[kenyan_cheena]

EL UNIVERSAL

Wednesday 26 July 2006

MARTINEZ STOPS MANCINI
IN MONTERREY

Story by Miguel Trelles

When Mexican fight fans discuss our nation's most promising young fighters the conversation usually starts and ends with the two Athens gold medallists, Salvador Sanchez and Vicente Saldivar. Often overlooked is Monterrey-born lightweight Rafael Martinez, the 23 year-old who claimed bronze in '04 behind Pernell Whitaker and Orlando Zulueta. Last night Martinez produced a performance that might finally make his fellow countrymen take notice of him. In front of a parochial crowd in his hometown Martinez climbed off the canvas twice in round two before rallying to score a 4th round TKO of Ohio's Ray Mancini. It was an electrifying main event, one that had the crowd enthralled from the opening bell.

After making a confident start Martinez found himself in trouble less than a minute into round two when a hard Mancini uppercut dropped him on his backside. Up at seven, Martinez stayed out of trouble until the American hunted him down and floored him with a left hook fifty seconds from the bell. This time Martinez was up quickly. He survived the round but was showing nothing and looked dazed. The intermission did him a world of good as he appeared to be back in the contest in an even 3rd round. Mancini gave the crowd renewed reason to worry early in the 4th as he tagged their man with a smashing right hand and then another one of those damaging uppercuts.

Somehow Martinez absorbed both shots without going down and then brought a deafening howl from the audience when, totally against the run of play, he sent Mancini to the canvas with a jolting right cross. A stunned Mancini made it to his feet at eight and appeared very vulnerable. Martinez seized on the opportunity, catching his man with a hard right, a wicked body shot and another big right cross. With the crowd spurring him on Martinez dropped Mancini for a second time, a left-right salvo doing the damage. Mancini was up at three, referee Lupe Garcia allowing him to continue. But within seconds he jumped in to end it as the Youngstown native absorbed five unanswered shots and started sliding down the ropes. The official time of the stoppage was 2:45 of round four.

An ecstatic Martinez leaped into the air and screamed, pumping his right fist and celebrating with his corner crew. He had come back from what seemed certain defeat to score a victory of his own in the space of three rounds and was overcome by the gravity of his achievement. Now 12-1(7), Martinez will square off against the Brazilian Vicente Santana in the semi-finals after Santana defeated Brooklyn's Steve Sullivan by majority decision earlier in the evening. Based on both men's stage one efforts Santana was a slight favourite and even though Sullivan produced a much-improved performance he was just edged out in an exciting contest. Santana took the win by the slimmest of verdicts, 77-76, 76-76 and 77-76.

In the evening's co-feature former amateur standout Richie Plunkett secured a semi-final berth with a hard-fought unanimous decision win over the promising Canadian Nicolas Fillion (78-74, 77-75, 79-73). The Bronx native was not as active as Fillion but the quality of his punches and the damage they inflicted clearly impressed the judges more than the Canadian's handiwork, as did his defensive brilliance. Plunkett landed 187 of 568 shots (32.9%), Fillion 198 of 847 (23.4%). Now 11-0(8), Plunkett takes on New Jersey's Ike Williams in the semi-finals after the 15th seed achieved his second upset of the tournament with a scintilating 1st round TKO of Antonio Amaya.

Williams came out firing and it wasn't long before he had the Panama native in big trouble. Two flush left hooks within a twenty second period did most of the damage, the second one sending Amaya to the canvas. He was up at six but his eyes had a vacant look to them. It only took one more punch to finish him off, Williams sending him into the ropes with another big left hook, after which referee Bill Clancy ended it at the 2:42 mark. Williams and Plunkett met in the amateur ranks on three seperate occasions, with Plunkett emerging victorious in two of those contests. They have a good deal of respect for each other's abilities and based on what they've shown so far in the pro ranks their semi-final clash figures to be a fantastic fight.

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Results

(#15) Williams TKO1 (#7) Amaya
(#5) Santana MD8 (#4) Sullivan
(#3) Plunkett UD8 (#11) Fillion
(#1) Martinez TKO4 (#8) Mancini

Semi-final matchups

(#3) Richie Plunkett (11-0(8)) vs (#15) Ike Williams (6-0(5))
(#1) Rafael Martinez (12-1(7)) vs (#5) Vicente Santana (9-1-1(6))

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