Cristobal Arreola gets back into the win column

Cristobal Arreola got back on the winning track with a very dominant decision over a powerless-looking Manuel Quezada, winning on scores of 117-108 and 118-107 (twice). Bad Left Hook scored it 118-107 for Arreola, who dropped Quezada twice in the ninth and again in the 12th round.

The two rounds that went to Quezada came in the 10th and 11th, when Arreola hurt his right hand again, marking the second straight fight where he's had some hand trouble, which is never good for a fighter, obviously. Arreola (29-2, 25 KO) looked really sloppy in the earlygoing, and actually looked better after he'd hurt his hand. Quezada (29-6, 18 KO) looked for most of the fight like he was just collecting a check, with little fire. But the last third of the fight was pretty entertaining, really. Arreola certainly didn't gain anything with this win, but he did throw 988 punches, the third-highest total in CompuBox history for a heavyweight fight. Quezada himself threw over 800 punches, but most of them had nothing on them and were purely pitty-patty shots. He did open up late, though. If the first four rounds of this fight had looked like the last four, we probably would've had a TKO-4 on our hands and been talking about how much fun it was. But instead there were eight really dull rounds, all Arreola's, before we got there, and sadly the fight didn't become competitive until Arreola lost a hand.

In the co-feature, Josesito Lopez edged Marvin Cordova Jr. in a good eight-round battle at 140 pounds. The fight got underway about an hour after it was supposed to thanks to ESPN2 pre-empting boxing for men's tennis in Toronto (Toronto? Ontario? FREAKY FRIDAY!), and both guys looked a little jittery and off, but they also fought hard. Cordova lost the fight mostly because of his awful, awful defense, as Lopez's pressure got to him more than it should have. In the eighth round, referee Pat Russell was forced to dock a point from Cordova when Lopez needed time to recover after a low blow, which is an automatic point under California rules. Bad Left Hook scored it 76-75 for Lopez, and official scores were 77-74 and 78-73 (twice). It was a competitive, entertaining fight. Cordova showed plenty of talent and probably has the brighter future of the two, at least if he gets someone to help him fine-tune that defense. I would argue neither guy was at his best in this with the long wait to go on that they didn't expect and shouldn't have had to endure as professionals, but it was a good fight. And seriously: the California rules need to be re-examined and, in many spots, changed.