By Frank Gonzalez Jr. February 12th, 2007 – In a WBC, 140-pound eliminator bout Saturday night in Las Vegas, former Welterweight Champion “Vicious” Vivian Harris (28-2-1, 18 KO’s) took on former Lightweight contender, Juan “The Hispanic Causing Panic” Lazcano (37-4-1, 27 KO’s) in a Welterweight fight that told a story of two fighters, one disciplined mentally and one who struggled to pay heed to his corner’s good advice.
Harris used his long reach and size to keep Lazcano out of range while delivering his jab and following up with occasional combinations that were scoring well enough to win the first two rounds easily. That was the right recipe for victory but Vivian didn’t stick with that strategy and allowed Lazcano, who Harris said wasn’t a smart fighter, turn the tide in the third round with his own plan of getting inside and working, which he committed to as best he could for the entire fight.
Lazcano realized he could only be successful against the considerably taller Harris by getting close and letting his hands go. By the third round, Lazcano was effectively getting in and shoe-shinning Harris to the body and landing plenty of clean shots to the head. Whenever they reset, Harris’ punches were finding the forearms of Lazcano more than any other part of his
opponent. Lazcano pressured Harris continually and was able to land good punches frequently. Harris seemed a bit winded after the initial onslaught in the first two rounds and Lazcano wisely took advantage in textbook fashion.
I had Lazcano winning rounds 3-5 Harris winning the sixth with a superior work rate, then Lazcano winning 7-10 and Harris winning the last two rounds by going back to what was working in the first two rounds, boxing outside, jabbing and keeping Lazcano out of range to punch effectively.
Lazcano won by a point on my scorecard—and that was with the controversial point deduction administered by the usually competent referee, Tony Weeks, who took a point from Lazcano in the final round for a low blow that looked like a beltline punch to me. Weeks did not issue any notable warnings prior to the point deduction and he never asked Harris if he needed time out to recover either, which made his disciplinary action even more suspicious.
Any astute fight fan knows that Lazcano was picked by Harris’ camp because they were sure they could beat him. But when Lazcano demonstrated heart and determination strong enough to win a close fight, Weeks played his part in insuring a Harris victory by inserting himself into the outcome. I thought that was disgraceful.
Scoring a boxing match is very subjective. I have no doubt that many thought Harris outright won the fight because he did well in the beginning and then closed the fight winning the last two rounds. I thought the meat of the fight was in the middle rounds, where Lazcano, who fought from a position of disadvantage, did a better job of landing the cleaner, more effective punches. Harris’ often looked tired and frustrated often in the body of the fight. The official scores were 115-112 twice and 114-113 all for Harris. With this victory, Harris earns the right to face Junior Witter for the WBC Title.
To their credit, both guys gave the best they had and put on an entertaining fight. Even in losing the decision, I think Lazcano’s stock goes up. No one can say he wasn’t competitive in his new weight class and there’s probably a few fight fans out there who, like me, thought Lazcano actually won a close fight or at least fought Harris to a Draw.
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Shane Mosley (44-4, 37 KO’s) outworked Luis Collazo (27-3, 13 KO’s) and coasted to a Unanimous Decision victory in a fight where Shane showed good athleticism but poor accuracy in his punching. Collazo, who landed well when he put forth the effort, didn’t do enough to win more than one round on my scorecard. Mosley talks about being the best but turned down a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. for eight million recently, opting instead to face the relatively unknown upstart Collazo for significantly less money. Obviously, Mosley knows who he can and can’t beat and picks his path accordingly. Even though Shane Mosley is ranked so highly by many of the mainstream boxing outlets, Mosley is far from being a top fighter at this point in time. He was lucky that Collazo fought so uninspired. Neither Collazo nor Mosley demonstrated that they are the cream of the 147-pound crop. It was a boring fight, worth little more than one paragraph of coverage.
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