17.09.07 – By Gary Jones: Former two-time boxing champion Jorge Arce (47-4-1, 36 KOs) struggled badly last night in the process of stopping Tomas Rojas (26-11 18 KOs) in the 6th round to capture the WBC Latino bantamweight title at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arce, 28, moving up to the bantamweight from the super flyweight division, appeared to lose every round of the fight leading up to the sixth..
However, after continuing to take a pounding from Rojas in the sixth round, Arce suddenly landed a perfect left hook to Rojas’ right side, causing him to drop to the canvas in pain. After barely making it back to his feet, Arce quickly moved in and landed a final flurry against a defenseless Rojas, causing the referee to step in and halt the bout at 1:00 of the sixth round.
Though Arce got the TKO win, it wasn’t a promising sign watching him badly lose each of the first five rounds of the fight, in particular because Rojas, a fighter with eleven losses, isn’t considered to be one of the top fighters in the bantamweight division. It was even more disappoint considering that Arce had recently lost his super flyweight title to Cristian Mijares on April 14, 2007, in a bout that Arce was badly outworked and eventually lost a 12-round unanimous decision by a wide margin.
Hopefully, this was just a matter of Rojas, a southpaw, having a style that was difficult for Arce to solve. However, with the ease of which Rojas had dominated Arce, I’m not so sure about that. It seems as if Arce would be better served if he moved back down to super flyweight (115 lbs), where the fighters are less imposing than in the bantamweight division.
In rounds one through four, Rojas controlled almost all of the action, hitting the smaller Arce with repeated hooks to the body and head. Rojas’ two inch height advantage made him seem like a giant compared to Arce, almost as if they had no business fighting against each other due to Arce’s small size. Not only was Rojas taller, his arms were longer, enabling him to land frequent shots without the worry of being countered by the smaller Arce. For his part, Arce didn’t help himself by not applying enough pressure on Rojas to get inside.
Arce just seemed really rusty, as if he wasn’t used to being hit. By the end of the fourth round, Arce was taking a royal beating from Rojas. Arce’s face began to swell, especially his nose which looked as if it might have been broken from the repeated shots that it had been hit with.
When Arce did attack, he was limited to only one punch at a time, and soon as he stopped punching, Rojas would land a three punch combination. He would then take a quick look at Arce, as if surveying his work, and then land another three punch combination. I felt sad for Arce, because he looked like he was over-the-hill, and I had a difficult time imagining him finding success in the future against better fighters, whether that be the bantamweight or super featherweight class.
Arce tried to mount several attacks in the fifth round, landing some hard hooks to the head of Rojas. However, in each case, Rojas would immediately launch his own attack and tag Arce with fast combinations, driving him backwards in the process. Rojas was drilling him with shots and getting more confident as the round progressed.
Rojas continued dominating Arce in the sixth round. In fact, Rojas looked even stronger in this round as he opened the round tagging Arce with several three punch combinations, all before Arce had thrown one punch in self defense. However, while in close, Arce suddenly threw a powerful left hook to Rojas’ right side, causing him to fall to the canvas in a slight delayed reaction.
After barely beating the count, Rojas was allowed to continue fighting. Arce immediately took advantage of the situation, and landed a a series of shots to Rojas’ head, at which point referee Joe Cortez moved in and stopped the bout at 1:00 of the sixth round.