Morales wins 11th pro boxing bout in nationally televised victory

SANTA YNEZ - San Ardo Pro Boxer Roman Morales defeated highly regarded Alexis Santiago by decision in a pro fight televised live on National television on July 20 2012. The fight was Morales' first eight-round bout, which was the co-main event on a stunning ShoBox Sports presentation taking place at the Chumash Resort and Casino.

The bout was carried live on Direct TV and on a few hour delay on Comcast. The scoring was 80-71 and 79-72 in favor of Morales. The highlight of the fight was a third round right upper cut knock down of Santiago by Morales. This was the first time that Santiago suffered a knock down since turning pro.

Morales brought a perfect record of ten wins and no losses to the bout. Six of Morales' wins had been by TKO. Santiago brought a record of eleven wins and three losses and one tie to the fight. According to the Box Records web site Santiago won three of his wins by TKO. One of Santiago's losses was to a loss by decision to undefeated Randy Caballero when Caballero won by a score of 72-80 and 73-79. Unlike Morales, Caballero was unable to score a knock down of Santiago.

On July 19, trainer Rodolfo Tapia said that both fighters weighed in at 122 pounds which was the contract weight. Morales had a TV ShoBox interview before his weigh-in. Tapia said that on Friday before fight time that Morales would be viewing video of prior Santiago's bouts and work out further the fight plan for Friday evening.

Each round of the eight-round bout was controlled and won by Morales. Round one got off to a good start by Morales with good combination punches landing to the body and head of Santiago. Morales took charge of brining the action to Santiago starting with the opening minutes of the fight. The second round was the best round of the fight for Santiago. Morales however out boxed his opponent in scoring in round two. Morales was noted for not wasting punches in round two and landing good combinations.

Round three saw a powerful right upper cut knock down Santiago for the first time since he started pro boxing. Prior to the fight Tapia said that Morales was going to go to the body and then to the head as much as possible. The third round was a major point scoring round for Morales. Fourth round action saw good punching for both fighters. Santiago starting taking the fight to Morales who had excellent defensive skills.

Time and again Santiago walked into right and left combinations. ShoBox noted that after four rounds, Morales landed 189 punches to 120 for Santiago. Morales kept up the pace in rounds five through seven was clearly ahead on points going into the final eighth round. The final round saw good fast combinations by both fighters. The fight ended with Santiago suffering a cut to his forehead in the closing seconds of the fight. The sixth round saw a great right hand punch to Santiago's head that sent his mouth piece flying and had Referee Lou Moret stop the action to allow time for the mouth piece to be washed and put back in place by the Santiago corner trainer. All Judges scored the fight a major win for Morales in his first 8 round pro fight.



For the complete article see the 07-25-2012 issue.

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