Photo by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing
When the salsa music blared to introduce Puerto Rico’s Felix Verdejo, the 3,000-plus in attendance at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden roared and made it feel like 10,000.
On the eve of New York City’s annual Puerto Rican Day, the undefeated Verdejo (18-0, 13 KOs) won a one-sided ten round unanimous decision victory over Ivan Najera (16-1, 8 KOs) to win the WBO Latino lightweight title.
Verdejo was too fast for Najera, dropping him with a short left uppercut in the fifth round, and then with a left hook in the seventh.
The official scores were 100-88 X2 and 99-98.
The 22 year old Verdejo came out at a measured pace to open the first round and hurt his hand. The pace quickly increased and Verdejo went on the offensive in Round 2 when Najera pushed him into a brawl.
Verdejo’s quick lead left hook landed first and was a key in the fight. Verdejo trapped Najera in the corner and connected a big right overhand hand to the top of Najera’s head almost dropping him.
As Najera swung and missed, Verdejo was able to put him on the canvas with an uppercut, causing the first knockdown of the bout. Najera got back up quickly and but was not unable to mount anything of significance in return.
Verdejo had the crowd on its feet again in the sixth round as he continued landing the left hook and snapping Najera’s head back with sharp jabs. The jab was the perfect set up the left hook combination that hurt Najera again.
Verdejo was able to drop Najera as the seventh round ended with a sizzling left hook. Najera was able to survive the round and walked back to his corner flashing a big smile.
Verdejo continued to beat Najera down trying to get the stoppage, but Najera clearly came to fight tonight.
This was another pivotal step in the Verdejo’s development as he tries to be the next superstar to come from the island of enchantment following in the footsteps of Felix Trinidad and current middleweight world champion Miguel Cotto.
