18.08.07 – By Scott Frake: Featherweight challenger Jason Litzau (22-1, 19 KOs) blitzed an already shell shocked Emmanuel Lucero (23-5-1, 14 KOs), stopping him in the 2nd round on Friday night at Harrah’s Rincon Casino, in Valley Center, California. Lucero, 28, coming into the fight, had lost four out of his last six fights, including three by knockout and didn’t look with it from the very beginning of the fight.
Litzau, 24, knocked him down in the first round after connecting with a left hook to the midsection and another to the head, causing Lucero to stumble backwards and bump into the referee, before falling to the canvas. In the 2nd round, Litzau connected with a chopping right hand that sent Lucero to the canvas for the final time. The referee, Jose Cobian, swiftly moved in and halted the fight at 2:48 of the 2nd round.
Litzau, ranked #13 in the IBF, was making his second appearance after being stopped in the 8th round by Jose Andres Hernandez in December 2006. In facing Lucero, however, Litzau had little to worry about, having both the superior power advantage to go with a five inch height superiority.
In the first round, Lucero, a formr two-time New York Golden Gloves champion, stayed mostly on the outside, doing very little aside from moving around the ring. Litzau patiently stalked him, shooting out his jab over and over. Towards te end of the round, Litzau suddenly opened up with a number of hard left hooks, one of which caught Lucero in the head and stunned him, causing him to back up. Litzau quickly hit him with two more hooks, one to the midsection, the other to the head, at which point Lucero retreated backwards and fell after bumping into the referee. It’s hard to say whether he would have gone down or not, because he bumped into the referee somewhat hard, but it didn’t really matter because he was doing little in the way of fighting back.
In the 2nd round, Lucero burst out of his corner and immediately began throwing repeated hard left hooks to Litzau’s midsection. At one point, Lucero landed five consecutive hooks, all thrown with beautiful form and excellent power. Litzau, sill showing that he hadn’t learned many defensive skills since his recent loss to Hernandez, as far as I can tell, came close to blocking none of them. Though, not to be outdone, Litzau responded with a batch of left hooks of his own, only his were thrown even harder, with leverage behind them. The two continued to trade left hooks for the next minute, until Litzau suddenly left jab, chopping right combination that mowed Lucero down like a plant. After hitting the canvas, Lucero stayed on his knees and was counted out by the referee. Afterwards, Lucero stated that he was retiring from boxing.