With a 7th round victory over Leonardo Zappavigna, Alex Saucedo has chalked up the 28th victory of his pro boxing career. Saturday night in Oklahoma City, with Saucedo winning via seventh-round TKO.
Alex Saucedo and Lenny Zappavigna put on a fight of the Year-caliber battle. At 2:31 of round 7, Zappavigna’s corner threw in the towel to save their bloodied and battered fighter from further injury.
Aussie Zappavigna was after his 38th victory in the run-up to the bout at Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, however, it was not meant to be. The combat was one of the year’s most exciting with both fighters putting forth everything they have.
Compared with later rounds, the slugfest started somewhat tentatively with neither fighter immediately gaining the upper hand.
It was in the third round that things really started kicking off. In the third round, Saucedo (28-0, 18 KOs) dropped Zappavigna (37-4, 27 KOs) but Zappavigna bounced back sharply and ended the round on top.
To the joy of his home crowd, a brilliant combination from Saucedo dropped Zappa down to the canvas.
The veteran Aussie nevertheless did not stay down for long, bouncing back to unleash his own pain and anguish on the American.
As well as being a contender for the fight of the Year, the fourth round must have been the shortlist for the Round of the Year as Saucedo narrowly avoided being knocked out.
Many mark the fourth ‘Round of the Year’ with an utterly insane Zappavigna flurry unfortunately not being able to knock out Saucedo, the 24-year-old contender.
During the fourth round flurry from Zappavigna, more than half of the strikes in the flurry were connected flat, sending Saucedo’s head bouncing around like a flip-flop.
Saucedo was able to survive and avoid the whirlwind somehow though and recovered his composure. It was during this exchange that Saucedo got a cut over his right eye.
But Saucedo would return the favor, opening Zappvigno’s eye, an injury that would trouble the Australian for the remainder of the match. Saucedo focused on the injury, aiming his power punches at the same spot leading to significant damage.
There was no way he could win from this spot, despite his valiant attempt to fight on.
“I hurt him but my cuts were really bad,” Zappavigna said. “I had blood in my eyes. No excuses. The kid is a warrior. I hope he becomes a world champion. I did my best. Now I’ll go home (to Australia). I have to think about things.
We’ll see what the future holds. The cuts are an issue.” The bloody affair saw almost 1050 punches being thrown between the two from which Saucedo landed a high percentage of power punches.
As per its promoter, Bob Arum, the 24-year-old Saucedo, who fought in his hometown, is likely to become the WBO’s mandatory challenger to 140-pound champion Maurice Hooker.
“This is just the beginning of bigger things,” Saucedo said in a post-fight interview.
Before it was even over, the Saucedo-Zappavigna slugfest, which was on the undercard of Gilberto Ramirez’s super middleweight showdown with Alexis Angulo, was talked up as a Battle of the Year contender.
Both the fighters showed true heart and fighting spirit and boxing fans and critics loved and praised their performance all across the world. Although the fight did not go the full duration and was stopped in the seventh due to injury, we got the action of 10 rounds packed in 7. One thing that became clear from this fight is that whenever true fighter meets head-on in the ring, boxing fans are sure to witness a spectacle.