Sparring with Kubo in Japan while waiting for a scheduled fight
Canelo elevates his ring stature
STILL without a scheduled fight, Albert Pagara keeps himself busy and in tip-top shape by sharpening his skills as a sparring partner in Japan.
Pagara, the World Boxing Organization (WBO)
IT WAS close indeed, but I think Canelo Alvarez may have silenced a lot of doubters, this Last Rounder included.
Though he acquitted himself quite well in two fights against Gennady Golovkin, I think last Sunday’s fight against Daniel Jacobs demonstrated a lot about his ring generalship and how he has morphed into one efficient fighting machine.
THE FIGHT. Alvarez started out strong and dictated the pace of the fight behind a commanding jab. He looked sharp, fast and accurate. Inter-Continental super bantamweight champion, is working as one of the sparring partners for former World Boxing Association (WBA) super bantamweight king Shun Kubo at the Shinsei Gym
Jacobs is notorious for being a slow starter and though he was also landing sporadically, Alvarez owned him in the first quarter of the fight.
In the middle rounds, Jacobs shift stances to southpaw as he usually does. It netted him mixed results.
Alvarez seemed to anticipate this strategy and was quite ready for it. Jacobs would indeed land punches as this allowed him to throw from different angles. But his defensive stance suffered and Alvarez would often make him pay dearly.
Jacobs started to get busy in rounds 8 to 10 in Osaka.
“It’s nice for a change to spar with a non-Filipino fighter,” said the 25-yearold Pagara.
Kubo, 13-1 with nine knockouts, is challenging WBA featherweight titleand this was where he made his move. Alvarez seemed to take his foot off the pedal and Jacobs started landing punches in bunches.
He would march forward, landing jabs and hooks while Alvarez would be content to land a counter or two in return.
The championship rounds were close and could have been scored either way, but the pattern was quite repetitiveJacobs was busy and landed a few more. But Alvarez’s blows were more powerful and landed with much more torque behind them.
The scores 116-112, 115-113 (twice) were emblematic of the close proceedings, as it holder Can Xu on May 26 in Fozhou, China.
Pagara flew to Japan last April 25 and will finish his sparring session on May 17.
Pagara is loving the moment of sparring with an elite Japanese talent like Kubo. He believes that this experience will make him become a better fighter.
“Sparring with his style will be a huge help for me. You’ll never know when you’ll fight a fighter with this caliber,” said Pagara.
The 29-year-old Kubo, a lanky southpaw with power in his fists, won the WBA super bantamweight belt with a 10th round stoppage win over then champion Nehomar Cermeno in 2017.
He immediately lost that crown in his first title defense after a ninth round technical knockout in the hands of Daniel Roman a few months later.
Pagara, meanwhile, is on a five-fight winning streak since suffering his first career loss against Cesar Juarez in 2016. He is coming off an easy opening round knockout of George Krampah last Nov. 24 and hasn’t fought for over five months.
Pagara is currently ranked No. 1 in the WBO and No. 6 in the International Boxing Federation (IBF). (EKA)
lopsided game of a series that was so evenly matched coming in that Denver held a cumulative scoring advantage of 464-462 and both teams had made the same number of free throws and 3-pointers.
The Nuggets never trailed and stretched a six-point lead after one quarter to 18 at the half and 28 heading into the fourth quarter. They led by as many as 31 before a parade of backups gave the starters some much-needed breathers.
Coming off a resounding Game 4 win that followed that epic quadruple-overtime loss, the Nuggets were focused and efficient just as coach Mike Malone promised when he said Denver wouldn’t dare let up and exhale at home after reclaiming the home-court advantage.
Whatever adjustments Blazers coach Terry Stotts tried to make at the half didn’t take as the Nuggets outscored Portland 28-18 in the third quarter, and before long, the Blazers were thinking more about salvaging Game 6 and hoping to regroup for a return trip to Denver in hopes of a different outcome.
“We’ve got two must-wins ahead of us,” Stotts said. CAUTION AHEAD Malone said he hopes his team learned from its Game 6 loss at San Antonio last series and doesn’t have a similar letdown in Portland. Although the Nuggets have contained Lillard, Malone said the Nuggets are well aware that the Blazers’ star could go off for 50 points Thursday night.
Lillard concurred, saying, “I’ve had big games against tough defense in games where I was getting a lot of attention. With our season on the line and knowing we’ve got to have two games in a row, you never know.”