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Hugo Centeno Jr D-10 Juan Macias Montiel
This was a meeting of well-matched, solid middleweight pros who are still in their good years — Centeno is 28, Montiel is 25 — but also have pretty limited upside. Montiel can punch, Centeno is decent all around but doesn’t have the best chin, etc. They went about dead even for 10 rounds, and that’s what the judges came back with.
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Mexico’s Montiel (21-4-2, 21 KO) landed the heavier, more telling shots, buzzing Centeno (27-3-1, 14 KO) on a few occasions, but Centeno was a little more active throughout. Not enough to convince the judges. Centeno took one card 97-93, Montiel another 96-94, and the third was 95-95 for the split draw.
Oscar Escandon KO-1 Jhack Tepora
I know these aren’t exactly household names, but this is a big upset. The 35-year-old Escandon is a former interim titleholder at 122 and 126, but he hadn’t fought in 15 months, he’s getting old, and he’d lost four of five, including three straight by stoppage. He was just meant to be someone with some credibility for Tepora, a 24-year-old Filipino featherweight on the rise, to pick up a solid win over to close out 2019.
Instead, Escandon (26-5, 18 KO) drilled Tepora (23-1, 17 KO) with a shot to the liver, and that was all she wrote. Tepora tried but just could not get up, and was counted out at 1:40 of the opening round. Stinks for Tepora, obviously, but you have to love something like this on some level. Escandon, who is 5’1” fighting at 126, has always been a solid body puncher, but nobody expected him to win here. Tepora was about a -1800 favorite.
This win should see Escandon at least get another opportunity like this, and who knows? Maybe something more.
Raymond Guajardo KO-1 Donnis Reed
Guajardo, 19, took a few shots here, but the young 154/160 prospect knocked Reed smooth out about halfway into the round with a series of shots to the head. Reed (3-5, 2 KO) is a 34-year-old club fighter and came here to fight, but Guajardo (5-0, 4 KO) just way too fast and powerful. Reed was knocked out pretty bad here, went down face-first. Reed recovered and was speaking, but was taken out on a stretcher, believed to be a precautionary measure.
“I just had to warm up,” Guajardo said of getting caught with a few shots. “Once I got him, it was time to get him out of there.”
Petr Khamukov RTD-2 Maceo Crowder
A swing fight that went on after the first round KOs for Escandon and Guajardo. Khamukov is a 28-year-old Russian middleweight, now 5-0 (2 KO). Not much to take from this one, as Crowder (2-4, 1 KO) was down in the first round but survived thanks to it coming late in the frame, and then gave it up after two complaining that he’d been thumbed in the eye on a left hook. Crowder’s also a 37-year-old part-time boxer so it is what it is.