov wasn’t far behind, connecting on 185 of 864. Worth catching a replay.
Super lightweight Omar “El Relámpago” Juárez (12-1, 5 KOs) got back into the win column with an eight round unanimous decision against durable veteran Jairo Lopez (26-14, 17 KOs). Juarez looked very sharp and dropped Lopez in round five. Scores were 80-71, 79-72, 79-72.
Super bantamweight Angel Barrientes (6-1, 4 KOs) outscored Victor Torres (7-9-1, 5 KOs) over six rounds. Scores were 60-54 3x.
Hopefully they take Lopez and give him every test they can think of before his next fight. His last two that I’ve seen, including this one, have been pretty nasty beatings.
Montgomery made this fight a lot harder than it needed to be. When he was using his jab consistently, turning Jumakhonov and moving to the side to punch from angles, he was easily controlling the action. However, he got drawn into too many exchanges where he did none of that and gave Jumakhonov an opportunity to tag him cleanly and often.
Mongomery won convincingly, but he really needs to be disciplined enough to remember to use his jab every round to set up his punches. I see a great future for him but he should focus on dishing out punishment and moving around sufficiently to avoid the return fire. He’s young enough to learn that getting into firefights is not the a wise thing to do when he’s got so many tools to win a fight in a much easier way.
As for Omar Juarez, he looked strong, focused and was punching with a lot of power and accuracy. He also has a bright future if he continues to improve and stay dedicated to the craft. This was a great step forward following his lackluster performance and loss in his last fight. I look forward to continued improvement in his future fights.
good fight it was a lot closer than the judges decision i would love to see a rematch
Not really-he pretty much won every round even though they were somewhat competitive.