Unbeaten super bantamweight contender Ra’eese Aleem (19-0, 12 KOs) scored a ten round majority decision over Eduardo Baez (20-2-2, 7 KOs) in the Fulton-Figueroa co-feature on Saturday night inside Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas. Scores were 95-95, 96-94, 98-92.
Unbeaten bantamweight Gary Antonio Russell (19-0, 12 KOs) had his hands full with Alexandro Santiago (24-3-5, 13 KOs). It was all out war for ten rounds with Russell taking a razor-thin majority decision. Scores were 95-95, 96-94, 96-94.
Great fight! Would love to see a rematch!!!
Santiago is a tough a*s hombre who fought an excellent fight, and I definitely see why folks believed he won the fight. Santiago’s body shots had nice impact, but he should have also worked on his jabs and uppercuts. Santiago displayed a solid performance.
As for Russell, he really needs to work on his inside fighting because he looked extremely uncomfortable with inside fighting (offensively and defensively). It appeared Russell was closing his eyes during some of his inside counterpunching attempts; and it caused him to look off balanced, with a touch of an amateur look. In order to minimize Santiago’s aggression, Russell should have also focused on shooting straight lefts to Santiago’s stomach area.
There is no way in h*ll Russell can handle those elite sharks at 118. Russell’s camp must work on Russell’s inside fighting or else he will regret it.
I didn’t see the fight but thought Santiago won purely because too many Gary’s in one family is just not sustainable
Since he had a slight spotlight fight, Aleem was a dreadful, hot mess. When I look at African-American (AA) fighters as potential title winning fighters, I expect to see a fluid rhythm, offensively and defensively (like calm flowing water). Aleem DID NOT display any such rhythms. Therefore, I do not have any high expectations for Aleem. Eventually, somebody will KO Aleem because his defense is horrible.
As for Mexican fighters, see Canelo because he displays all the qualities of a real deal Mexican fighter.
Aleem as a “dreadfull, hot mess”, that’s pretty funny. Aleem does have an awkward style. He looks like a mini Charlo to me in face and build. As far as the Russell’s; the 2nd assistance is also a Gary Russell and he was an animal in the DC area back in the early 2010’s, a Golden Gloves champion and won some national tournaments at 141 lbs, highly ranked, not sure why he stopped fighting and put on quite a few extra lbs.
Aleem took a chance in trying to outwork Baez and simply got tired the last three rounds in particular. If he tries that against the elite of the division we will see how good his chin is that’s for sure.
santiago is a tough dude gave russel a good fight