Sometimes returning to the roots can mean innovating. In boxing news in which the sport has evolved to become a great television event, the World Boxing Association (WBA)and its president, Gilberto Jesus Mendoza, have tried to make it even more striking. Thus “Boxing Underground” was born and had its first evening format that was its first event this Wednesday night. It was largely a success, with the event taking place in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia.
Five fights formed a great night of boxing, in which Medellin’s Alejandro Munera was the star as he demolished Jaider Esquiva in the third round in the super lightweight class.
There was no way to study the rival. The fighters only saw each other when they went up into the ring in the presentation of the card, with those who participated meeting their opponents. This filled a great event with suspense, in which enormous talents made excellent fights in a very curious format while posing new challenges to the fighters.
“In this first edition of Underground Boxing we saw competitive fights and we want to offer a differentiated scenario, with exciting fighting and a modality that offers suspense and uncertainty, which gives each confrontation a special attraction,” said Gilberto Jesus Mendoza, president of the World Boxing Association and architect of this new program of the first sanctioning body of world boxing.
“The WBA has always tried to innovate and after months of planning, an event like this one in which the public wins and the fighters win, who are the protagonists, could come true. We will continue to work on perfecting this proposal,” Mendoza continued.
Five big fights in Barranquilla
Munera demonstrated the reason why he is nicknamed “El Salvaje” and in the third round he connected a left uppercut to the middle of Esquiva and sent him to the canvas. Although the brave rival regrouped, Munera threw himself like a lion to his prey and attacked his opponent’s abdomen with combinations until he knocked him down again. He rose once more but only to be shot down immediately and force the third man in the ring to stop the action.
“In this format you have to adapt immediately. Knowing your opponent just minutes before the fight changes everything and you must know how to correct on the fly,” said the winner of the main fight. “Boxing is a fairly traditional sport and it is good that the essence is not lost. It is very important to innovate with these types of proposals and the WBA has done very well.”
In the first bout of Underground Boxing, Colombian Jose Cogollo and the Venezuelan Pedro Alarcon tied in a fight that showed a lot of strategy in the super flyweight class. Subsequently, the middleweight of Barranquilla Alexi Rivera, scored a technical knockout over the Colombian Jose Elias in the fifth round.
The third fight had the Venezuelan super middleweight Dervis Colina as the protagonist by knocking out the Colombian Jose Elias in the second chapter in a convincing demonstration, while Manuel Rangel had to dig deep to defeat Robinson Florez by split decision in the super featherweight class during a rather complicated fight in the fourth fight of the night.
The evening could be seen through the official WBA channel on YouTube and in addition to those who attended the site, hundreds were able to watch it live and give their impressions about the program.
The success of Underground Boxing is great news for the oldest sanctioning body in the world and motivates us to continue working on improving the format to offer a fresh and innovative proposal.
