LAS VEGAS _ Everyone ages differently in the world of boxing. Rocky Juarez rose to the top of the heap at a young age but he looks like he's close to the end. The 30-year-old was outclassed badly by Jorge Linares in the opening bout of the Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II pay-per-view. Linares (29-1, 18 KOs) landed his jab whenever he wanted and lumped up Juarez's eyes badly in taking a unanimous decision win, 99-90, 97-92 and 99-90, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Juarez (28-7-1, 20 KOs) only has one win in the last three years and is just 3-5-1 since the middle of 2005. Linares jumped out quickly using that jab to slow Juarez's rythym. Up 3-1 in the fight, Linares really put the pressure on Juarez when he landed a big left with less than 15 seconds left in the fifth. Juarez backed up but lost his footing and stumbled to the mat. The knockdown and 10-8 round put Juarez hopelessly behind in the fight. He tried to get more offensive over the next four rounds but Linares got on his horse and picked his shots.
Juarez was only able to land 83 punches the entire fight at a clip of just 18 percent. That included a pathetic 30-of-164 jabs. Linares landed 36 percent of his punches and in total, landed 110 more.
Juarez's best punch of the fight came on a big right with 20 seconds left in the ninth. Linares was hurt and danced a little but escaped the round. Rocky had spirited start to the final round but that only lasted a minute as Linares cruised home for the win.
Here are the early results from the undercard:
In an IBF super middleweight eliminator, Contender Season 3 winner Sakio Bika (28-4-2, 19 KOs) was disqualified in the first round of his bout with Jean Paul Mendy (29-0-1, 16 KOs). Bika knocked down Mendy early in the fight, but while Mendy was still on one knee Bika knocked him out cold with an uppercut. Unbeaten junior welterweight prospect Frankie Gomez (5-0, 5 KOs) needed just 2:14 to destroy Ronald Peterson (2-3, 2 KOs).
Unbeaten heavyweight Seth Mitchell (18-0-1, 12 KOs) destroyed Derek Bryant (20-6-1, 17 KOs) in 1:45 in the 1st round. The former Michigan State linebacker dominated from the start and annihilated Bryant with a barrage left hooks to the body before several left uppercuts forced the bout to be called to a halt.
Unbeaten super middleweight prospect George Groves (10-0, 8 KOs) defeated Alfredo Contreras (11-8-1, 5 KOs) via 6th round TKO (:48). Although Contreras was competitive, he was losing a one sided fight. Contreras wasn’t knocked down but referee Russell Mora had seen enough after Groves landed a hard two punch combination.
Lightweight Juan Manuel Montiel (6-3-1, 1 KO) dropped Mike Peralta (4-6, 1 KO) in round one, but had to go the full six for a 58-55, 58-55, 60-53 unanimous decision.
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