‘Irish’ Mike Perez is a Cuban defector who at least fled to another island. Like all Cuban defectors’ he was a standout amateur. The biggest tragedy in boxing during the 1970s is that we never got to see the best heavyweight in the world box professionally, because he was a Cuban. I’m sure glad Mike defected. Mike Perez is a pocket boxer, just staying in the zone in the peek-a-boo guard, not bobbing and weaving to bring the hook, so much as hooking out of combos set up by the jab. Mike went in there against a slightly harder hitter and beat his face in, cracking a bone and breaking the nose.

The man he fought was no slouch, but owned two off brand belts. Neither of these men are big heavyweights, standing just over six foot and scaling less than 235. They should make for game trial horses for the next generation of super-heavyweights. But I don’t see them owning much title ground. Roy Jones junior was at ringside, in all of his country glory, heroically pronouncing Abdusalamov and noting the size of his head, the size of his hands, the size of his daddy’s hands! Mogamed is a hard puncher with a ton of heart, and he needed it. Perez seems to be the iron man of his generation, never even wincing against thunderous rights and jaw-ripping uppercuts, and countering with a huge left of his own that cracked a part of Mogamed’s face.

This was a grinding battle which saw both fighters’ stock go up. Mogamed lost a unanimous decision and looked like he had just survived a dog fight against a bear. For you young fighters I would like to make the following stylistic points.

Study Perez for generalship. He worked the body early, pressured in the peek-a-boo right out of the pocket, and then went to a jarring jab in Round 10 to derail Mogamed’s comeback momentum from Round 9. Study that jab. A big man can be rocked and even stopped with that kind of jab if you can walk him into it.

Abdusalamov did a nice job of combining a lead-hand wing-block and a rear hand catch to setup counters and even lead with the uppercut. You will rarely see an uppercut ripped this well. He hooked off the jab and then ripped the uppercut successfully a few times.

More than anything this was a study in what happens when two men step up in class. These fighters put in a middleweight work rate over 10 rounds. That is really what it came down too—who could put in the most work. By using his skill and amateur experience to break the nose and work the body early, Perez put Mogamed way behind on a tough road, rarely failing to amp up the pace when his inner general called for it.