Apparently, no one told me that Solo Boxeo was live on Galavision because of a Telethon on Telefutura. Thanks a lot, guys. It still recorded though at 2:30AM on Monday morning. Must be a contractual thing. I'm really glad it was on though.

Kenny Williams and Joaquin Chavez open the show up as two dudes that have next to no experience at 140. I was hopeful for a passable fight, and we got just that. Chavez looked a little more nervous and had a lot of wasted motion in the ring, while Williams (who was frankly not as athletically impressive in terms of hand speed and what not) was much more calm and willing to trade. What the viewer got out of this was both men scoring knockdowns - Chavez in round one, Williams in round two - and plenty of solid boxing otherwise. Williams demeanor I feel kept him in the fight. A lot of guys would panic after the first knockdown, rush things, and take a beating. Instead, Williams kept to his gameplan of counter punching and throwing combinations, and that in turn put him in position to get the off balance knockdown and I felt also the third round. The fight ended as a majority draw with two cards mirroring mine (37-37) and I think a rematch is possibly in order.

Speaking of fights for which a rematch is in order, we move on to our second bout of the evening, scheduled for 8 rounds. Andrew Cancio has a glittery record of 11-1-2 with all wins by KO. Fernando Carcamo is 9-2, taller, and has no wins over notable opposition. And this fight is a war. Cancio comes forward constantly and Carcamo boxes on the outside, and there are a lot of punches thrown and a lot of stuff landed. I personally had the fight even after 6 - the rounds I gave Cancio were close. The rounds I gave Carcamo were ones he ran away with in general. Cancio clearly had pop, but Carcamo's chin was good enough to absorb it and when he got off first, his work rate and punch selection was on target. Cancio's face was a swollen mess by the middle rounds.

The 7th and 8th though were monster rounds. Cancio seemed to get worn down in the 7th by the continuous abuse and hard shots from Carcamo and Carcamo just starts wailing on him. I can't imagine what the punch stats were that round, but Carcamo was just throwing and throwing and throwing. Cancio's got a ton of heart and a great chin to be taking as much as he did. And then in round 8, the pendulum swings completely in the other direction. Carcamo ends up getting tagged and hurt by a rampaging Cancio. Poor Carcamo may have punched himself out in the 7th, and pays for it by going down twice in round 8. Ref Jose Cobian deserves a lot of credit for not stopping this in spite of Carcamo's clearly shaken frame of mind and all the punches being landed. He could have done it and it would have possibly been justified, but Carcamo stayed upright and made it to the final bell just barely. I had it the same way two judges did: 76-74 Cancio. What a fight though.

MAIN EVENT: Arturo Santiago is some guy scheduled to fight 12-0 prospect Randy Caballero. On paper, this is a gross mismatch and a horrible fight. However, whoever was doing the match making here was actually prett competent. This isn't to say that Arturo Santiago was ever seriously in the fight with a chance to win. However, he was very game. Caballero got a chance to exhibit some of his skills as a boxer against a guy who was constantly pressuring and bringing the fight to Caballero. Santiago didn't do it perfectly, of course. That's why he lost. He jumped in and threw wide lead hooks and right hands rather than setting up with a jab or feints, and he paid the price repeatedly by eating power shots. That never stopped him though from giving it effort though. He came forward the entire fight, no matter how many times his knees buckled from the punches. He made it a very rough affair inside with holding, grabbing the arm, and wrestling down Caballero repeatedly. Caballero got a showcase, Santiago looks like a tough guy - in some sense, everyone wins.

For a Solo Boxeo that looked horrible on paper, that was pretty enthralling stuff.