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In the opening bout of the Showtime Extreme broadcast, Andres Gutierrez thudded his way to a unanimous decision win over the tough but outgunned Carlos Valcarcel.
Gutierrez is a decent prospect, now undefeated through 24 career bouts. But he did show certain issues that may come back to haunt him in the future as he waded inside without really using any offense to set up his forward movement. So developing a jab could be key to future success.
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Still, once Gutierrez was able to get inside he did very nice work. His uppercut is a money punch as he delivers it quickly and with power but he showcased a decent left hook as well.
To Valcarcel's credit, he was able to gut his way to the final bell without going down or backing off at any point. He gave Gutierrez some good rounds and, assuming he can be developed correctly off of this, likely helped a possible future champion learn some valuable lessons.
The official scorecards for the fight were: 59-55, 59-56, 60-54.
In a four rounder that wasn't expected to be anything like it turned out to be, Francisco Vargas took on Victor Sanchez. Sanchez took the fight on three days notice, but came to fight.
Vargas was the possessor of the much heavier hands and he landed with frequency on Sanchez. The issue was that Sanchez was throwing a ton of punches in return and the fight turned into the two men standing toe-to-toe and punching the living hell out of each other.
Vargas' power was the ultimate difference but Sanchez deserves all the credit in the world for coming in on such late notice, as a smaller opponent and firing away for the full four round limit.
The official scorecards read: 40-36, 40-36, 39-37.