By: Sean Crose
Andy Dominguez and Byron Rojas threw down in a sensational main event Friday night at the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City. The two flyweights were the featured attraction of a card televised live on the zone. Dominguez played the role of young up-and-comer while royas who had once fought for a title, played The savvy vet. This was a fight however, where each man played his role to a t. Dominguez brought a high level of energy and determination. Well, royas brought experience and ring patients. The ultimate result was a win for those who came to see the y the fight live and those who watched it on his own.
The early part of the fight largely belonged to Rodriguez who threw punches and bunches over and over and over again. He also moved around rapidly making himself a hard man to hit. Well. It was true royas was able to land, he wasn’t able to impress the way Dominguez was impressing with his high-speed punching and his high energy. Rojas remained patient, however landing when he got the chance and slowly pressing the action. The former world title Challenger was clearly not one to be frustrated.
And sure enough as the fight moved on to the middle and late rounds, Rojas ended up making his mark. As well as he had performed, it was hard for Dominguez to maintain the incredible amount of energy he was exerting all the way to the final bell. Rojas took advantage of his opportunity and ended up domineering his opponent at times. Not that Rodriguez wasn’t still throwing, he was just not having the performance he had previously. Still, Rojas wasn’t able to completely capitalize on Rodriguez’ sapping energy. Sure enough, Dominguez was still able to throw in combinations and move about fluidly making himself a difficult target. He looked beat up but in the final rounds of the fight Dominguez was showing that he was still able to edge his determined opponent.
Strangely enough, Rojas did not act with urgency in the 10th and final round. Dominguez on the other hand kept zipping about the ring and firing off his combinations. Again, he wasn’t as fast or effective as he had been early in the fight, but Dominguez was doing enough in the 10th to allow things to go his way. It was worth wondering whether Rojas just felt he was dominating his younger opponent. An argument could be made that he was doing very well against him, but it was a serious mistake if he thought that he had surpassed the determined Dominguez.
After the final bell had sounded, Dominguez was given the victory courtesy of a split decision ruling on the part of the judges. He is now the WBC US junior light flyweight titlist.
