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05/13/2006 Archived Entry: "Escalante Dominates & Defeats Ruiz for WBO NABO Title!"
Escalante Dominates & Defeats Ruiz for WBO NABO Title!
By Jorge Bravo at ringside
Photo by Humberto Bravo
Escalante (left) dominates Ruiz
CHICAGO - Another great night of boxing at the Aragon Entertainment center rocked the Uptown neighborhood Friday night, as Dominic Pesoli's 8 Count Productions and and Oscar Del La Hoya’s Golden Boy Productions gave Chicago fight fans a night of "War by the Shore." And what a war it was!
One of boxings young prospects, Antonio Escalante, 11-1 and 7 KO’s, was well welcomed by Chicago fight fans Friday night at the Aragon Center to face of against Juan Ruiz, 21-2 and 6 KO’s for the main event: the WBO NABO Super Bantamweight Title.
This evening, Escalante used speed and great combination punching to dominate Ruiz through all 12 rounds.
Round One- Right from the start one could tell Escalante wanted this fight as he started off with good aggression against Ruiz using 3 jabs, hook to the face to follow low hook to the middle punch combination. Keeping Ruiz on his toes Escalate continues with that well trained combo, but slipping a bit low in the middle of the round landing his low hook on to Ruiz’s groin area. As Ruiz eagerly wants to connect something well connected on to Escalante but is unsuccessful, round one ends.
Round Two- Escalante comes in round two with a bit different approach than in round one. Stick, combo and move is what he his plan was for this and the rounds to continue.
Round Three- The first few seconds of round three it seemed as if Ruiz got some words of encouragement from his corner as he comes in to the round telling Escalante to come on let fight by using his glove and luring him in. Ruiz taking a few shots up high at first he comes back with a big left landing a right on Escalante’s face, only to make Escalate come back with some more combo bombs from up top.
Round Four- With the crowd screaming out Antonio and his wife and family close to the ring yelling out “take him out already” Escalante gives his Chicago fans another good round by connecting a big right hook to Ruiz’s left eye, cutting Ruiz on his lower left eye. Ruiz bothered by his blood drip to his eye, he wipes his blood away with his glove and continues the round.
Round Five- Speed and punch combo is what Escalante continues with in this round. Ruiz hooks Escalante towards the ropes wanting to corner Escalante, but Escalante combos and moves his way out and off the ropes with his well exercised stick move technique that has worked from him up to round five.
Round Six- Ruiz still bleeding from his left eye, Escalante starts to concentrate his 3 jabs to the face, to Ruiz’s eye and then moving to his low hook to the body right back to the top flurry of punches.
Round Seven- Ruiz using his body and punches corners Escalante for a few moments. Both fighter exchanging leather blows onto each other through round seven, Escalante landing a few more than Ruiz giving him a better percentage.
Round Eight- Still having hand speed, Escalante uses it to knock Ruiz head right to left up and down. Still Ruiz continues for his opportunity to land another big punch like in round three, Ruiz tries to come up the middle, but is disappointed again with his unsuccessful attempt to corner Escalante.
Round Nine- With the crowed yelling out “work the eye” and his family encouraging him on, Escalante give his fans another good round of his already well established three right jabs to follow hook combo, Escalante connects hooks to Ruiz’s side ribs cage, making Ruiz back off for a moment and giving Escalante the opportunity to move to the side away from the ropes.
Round Ten-Jab jab to the eye is what appears to be Escalante’s focus point and Ruiz using his body and hook to try and force Escalante on to the ropes to do some damage of his own on to Escalante, but once again is discouraged by the inability to keep Escalate cornered and stay that way.
Round Eleven- Round Eleven was big round for Escalante as he used a powerful right to knock Ruiz off balance. Witnessing Ruiz’s confusion Escalante unleashes a flurry of hooks, uppercuts and punches to his opponent, but it’s not enough to knock out Ruiz.
Round Twelve- This last round of a twelve round great fight Ruiz seemed to hold Escalante a bit more than in other rounds. With both fighters' energies down, they still whale away at each other till the very end of the fight.
Judges Scored the bout 119 to 109, 119 to 109, and 120 to 108 unanimously for Escalante, making him the new Super Bantamweight WBO/NABO Champion.
All in all, it truly was a gratifying "War by the Shore."
Jorge Bravo (right) with the ring announcer
Humberto Bravo (left) with famous trainer, Floyd Mayweather, Sr.
