Antonio Orozco Bludgeons Veteran Martin Honorio

Hyped prospect Antonio Orozco weathered a couple rounds of tough veteran Martin Honorio giving him guff Thursday night on Fox Sports 1, then turned it on and beat up the older, naturally smaller man. It was another small step forward for an offensive-minded boxer who’s probably ready to graduate to contender after getting a scare in his last fight.

250px-Antonio_OrozcoMiguel Angel Huerta had Orozco (pictured) in trouble early in Orozco’s previous appearance, only for Orozco to stop him in the 2nd round. There would be no such trouble from Honorio, a career-long featherweight or junior lightweight moving all the way up to 140 to face Orozco, and who was coming off a nearly two-year layoff. Honorio did make it competitive for two or three rounds, even as he endured an odd cut near his ear in the 1st round and was bleeding from his nose by the 2nd. After that it was all Orozco, aside from the cut over Orozco’s left eye that might’ve been head butt-induced. Orozco isn’t exceptionally fast, and hits at least moderately hard (and probably broke Honorio’s nose in the 8th). What he does best is keep intelligent offensive pressure on his opponents, putting his punches together smartly. He’s quite hittable, though, as his scuffed up face showed, despite getting his defense increasingly under control as the fight wore on.

Orozco is ready for bigger game, but it might still be smart to keep him at about this level for a while longer, given his not-too-distant struggles. He’s fun, and, at minimum, good; whether he’s much more than that is harder to conceive — yet.

The highlight of the undercard was well-regarded California prospect Manuel Tino Avila icing David De La Mora in two rounds. Back in 2011, De Le Mora nearly upset Koki Kameda, before everything went downhill for him — including the Kameda fight; he’s now lost six of his last eight. Still, given Avila’s level of competition to date, this was forward movement. After controlling the 1st round, he dropped De La Mora with a left hook, then dropped him shortly thereafter again with a combination that ended with a short uppercut, all thanks to De La Mora deciding to try to fight off Avila rather than hold or move to clear his head. This was unsuccessful. Avila landed a right hand on a woozy De La Mora for a third and final knockdown. This was the kind of performance you’d expect against this level of opposition in order for a highly regarded prospect to retain that honor.

About Tim Starks

Tim is the founder of The Queensberry Rules and co-founder of The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (http://www.tbrb.org). He lives in Washington, D.C. He has written for the Guardian, Economist, New Republic, Chicago Tribune and more.

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