By Bill Calogero

Joan Guzman dominated Humberto Soto for most of the fight to retain his WBO Jr. Lightweight Title Saturday from the Borgata Resort & Casino in Atlantic City. The show was promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and was broadcasted live on HBO’s Boxing After Dark Series.

Joan Guzman used his excellent counter-punching skills and took advantage of his much faster hand speed to control ten out of twelve rounds (on my scorecard) of this fight to keep his undefeated record in tact.

In the first round, Humberto Soto pressed the fight, applying constant pressure using his jab, followed by his right hand, keeping Guzman against the ropes. Joan Guzman was able to showcase his counter-punching skill by landing hard right crosses and hooks onto the head and body of Soto. It was a close round and difficult to score, but I gave the edge to Soto.

In the second and third rounds, Joan Guzman showed all of us what the rest of the fight was going to be like. He counter punched and fought off the ropes very well. Despite Soto’s pressure, it was Guzman who seemed to take control of the fight. The second round began with both fighters toe-to-toe throwing wild punches at each other. Guzman landed the harder shots in both rounds, thus winning both rounds on my scorecard.

The fourth round was the last round I scored in favor of Humberto Soto. He continued to press the fight and began his attack on Guzman’s body. Joan did counter-punch well, but I gave the edge in this round to Soto because he seemed to land more punches throughout the entire three minutes.

For the remainder of the fight, Joan Guzman effectively counter-punched Soto off the ropes and utilized his hand speed to dominate this fight. Soto continued to press the action, and was landing his jab and solid right hands to the head and body of Guzman, but it was not significant enough to win rounds.

There were no knockdowns, or major cuts on either fighter during the 12-round contest. It also appeared that neither fighter was seriously hurt during the fight, although there was significant swelling on Guzman’s face; it never appeared to bother him in any way.

Two ringside judges scored the fight 117-111, while the third had it 118-110, all in favor of Joan Guzman to give him the unanimous decision victory. BoxingScene.com scored the fight 118-110, also in favor of Joan Guzman.

Joan Guzman retained his WBO Jr. Lightweight Title improving to 28-0 (17 KOs), while Humberto Soto drops to 43-6-2 (27 KOs).

On the under card, 2004 Mexican Olympian, Abner Mares won a unanimous twelve round decision over Damian Marchiano to retain his NABO Bantamweight Title.

Both fighters landed hard, powerful punches, but Mares simply landed more, resulting in basically giving Damian Marchiano a beating. Both fighters showed they can take a punch, but when it was all over, Mares decisively came out on top. Mares landed a total of 45% of the punches he threw during the duration of the fight.

Two judges scored the fight 118-109, while the third saw it as 117-109, all in favor of Abner Mares. Mares, going past eight rounds for the first time in his career, improved to 15-0 (9 KOs) and Damian Marchiano drops to 14-3-1 (5 KOs).

For full discussions on these fights and all the other top pro boxing news, don’t miss this week’s “Talkin Boxing With Billy C” radio program. Tune into TPSRADIO.net on Wednesdays from 6-8pm EST to listen live, or go to www.TalkinBoxing.com for all information on downloading the podcast of ALL previous shows.