Pavlik vs. Taylor - Undercard Liveblog

The first fight of the undercard is an 8 round fight at 154 pounds between Ronald Hearns and Juan Astorga. Ronald Hearns is the son of legendary boxer Tommy Hearns. Hearns, at 29 years old, is fighting tonight with a perfect record of 17-0 with 13 K.O.'s while Astorga, also 29, is 11-1 with 6 K.O.'s

Hearns, who shares his father's lanky build, starts off the fight as the aggressor, using his jab often to try to set up his overhand right. Astorga spends the first round attempting to block Hearn's jabs. Astorga throws minimal punches.

Both fighters save their power punches and stick with the jab. Astorga lots of lateral movement, but Hearns keeps on him by landing jabs and big rights. Early in the 3rd round Hearns lands a big right that wobbles Astorga. Astorga spends most of the round running away, but continues to get tagged by crosses.

Astorga's defense gets penetrated as the fight continues. Hearns throws combinations to the head and body to keep him in control of the fight. Astorga throws many jabs but most are blocked by Hearns.

Late in the 5th round Hearns lands a perfect right hand to the chin of Astorga. Astorga goes down hard but gets up before the 10 count and makes it out of the round.

In the later rounds Hearns dominates Astorga landing the majority of his jabs and power rights. Astorga does not give up but continues to take a beating. The commentators recommend that the Astorga's corner should throw in the towel.

Hearns clearly takes the 7th round off, throwing much less than previous rounds. This is undoubtedly Astorga's best round but still nothing impressive. Hearns picks it back up in the 8th, knocking down Astorga again with a hard right while Astroga gets stuck in the corner. Astorga gets up but referee Jay Nady stops the fight.

Ronald Hearns receives his 18th victory.

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The second fight on the undercard is between the 29 year olds Jose Navarro and Cristian Mijares. Mijares is defending his title in this super flyweight fight.

Both fighters come out swinging. Navarro is the busier fighter throwing and landing many hooks to Mijares' head. Mijares spends almost the entire first round with a confident grin. Both fighters' punches are fast and accurate.

Mijares does not use much upper body movement and concentrates most of his energy on his jab and counter punches. Mijares defense looks poor as Navarro lands jabs and hooks to his head early in the fight. Mijares steps it back up and lands lightning fast flurries to the head of Navarro. Navarro's nose begins to gush in the second round.

Mijares is winning the early rounds but not as easily as many anticipated. Towards the middle rounds, Mijares starts using fast upper body movements and dodges most of Navarro's punches.

Mijares throws many combinations of hooks that land. He mixes it up throwing them to the head and body. Navarro has trouble landing his punches due to Mijares crisp body movement. Mijares corner encourages him to throw more punches.

As the fight continues Mijares shows off his impressive defense, blocking and dodging Navarro's punches. Mijares continues to set up combinations with his stiff jab. Navarro does not appear to be discouraged and continues to throw and landing more in the later rounds.

Navarro appears to realize that he is losing the fight and turns up the intensity in the 9th. He begins throwing more combinations and landing a lot of them. Mijares matches the activity and doubles up on the jab and scoring with his own combinations. Although behind on my scorecard, Navarro's activity is high as he averages over 100 punches a round through the 10th.

In the 11th, a nasty cut opens up above Navarro's eye. The ref takes 2 time outs for his cut man to take a look at it. The cut is bad enough for a stoppage but going into the 12th it does not look like that's going to happen. Mijares seizes the opportunity and loads up the left.

2 judges give the fight to Mijares
Strangely, 1 judge scores the fight 120-108 to Navarro

Mijares wins a split decision and keeps his title.

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The last fight of the undercard is another super flyweight bout between Martin Castillo and Fernando Montiel. Montiel defends his title for a 3rd time.

Montiel and Castillo start off with a lot of movement and a lot of jabs. Montiel lands a hard leftand puts Castillo on the canvas in the middle of the 1st round. Castillo gets up slowly. Montiel tries to capitalize and gets Castillo in trouble. Early in the 2nd, Montiel continues to abuse Castillo with hard hooks. Castillo gets backed into the ropes and does his best to block the shots.

Montiel keeps up the pressure and throws hard combinations and lands at will. In the 4th round Montiel lands a nasty combination in the corner and crushes Castillo with a body shot. Castillo can't get up before the 10 count.

K.O. Victory for Montiel