Were there some issues with tonight’s ProBox TV event in Mexico City? Yes, sure. A typo or two on the poster, and some fighter records inconsistencies across the promo material, graphics, and broadcast. But the TV presentation was once again rock solid, the fast paced card was over in just under two hours, and the matchmaking remained reliably entertaining in delivering yet another action-heavy main event.
Brayan Rivera came in the favorite, but it was Alejandro Gonzalez who fought more crisply in his second ProBox TV showcase. Gonzalez (13-5-2, 7 KO) outworked Rivera (11-4, 9 KO) early on, then a clash of heads opened a cut in the middle of Rivera’s forehead in the 2nd. It seemed to leave him a little unsteady, and Gonzalez took advantage to pile up some rounds on the scorecard.
Rivera kept it competitive, repeatedly switching to a southpaw stance with good results, and using excellent head and body movement against the ropes whenever Gonzalez seemed to have him in trouble to thwart any serious accumulation of damage. Rivera stayed fresher late, and nicked most of the late rounds on my unofficial card.
Gonzalez earned a unanimous decision, but official scores weren’t easy to make out on the Spanish language ring announcement. Pretty sure I heard a 98-92 and a 96-94 called out, but all I can tell you for sure is that Bad Left Hook had it unofficially 96-94 for Gonzalez. Good showing from Gonzalez, who justified the decision to bring him back from a decision loss on ProBox’s Cancun card last September.
It was a fun little fight with excellent back-and-forth action, particularly in the 10th and final round. The night featured particularly good work from the ProBox TV broadcast and announcing team. Chris Algieri spotted a cartilage injury to the ear of Gonzalez on the fly, and gave a quick and timely explanation of cauliflower ear, later supported by multiple tight shots of the swelling ear between rounds and after the fight. Paulie Malignaggi had his own moments of glory, but more on that shortly.
Ivan Garcia TKO-4 Francisco Araujo
The chief support for the evening was a bit of an ugly slog, where Francisco Araujo struggled to get in range to generate any offense and seemed to take an early exit when the opportunity arose.
Araujo (9-2, 6 KO) landed an unintentional low blow on Ivan Garcia early in the second, as Garcia (9-2-1, 6 KO) was shoving down on the back of his head like an especially ungentlemanly frat bro. Other than that, Garcia largely controlled the distance and frustrated Araujo through three rounds and part of a fourth.
In that 4th round, Araujo dramatically oversold a grazing swipe across the back of his head. The commentary team felt it was a convenient excuse to bail out of a fight where Araujo was struggling and not enjoying himself, with Paulie Malignaggi in particular breaking down what he felt was an unconvincing acting job from Araujo in precise visual detail through multiple replays.
Miraculously, Araujo found his feet once the fight was officially stopped, and seemed to be moving around okay afterwards. After extensive discussion at ringside, the official announced result was a TKO-4 win for Garcia.
Jesus Mauricio Estrada KO-5 Leyver Lopez
This show got the obligatory Mexico fight card elements out of the way quickly, giving us an opener that was defense optional and ended with a savage body knockout. Leyver Lopez gave it a good effort, marching ahead and throwing at all times. But, his aggression only got him hit, with Jesus Mauricio Estrada landing high and low from the very start.
Lopez (3-4-1, 1 KO) made a show of it, and definitely made Estrada (8-0, 5 KO) work in every round. But, Estrada kept catching Lopez with head snapping punches and thumping body shots. Estrada finally stopped Lopez with a savage left hook to the body that left Lopez laid out well after the 10 second count had passed.