Premier Boxing Champions on NBC was in San Antonio tonight with Omar Figueroa and Antonio DeMarco as the main event. The undefeated Texan boxer who was coming from a big win against Ricky Burns won by unanimous decision against Antonio DeMarco who was coming out of retirement following his loss to Rances Bathelemy this past summer.
While DeMarco was trying to get his groove back at the beginning of the fight, Figueroa took control with some body shots and fast combinations. That was pretty much the story of the fight until the 7th round when DeMarco got his second wind and started landed some shots on his own and playing way better defense. Figueroa, who spent a lot of energy throwing a big volume of shots early, couldn’t find an answer for the sudden rejuvenation of DeMarco who had the crowd on their feet. Unfortunately for him the judges thought Figueroa did enough damage in the early part of the fight as they crowned him with an unanimous decision leaving the crowd perplexed.
This was a set up for Figueroa to get a big matchup in the future but he will need to address his defense if he wants to compete in an elite fight because DeMarco showed how you could expose him. Figueroa touched on it in his post match press conference and said he will take some time and gets back to work. He also mentioned that his body is getting bigger and that was one of the challenges through camp.
“I want to fight in the 140-pound weight class. Some things happened that were out of our control and we just wanted to put on a show for the fans. My body is getting bigger but I want to do some things at 140-pounds before I move up. We’re doing our best, we’re learning how to do things right. We’re in the learning process.”
Figueroa was the first to admit that this was a tough fight for him and his will helped him clinch the win. It’s time now for Figueroa to step up and face bigger names in the ring. If Adrien Broner and others have been mentioned, Figueroa said he has no preference and letting his camp and Al Haymon decide who his next opponent will be. A dominant performance would have gave him some confidence and more importantly some leverage to challenge any fighter. He is at a crossroads where he needs a bigger challenge to start getting some credit as the new young face of boxing.
“My determination is what helped me win this fight. I’m not going to lose a fight. I don’t have that in me. I’ve had every injury. I could have a missing arm but I’m still going to find a way to win the fight. I have no quit in me. I’ve fought with injuries and adversity. It’s just in me to not quit.”
The other co-main event of the night saw Travis Kauffman beat Chris Arreola in a split decision. The two heavyweights, who promised a battle despite having tremendous respect for each other, delivered on it. Arreola who came out with a lot of intensity was knocked down in the 3rd round but he battled it out all night and gave a very good performance. He didn’t agree with the judges’ decision but Kauffman had control of the fight and deserved the win at the end.
In other news, Victor Ortiz, who fought Mayweather on PPV not a long time ago, won his fight tonight pretty easily again sub par competition but didn’t even make it to the NBC TV line up, life comes at you fast especially in sports.